Norway · Hafrsfjord
An oil-town international school on Treskeveien, not in the city centre. The Board’s 2026–27 policy prints one Category 1 tariff from Kindergarten through Grade 12. Early Years is a different story, because Stortinget sets that monthly price.
Questo ritratto è ancora in inglese. Le altre lingue arrivano scuola per scuola.
Curricolo come lo pubblica la scuola:Cross-cultural Early Childhood, Primary and Middle School programme · IGCSE · IB Diploma Programme · ISS High School diploma
Lingue di istruzione:English, Norwegian for Kindergarten–Grade 9
The International School of Stavanger is a non-profit on Treskeveien 3, 4043 Hafrsfjord, southwest of Stavanger centre, not far from the fjord of the same name. The official website is isstavanger.no. General email: information@isstavanger.no. Admissions: admissions@isstavanger.no. Switchboard: +47 51 55 43 00. Postal box: Postboks 1003 Sunde, 4091 Hafrsfjord. Organisation number on the school’s own placement chart: 960 496 671.
It is a day school. Nothing on the public pages describes a boarding house. If the posting has not found a flat, this campus will not absorb the child.
The homepage calls ISS a fully accredited international school with students from 3 to 18. The apply page welcomes applications for ages 1 to 18. The at-a-glance page says Toddlers–Grade 12, ages 2–18. The 2026–27 tuition policy is the document that actually places the youngest band: Early Years 1 is for a child who is 12 months old by 1 August. Treat those as the school talking about itself, not a census we counted.
The at-a-glance page says ISS was founded in 1966 for North Sea oil families, was the third international school accredited by CIS in 1974, and is run by a Director and a Board of Trustees. Figures printed there: capacity 550, nearly 50 countries, 18% Norwegian citizenship, 19% U.S., 10% U.K. (dual citizens included), a 1:9 teacher-to-student ratio. Director named on the welcome pages: Simon Gillespie. Admissions: Vesna Radovancevic.
The useful questions are Norwegian. Can this child work in English in the year you want? Will they actually learn Norwegian, or only hear it on the Kolumbus bus? Can you pay 277,680 NOK Category 1 plus the one-time fees — or do you have a real Category 2 or Lånekassen path? And if they need more than a Learning Support teacher, do you understand that an LSA is an extra fee the public table does not price?
ISS is an English-medium school for expatriate families and local families in the Stavanger area. That sentence is in the 2026–27 policy. The FAQ is blunt: it is not an American school or a British school.
Category 1 is the default. Any new family — company-sponsored, organisation-sponsored, or paying privately — pays that rate. Expats, repatriating Norwegians, local citizens: the policy names them all.
Category 2 is a reduced tariff, limited seats per year, set by the Board. It is for families who are not sponsored, even partly, and who have limited means. Applications start in April, approval in May. Status is reviewed at the move into Middle School and again into High School. Siblings do not inherit the rate. Extra siblings in Kindergarten–Grade 12 get 10 percent off. The welcome page still links “Category 2 Programme” to a Drive file that opens as the 2022–23 policy. We are not using those kroner.
High School has a third door. The FAQ mentions merit scholarships for Grade 10–Grade 12; the 2026–27 policy mentions Grades 10 and 11. The live scholarships page we read on 31 August 2026 said applications are currently closed. We are not printing a deadline that is not on that page.
English proficiency is not an admission requirement. Learning Support takes mild to moderate needs it can meet. Complex special educational needs are a stated no. Hide a need and you are arguing with the FAQ.
Hafrsfjord is Stavanger’s west side. Drivers come off the E39 onto Rv509 / Madlaveien, then left onto Treskeveien. City buses #2 and #3; get off at Ragbakken and take the footpath under the road. Visitors check in at the main entrance. Tours through Admissions. Drop-ins Monday to Friday, 08:00–16:00.
The campus is 6 hectares. The facilities page lists 9 science lab/classrooms, a 370-seat theatre, a dance and drama studio, language and technology labs, indoor gyms, a 400-metre track, rugby and football fields, fitness rooms, two libraries, a Vikings playground and the Larsen Innovation Center. Middle School is 1-to-1 iPad; High School is 1-to-1 MacBook Air.
The cafeteria cooks on site — hot lunch, soup, sandwiches, salads, a daily vegetarian option. No public lunch price. The FAQ and transport page say 10 coach-bus routes from Kindergarten to Grade 12. Many families live in Madla, Hafrsfjord, Stokka and Revheim. The 2026–27 policy does not print a bus fare and does not say Category 1 includes the bus. Ask the Main Office (reception@isstavanger.no). Ask to see Kindergarten and the Grade 11 corridor, not only the theatre.
