Germany · Frankfurt
This is a Type 1 European School, not FIS in the Taunus. The leaving diploma is the European Baccalaureate. Category I staff children are fee-exempt. Category III pays the Board table and waits on a place.
Este retrato ainda está em inglês. As outras línguas chegam escola a escola.
Currículo como a escola o publica:European Schools curriculum · European Baccalaureate
Línguas de ensino:Section language as first language (L1), plus L2 and further languages as the European Schools prescribe
The European School Frankfurt is a Type 1 European School, not a private IB campus and not Frankfurt International School. The official site is esffm.org. Address the footer and every 2026/27 form print: Praunheimer Weg 126, D-60439 Frankfurt am Main. Phone +49 69 92 88 74 0. Enrolment list-frf-enrolment@eursc.eu. Contact list-frf-contact@eursc.eu.
It opened in 2002. The about page says around 1,600 pupils. The home page places it among 13 European Schools in six countries. The EURSC location page names the Director Anastazija Avsec. Treat the headcount as the school’s own snapshot.
It is a day school. There is no boarding house. Extra-curricular clubs sit with the parents’ association; you must be a member to join. Ask the association for this year’s list. We will not invent a club fee.
The useful questions are: Are you Category I, II, or III? Which language section is this child’s dominant language — not the language you wish they had? Can you live with no waiting list? And do you understand that the leaving paper is the European Baccalaureate, not the IB?
The mission sentence on the FAQ is for children of staff of European institutions, in a multilingual public school jointly run by EU governments. Everyone else is a guest of remaining places.
Category I on the 2026/27 secondary form: employees of the European Central Bank, and employees of institutions of the European Commission. Those parents are exempt from school fees (they still pay the small administrative lines). Confirm your employer letter before you assume the category.
Category II: a company or institution with a financial agreement with the Board of Governors or with ESF. Priority after Category I, if places remain.
Category III: private families. Admitted only if places are available. The school does not keep a waiting list.
It will not suit a family who wants English-only IB in Oberursel. That is FIS. Walk both if the posting is Rhine-Main. They share a region and almost no Monday.
Spanish section: opened in the pre-school in autumn 2018. Secondary forms for 2026/27 print Spanish in S1–S3 only. From S4–S7 the sections on the form are German, English, French, Italian. Ask what happens to a Spanish-section child at the S3/S4 stair.
One Praunheim address, north-west Frankfurt, not the bank towers. Nursery and primary tours for prospective parents in January and February 2026 met just inside Gate M by the modular building, 13:45–14:30, with EuroKids and childminding in room M004 afterwards. That meeting point is the useful picture: a working school gate, not a Schloss.
Time Praunheimer Weg at 7:40 in January. FIS families are timing a Taunus village or Wiesbaden. They are not the same bus.
We will not invent a hectare count the public pages do not print. Ask to see this child’s section, not only the European flag.
Nursery, primary, secondary, to the European Baccalaureate at the end of S7. Nursery: September of the civil year the child turns 4. Primary 1: the year they turn 6.
Classes, the FAQ says, generally run between 7 and 30. Below the minimum they may merge; above the maximum they may split.
Language 1 is the section language — the child’s mother tongue or dominant language. Parents do not pick L1 for convenience. Article 47(e) of the General Rules: the Director decides, and may set comparative language tests, including in nursery. A change of L1 is exceptional and waits on the Class Council.
Language sections at ESF: German, English, French, Italian, and Spanish (until S2 on the FAQ; S1–S3 on the 2026/27 secondary form). L2 is German, English, or French, and must differ from the section language except for SWALS. From secondary S3, L2 becomes the language of human sciences and religion/ethics; from S4, of history, geography, and optional economics.
SWALS — no section for the mother tongue — take L1 in their EU language and sit in a DE, EN, or FR section. Entitlement is Category I and II. Category III gets L1 only if a course already exists and does not create a new group. If a Category I child leaves and the course closes, Category III pupils replace L1 with L2 and get two years to catch up. That sentence is why a Category III SWALS file is a risk, not a tactic.
ONL (other national language) from nursery year 7 through secondary: Irish, Maltese, Swedish or Finnish, Catalan — if the pupil or at least one parent holds the matching nationality, regardless of section.
This is not an English-medium international school that happens to offer German. A child in the Italian section lives in Italian for L1. That is the point of the system.
Enrolment for the next school year: 1 December to 28 February. Decisions by April. Send original forms by mail. The form itself says only a written confirmation from the Director is an admission. Sitting in class before that letter is not allowed.
Mid-year files: Category I or II only, and only if the child is not already in a Frankfurt school.
Documents: promotion proof, custody papers if needed, and — for Category I and II — an original employer confirmation. Translations if the papers are not in German, English, French, or Italian.
There is no waiting list. “Please do not call the school,” the FAQ says; staff are told not to give individual news before every file is read.
A tour of Gate M does not move a Category III file.
School fees are set each year by the Board of Governors and “may change from year to year.” Category I (the ECB and Commission institutions the form lists) are exempt from school fees. Category II pays under the agreement. Category III pays the table.
Category III annual school fees, 2026/2027
| Cycle | Annual fee |
|---|---|
| Nursery | €4,457.80 |
| Primary | €6,129.55 |
| Secondary | €8,358.46 |
All categories also pay the school’s own administrative lines (checked once a year):
| Nursery | Primary | Secondary | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Insurance | €5.00 | €5.00 | €5.00 |
| Administrative fees | €38.00 | €38.00 | €44.00 |
| BAC registration | — | — | €108.10 |
| Lost student ID | €5.00 | €5.00 | €5.00 |
Book fees (Intermath, Mediterranean World) are marked variable. Secondary lockers are a third-party portal; the form says parents settle that themselves.
Category III must pay a 25% advance of school fees, billed by email in June or before the year starts. Not refundable. The rest is billed after the start. Unpaid fees, or a missed advance, mean the child may not attend, under the General Rules.
We will not invent canteen or bus. Ask the parents’ association.
We are not ranking ESF against FIS. We are not inventing a Category II company list. We are not calling Spanish a full S1–S7 section when the 2026/27 form stops it at S3. We are not treating “around 1,600” as a medal. We are not turning the FAQ’s “no waiting list” into a secret queue.
Ask which category you actually are, in writing, with an employer letter if you have one. Ask which section the Director will assign, not which one sounds convenient. Ask what Spanish looks like after S3. Ask how a Category III SWALS file dies if a course closes. Time Praunheim and Oberursel in the same week. They are different childhoods that share an airport.
The Frankfurt hub is the short map. European Schools versus internationals is the climate. Munich’s pairing is European School Munich with the two IB castles.
Páginas e documentos oficiais que lemos. Se um número importa para o orçamento ou a candidatura, abram o link e confirmem que ainda vale.
Orientação amiga, não uma candidatura. Datas, propinas e programas mexem-se. Confirmem tudo com a escola.
Frankfurt is not one IB campus in the Taunus. It is that house on two Hesse sites, and a Type 1 European School in Praunheim. Category I is a different door from an Oberursel open morning.
17 minAs duas têm crianças de muitos países e um diploma que viaja. A semelhança acaba aí. Uma é um sistema público feito para famílias das instituições da UE. A outra é um mercado em que se paga para entrar.
15 minAs letras do diploma importam. Não são a criança inteira. Aqui vai como distingui-las sem dor de cabeça, e sem fingir que todas as portas continuam abertas.
16 minNão precisam de um algoritmo perfeito. Precisam de algumas verdades sobre o vosso filho, uma lista aborrecida no frigorífico, e a coragem de ignorar um campus bonito que não serve.