Denmark · Nordhavn
The current admissions and fee documents sit on copenhageninternational.school. Admission is open irrespective of gender, the school says, and capped by nationality. Fees are in a 2026/27 PDF.
Questo ritratto è ancora in inglese. Le altre lingue arrivano scuola per scuola.
Curricolo come lo pubblica la scuola:IB Primary Years Programme · IB Middle Years Programme · IB Diploma Programme · NEASC-accredited US high school diploma
Lingue di istruzione:English
Copenhagen International School sits on Levantkaj 4–14, 2150 Nordhavn, in the new harbour district. The official website is copenhageninternational.school. Email still uses cis.dk (admissions@cis.dk, info@cis.dk). Phone: +45 39 46 33 00. CVR 53 06 08 11.
It is a day school. Boarding is not advertised. If the posting has not found a flat, this campus will not absorb the child.
CIS was founded in 1963. IB.org lists it as school 000004, an IB World School since 1 January 1972. The 2025/26 profile calls it one of the founding IB World Schools. Primary and secondary came together on this site in 2018. The profile’s snapshot: about 850 students, ages 3–19, from 80 countries; Secondary 542; Class of 2025 92. Nationality mix printed there: Denmark 24%, USA 16%, UK 8%, India 4%, Netherlands 4%. The campus page says the building can hold up to 900 students and 180 employees. Treat those as the school’s own figures.
The useful questions are Danish. Can this child work in English at the grade you want? Is your nationality already near the 25% cap? Can you pay kroner, including the 40,000 DKK registration fee within five business days of an offer? And if you might stay, do you understand that a NEASC diploma plus an IB Diploma is not a Danish studentereksamen?
CIS “serves the educational needs of a diverse international community.” Admission is non-discriminatory: race, colour, gender, citizenship, ethnic or social origin, disability, politics, religion, belief, sexual orientation. Then the sentence that actually sorts the queue:
No single nationality may exceed 25%.
The live admissions page says 25% of the schoolwide population. The 2024 Admissions Philosophy PDF says 25% at any Grade level, with exceptions only by the Director. Those two official lines are not identical. Ask which rule is live for your year group. Denmark at 24% on the profile is already next to the ceiling if the schoolwide reading is the one they use.
At research, CIS was accepting 2026–27 applications with spaces in all grade levels. That can change in a week. Apply anyway if the cap might touch you; the school still has to do the arithmetic.
Waiting-pool priority, in the 2024 procedures PDF, includes applicants linked to international organisations and to multinational corporations operating in Copenhagen. Ask where a self-paying family sits in that list.
It is operated, the profile says, in accordance with Danish regulations for private schools and gymnasiums. That is not the same thing as being a folkeskole.
25,000 m², four towers of five to seven storeys, designed by C.F. Møller, built as a sustainability flagship. The campus page names a theatre, two rooftop greenhouses, three gyms, music rooms, and design facilities for product design, ceramics and visual arts. The layout is meant to open toward the public harbour. Nordhavn is cranes, new flats, and a waterfront wind. It is not Nørrebro.
Ask to see an ordinary Grade 4 classroom and the dining room, not only a greenhouse. Ask how Grade 1 gets to the gym when the harbour wind is doing its January act.
A virtual tour exists if you cannot fly in. Still try to walk Levantkaj once. The metro conversation is real.
The admissions page’s age band is 34 months to 18. The profile says 3–19. Pre-K includes ages 2, 3 and 4 on the fee table. Ask which birthday rule applies to this toddler — the procedures PDF talks about applicants aged 2 years 10 months and teacher-to-student ratios at that age.
Pre-K and Primary. IB Primary Years Programme. English preferred but not required for Pre-K through Grade 4. Grade 5 applicants need about A2 English (everyday expressions, elementary vocabulary); the Primary Principal assesses that in the admission interview.
Grades 6–10. IB Middle Years Programme. Applicants who have not studied in an English-medium school for five or more years sit an EAL test before admission.
Grades 11–12. Most students follow the IB Diploma. All students work toward a NEASC-accredited US high school diploma. CIS believes in open access to the full Diploma: anyone who wants it may enrol. The profile: 85 of the Class of 2026 are IB Diploma candidates; 5 are on high-school courses that largely follow the IB curriculum.
US diploma minimums: 22 credits and CAS. A passing grade is 3. Semester courses are 0.5 credit; year courses are 1.0. Required: 4 English (the fourth in Grade 12), 3 maths, 3 individuals and societies, 3 sciences, 3 languages, 4 electives, 2 PE/health. Grades 11–12 use the IB 1–7 scale. CIS does not rank students.
IB Diploma results the profile prints: 2025 pass rate 95.5% (global 81.26%), mean 33 (global 30.58), highest 44, 85 diplomas from 89 full entries. 2024 mean was 34. That is the school talking about itself. We are not treating it as your child’s forecast.
Director named on the profile: Chris Andre. Secondary principal: Stephen McIlroy. IB Diploma coordinator: Mary Donnellan. Admissions coordinators on the website: Lena Donde and Taj Seth Mand.
Instruction is in English. The Diploma subject list in the profile includes English A Language & Literature; Danish A Literature; self-taught Literature A; Danish B; French B; German B; Spanish B; German ab initio; Danish ab initio.
Danish is the host-country language and a Diploma subject. Ask how many hours a Grade 3 newcomer actually gets, and whether a child can handle a doctor’s waiting room in Danish by the second year. Living in Nordhavn without Danish is possible. It is also a smaller life.
EAL testing from Grade 6 is the gate for students without five years of English-medium school. Grade 5 already wants A2. Do not assume Pre-K flexibility lasts until Grade 8.