Hours on the FAQ: 08:30–15:15. Year: mid-August to mid-June. No uniform — ISS wants children to look like ordinary Norwegian streets.
Early Years. A barnehage under the Kindergarten Act, not cheap Kindergarten. The 2026–27 policy: Early Years 1 at 12 months by 1 August, then ages 2, 3 and 4, full-day. Stortinget sets the monthly price. The FAQ we read said places for 1–4 year olds are waitlisted. Parents also apply through Stavanger Kommune. A child cannot start until any previous Norwegian barnehage notice period is finished.
Early Childhood and Primary. Kindergarten is the first compulsory year, age 5 by 1 August — UK Year 1 — then Grades 1–5. Cross-cultural curriculum, standards from Europe, North America and Australia. That is the school’s description, not an IB PYP authorisation. EC/Primary principal named on the page: Jill Raven.
Middle School, Grades 6–8. Same curriculum family. French or Spanish plus Norwegian. Outdoor education named on the at-a-glance page includes Hardanger, Trysil and Fevik. No trip prices on the public pages.
High School, Grades 9–12, ages 14–18. IGCSE (Cambridge) in 9–10 — the school says 30+ years. IB Diploma in 11–12 — 20+ years. Every student earns an ISS High School diploma (the school calls it a North American equivalent). Nearly all also sit the IB Diploma, which the High School page says grants Norwegian studiekompetanse. Principal: Jeffry Whittard. The IB page says ISS allows all students to enter the IBDP, and prints a 93% participation rate over the last decade. Treat that as the school talking about itself.
The placement chart maps ISS grades to Norwegian klasse and UK years. It also prints IB PYP/MYP/DP labels. Those are alignment columns. ISS does not advertise PYP or MYP. Placement looks at birthday, records, years already completed, and a possible talk with the Principal. You do not pick the year because a previous school used 31 December.
Instruction is in English. That is the easy sentence.
Norwegian is for all children from Kindergarten through Grade 9, first language or foreign. The FAQ’s answer is “Ja!” High School can take Norwegian A or B in the Diploma. Ask how many hours, how sets are made, and what a January arrival is doing by June.
EAL is evaluated after the child starts. Not a gate.
French and Spanish start in Middle School (beginner / intermediate / advanced) and continue in High School. After-school mother tongue can include Dutch, German, French, Italian and Mandarin, depending on demand. The at-a-glance page says 43 languages sit in the building. That is not a promise your language has a teacher this year.
Rolling admissions, all year. Separate application per child. The FAQ: completed forms, previous records, confidential recommendations, and a meeting with the Principal if needed. Assessment tests are not required to get in. Placement tests in mathematics, English, French, Norwegian or Spanish may appear in the first Middle or High School week, or when records are thin. The Director decides. The policy allows special cases.
Learning Support reads the file. Bring the reports. The page lists dyslexia, dyscalculia, dysgraphia, dyspraxia, speech and language, ADHD/ADD, autism, physical and sensory impairment, general literacy and numeracy delays. Primary writes an annual Individual Learning Plan. Middle School support can replace a modern language after a talk with parents, the student and the Principal. An LSA, if the room wants one, is extra. No public figure. Ask in writing.
Once enrolled, you have a contract. Corporate families are invoiced from May for the full year, 30 days to pay. Private Kindergarten–Grade 12 families are billed quarterly with 14 days: 1 August, 1 October, 1 January, 1 March. Start mid-quarter privately and you still owe the whole quarter. Early Years private invoices run monthly mid-August to mid-May — ten bills — not prorated.
Category 1 sponsored late starts: 100% if enrolled by 31 December, 75% after that, 50% after 15 March. Private payers do not get that sentence.
Withdrawal for Kindergarten–Grade 12 needs written notice at least three months ahead. Private quarterly families must give three months before the next billing quarter or they owe it. No cash refunds. A corporate sponsor can take a same-year credit; unused credit dies in June.
Early Years withdrawal in the 2026–27 policy is also three months, starting on the 15th of the month after notice. The January 2023 Barnehage Vedtekter still on the apply page says two months. For money we are following the newer Board policy. Confirm which document Admissions is using this week.
