Oslo · time three gates
Oslo is not one international campus in Bærum. It is an IB house in Bekkestua, a French AEFE week on Skovveien and Vulkan, and a German-Norwegian encounter school in Sagene. Ask which paper the child will hold, and which dark Tuesday you can live with.
Oslo is not “the international school.” It is a Norwegian capital whose public grunnskole is allowed to be first, plus three official fee-paying climates posting families name in the first week: an English IB campus west of the city, a French lycée in the centre, and a German-Norwegian house on the river.
The portraits we have are Oslo International School in Bekkestua, Lycée français René Cassin on Skovveien and Vulkan, and Deutsch-Norwegische Schule Oslo at Myra. Use them for kroner tables and admissions rules. OIS prints a 2026–27 Board PDF. LFO prints local and company rates. DENOSO prints monthly makspris. This note is the city between them. The Norway country page is the wider map — Stavanger, Bergen, Trondheim’s Birralee, Sandefjord, the UWC in the fjord.
OIS sits on Gamle Ringeriksvei in Bekkestua, in Bærum, not on Karl Johans gate. English in class. Norwegian for Years 1–10. IB in the diploma years. A fee-funded campus the school describes without a state-subsidy story. Time the west-side commute on ice.
LFO sits in the centre. Skovveien 9 for much of collège; Vulkan 11 for lycée; 3e on both lists. French national week. Baccalauréat, not IB. Maternelle follows Oslo makspris. From CP the language test is real, and the company rate is automatic unless you can prove there is no employer cover. Time Frogner, then Vulkan.
DENOSO sits at Myra 3 in Sagene, in the park by the Akerselva. German plans, Norwegian in Norwegian and Samfunnsfag. DIA and Vitnemål after 12. Monthly school fees, July free, no school bus. Time Torshov, not Bekkestua.
They share a capital and almost no Monday. Walk at least two, then the municipal school your address already names.
If you might stay, an English diploma is not automatically the kindest paper. A kommune grunnskole, a friskole with a Christian or Steiner thread, a videregående that still owns the mountain — those are official mornings. Families looking at OIS often also walk the municipal door, because the next five years may still be Norwegian.
The language of the yard is the test that matters more than the IB page. A child can thrive in English at 9 a.m. and still be lonely at 11 if the tram is speaking Norwegian — or lonely in French if the park is not.
Bergen and Stavanger are not suburbs of Oslo. Do not flatten Norway into one Bærum driveway.
Ask which paper this child will hold — IB, Bac, DIA and Vitnemål, or a municipal path. Ask LFO whether the invoice is local or company. Ask DENOSO what AKS costs after the municipal core-hours decision. Ask OIS how much Norwegian a shy eleven-year-old really has by the second spring.
Time Bekkestua, Skovveien and Myra on the same dark Tuesday.
The city hub is the short map. The three portraits are the long ones.
Friendly orientation, not formal admissions advice. Always confirm dates with the school.
A German-Norwegian Begegnungsschule in the park at Myra, not the IB campus in Bærum and not the French lycée in Frogner. Monthly fees follow Norwegian makspris. The leaving papers are the German International Abitur and the Norwegian Vitnemål.
Frogner and VulkanA French AEFE through-school in the centre, not the IB campus in Bærum. The Board prints a local rate and a company rate. Lycée is a different kroner conversation from élémentaire. Time Frogner and Vulkan, not Bekkestua.
BekkestuaThe oldest international school in Norway sits west of the city, in Bærum, and it is honest about money. The Board prints one annual fee for Year 1 through IB2. Pre-School is a different story, because Stortinget sets that monthly price.
TrondheimA state-supported English-medium house in the centre of Trondheim, not an Oslo IB campus. 2026 monthly fees are public. It ends at Year 10. The diploma years live elsewhere.
The letters on the leaver’s certificate matter. They are not the whole child. Here is how to tell them apart without a headache, and without pretending every door stays open.
16 minYou do not need a perfect algorithm. You need a few true things about your child, a boring list on the fridge, and the courage to ignore a beautiful campus that does not fit.
15 minTuition is the number on the homepage. The PDF is the number that arrives in March. Here is how to read the second one, without inventing a euro, a krona, or a deadline.
12 minSkip the question about last year’s average. Ask the ones that make a teacher’s face change. Then look at the corridor while they answer.