Four steps: book a tour (60–90 minutes, or online); submit an application with documents and 3,000 DKK; principals review the file holistically (English, learning support, the whole picture); accept and pay 40,000 DKK registration within five business days or the contract is cancelled.
Documents the 2024 PDF names: recent photo, passport, report cards (recent year especially), originals plus English translations, and an explanation of the grading system where that helps. Custody paperwork is required even when parents are married, if that is the legal situation — the PDF is detailed. Read it.
Full disclosure of learning, social-emotional and behavioural needs is required. Hide something and the offer can be withdrawn after acceptance, with no refund. If the school later says Tier 2 or Tier 3 support is needed, the family must agree — including the fees — for the child to continue on that plan.
Primary placement gives age priority. Grade-change requests are a formal process: written reasons, evidence, observation, a trial day, then the principal decides.
Not-accepted students may enter the waiting pool if parents still want CIS and the reason was not “we cannot meet the need.”
Confirm the live PDF from the tuition page before you budget. That page also links 2025–26.
New-student fees
| Fee | 2026/27 |
|---|---|
| Application (non-refundable, per application) | 3,000 DKK |
| Registration (one-time, within 5 business days of accepting) | 40,000 DKK |
| Administration (only if you pay tuition in instalments) | 3,000 DKK |
Annual tuition
| Grade | 2026/27 |
|---|---|
| Pre-Kindergarten (2, 3, 4) | 194,000 DKK |
| Kindergarten–Grade 5 | 155,000 DKK |
| Grades 6–10 | 178,000 DKK |
| Grades 11–12 | 215,000 DKK |
Pre-K families may apply for a municipal privat børnepasning subsidy. Ask your kommune. Kindergarten through Grade 3 SFO is a split invoice, not an extra add-on, on the school’s telling — confirm the live PDF’s footnote.
Tuition covers curriculum materials and instruction. Extra: specialised learning needs after evaluation; English language support; lunch; after-school activities; sports; trips. Sports annual fees on the PDF sit in bands (about 3,500–4,500 DKK for some programmes; other lines for fixtures and travel). Use the PDF, not this summary, for those extras.
Payment choices: one payment 1 April 2026 (no admin fee); quarterly 1 April, 1 August, 1 November, 1 February (25% each, plus admin); or eight payments starting 30% on 1 April, then 10% on 1 Aug, 1 Sep, 1 Oct, 1 Nov, 1 Dec, 1 Jan, 1 Feb. Late-payment reminder: 125 DKK.
Cancellation / withdrawal percentages are dated on the PDF (for example 10% of annual tuition if you cancel 1–31 May 2026, 25% from 1 June, then stepped amounts through the year). Read the dates. Mid-year joiners pay at least one quarter within five business days of accepting, and tuition is prorated by quarter.
A first-year Grade 6 is application + registration + tuition: 3,000 + 40,000 + 178,000 = 221,000 DKK before lunch, EAL, sport and a ski week. If you instalment, add 3,000.
The IB Diploma is the portable two-year route. Open access, on the school’s word.
The NEASC US high school diploma is what every graduate is working toward, with the 22-credit map above.
Danish higher education has its own recognition rules for international diplomas. If a Danish university is possible, ask the Future Planning counsellors (Kari Oelkers, Erin Huber on the profile) how an IB or a US diploma is presented to optagelse, not how a friend did it in 2019. CIS advises students to submit no more than 10–12 college applications (UCAS, University of California, and Danish applications each count as one).
The profile lists many university acceptances. That is a school list. It is not a promise.
Learning specialists evaluate extra needs; fees follow that conversation. Tier 2 and Tier 3 require family agreement. Withholding information can void the offer. Bring the reports.
Child protection is written in UNCRC language on the homepage: everyone is responsible; the school will act without hesitation.
Ask whether your nationality is near 25% in this grade, and which official sentence they are using this year. Ask whether an EAL test would apply. Ask how Danish is grouped. Ask how many Grade 11s are on the full Diploma versus high-school courses only. Ask what Tier 2 would cost. Ask what happens if the posting ends in May (the PDF has dates). Ask to see Grade 5 and Grade 9, not only a rooftop greenhouse.
Walk from Nordhavn station once in the rain. The harbour is the brochure. The wind is the Tuesday.
We are not saying CIS is the best school in Copenhagen. We are not guessing a waitlist. We are not inventing a 2027/28 fee. The 2024 procedures PDF and the 2026 admissions page disagree slightly on how the 25% cap is counted. Ask.
Read the 2026/27 fee PDF and write to admissions before you give notice on a flat in another country. This is a map. The school still has to be the right Tuesday.
Pagine e documenti ufficiali che abbiamo letto. Se un numero conta per il bilancio o la domanda, aprite il link e controllate che sia ancora valido.
Orientamento amichevole, non una domanda. Date, rette e programmi si muovono. Confermate tutto con la scuola.
Copenhagen is not one IB campus in Nordhavn. It is that house with a 25% nationality cap, and a Hellerup house that also holds a Danish STX. Monthly kroner stay subsidised only if the CPR lands on time.
15 minLe lettere sul diploma contano. Non sono tutto il ragazzo. Ecco come distinguerle senza mal di testa, e senza fingere che ogni porta resti aperta.
16 minNon vi serve un algoritmo perfetto. Vi servono poche cose vere su vostro figlio, una lista un po’ noiosa sul frigo, e il coraggio di ignorare un bel campus che non vi sta.
15 minLa retta è il numero in homepage. Il PDF è quello che arriva a marzo. Ecco come leggere il secondo, senza inventare un euro, una corona o una scadenza.