Grade 12 IB fees must be paid by the due date or the school may deregister the student from exams. Reports can be held. Unpaid accounts can stop re-enrolment, attract forsinkelsesrente, and, after 30 days, exclude the child from class.
School fees are set by the Board and, the policy says, published in March. The live fee page titles the year 2026–2027 TUITION, shows a screenshot of the table, and links Read Entire Tuition Policy to a seven-page PDF. These are those numbers, in kroner. They will move. Confirm the live fee page and the PDF before you budget.
Early Years
| Fee | 2026/27 |
|---|---|
| Application (one-time, non-refundable) | 1,000 NOK |
| Tuition | 1,200 NOK/month |
| Snack programme (fruit, bread and milk) | 75 NOK/month |
The monthly tuition is the national maximum and is adjusted each January. It does not include snacks or late pick-up. Sibling and low-income reductions follow national and municipal rules; apply through Stavanger Kommune as well as ISS. The Vedtekter says Early Years children bring lunch, and describes morning care 07:30–08:20 and afternoon care 15:15–16:30 as included for Early Years (late pick-up extra). Kindergarten–Grade 5 childcare is a separate line below.
Kindergarten (Year 1) – Grade 12 (Year 13)
| Fee | 2026/27 |
|---|---|
| Application (one-time, non-refundable) | 5,000 NOK |
| Registration (one-time, non-refundable; also billed when an Early Years child enters Kindergarten) | 25,000 NOK |
| Category 1 tuition | 277,680 NOK |
| Category 2, Kindergarten–Grade 9 | 138,900 NOK |
| Category 2, Grades 10–12 | 257,100 NOK |
The application fee is due on application and stays gone if you withdraw or are not offered a place. Registration is invoiced with tuition on enrolment.
Childcare (Kindergarten–Grade 5, before and after school): 22,880 NOK a year for five days, or 5,720 NOK a quarter. Three-, four- or five-day options. Changes only by the quarter, with one month notice. Sign-up is at the start of the year.
Lånekassen, from the official fee page — not from a guess. Students in Grades 10–12 whose fees are paid fully or partly by parents, without sponsorship from a company, organisation, or ISS scholarship, can apply to Lånekassen. The school prints the 2026–27 maximum as NOK 117 641. If granted, it is paid to the student’s account in two instalments: after processing, and in January. Apply one year at a time. Deadlines the school prints: 15 November for a full year, 15 March for spring only. Lånekassen decides. ISS still wants its invoice on the due date. Phone on that page: +47 21 49 60 00. Site: lanekassen.no.
A first-year Grade 6 on Category 1 is not “about 278,000.” It is application + registration + 277,680 — 307,680 NOK before childcare, a bus, a lunch account, an optional trip, or an LSA. We are not adding those extras because the public 2026–27 table does not price them.
Pay by bank transfer to International School of Stavanger, account 3201 09 31567, with the KID (or customer number). From abroad: Sparebank 1 SR-Bank, IBAN NO95 3201 0931 567, SWIFT SPRONO 22. The family remains liable if a sponsor does not pay.
Mild to moderate, inside the school’s own staff and rooms. Complex special educational needs: the learning-support page says ISS is not the right placement. An LSA is a joint decision and an extra invoice. Bring the file on day one. Ask, in the room, whether this year’s team has capacity — not whether the philosophy is kind.
Ask whether this year still has a seat. Ask whether Early Years is still waitlisted. Ask which category you are in, in writing. Ask how Norwegian is grouped. Ask whether Learning Support has capacity this year, and what an LSA costs. Ask what the bus costs — the 2026–27 policy does not print it. Ask what happens if the posting ends in October (three months’ written notice, no cash refund). Ask whether Lånekassen applies to this passport; the school will not wait for the grant. If you want a High School scholarship, open the live page yourself — it was closed on the day we read it.
We are not saying ISS is the best school in Rogaland. We are not guessing a waitlist beyond the Early Years sentence on the FAQ. We are not inventing a class-size number (the school prints a 1:9 ratio, not a cap per room), a bus fare, a lunch price, an LSA rate, a 2027–28 fee, or a scholarship deadline that is not on the live page. The why-choose and High School pages talk about IGCSE and IB results above world averages; that is the school talking about itself.
Read the current tuition policy and write to admissions before you resign 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.
Stavanger is not a suburb of Oslo. The portrait we have is an English-medium through-school in Hafrsfjord. The Board’s 2026–27 policy prints a Category 1 line. Early Years is a different sentence, because Stortinget sets that monthly price.
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.