International School 33: two languages, two buildings and a fee set by your tax bill

The week at International School 33 is divided with unusual tidiness. Lessons run Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, 08:30 to 16:00, and from nursery onwards the school describes those four days as two in French and two in English, each taught by a native speaker. Nobody has to wonder which language owns the week. A child who starts at two grows up inside both without the school ever having to pick a favourite.

The school is a private, co-educational day school for ages 2 to 18 at 47 avenue de la Poterie, 33170 Gradignan, on the southern edge of Bordeaux. It belongs to the Ermitage Education group and follows the Zone A holiday calendar, the same one Bordeaux’s state schools use.

What a child gets

There are two buildings 500 metres apart: an 850 m² building for nursery through 4ème (the third year of collège, or middle school) and a 480 m² one for 3ème through Terminale (the last year of collège to the final year of lycée). So a child moves house for the final year of collège, not at the start of secondary.

Nursery and elementary use Montessori materials. Nursery classes are around 20 children with a teacher and at least one assistant; secondary classes are roughly 15 to 20. A child need not arrive bilingual: non-bilingual pupils get a dedicated section with French-as-a-foreign-language or English support, and at collège and lycée they progress in an adapted section while bilingual pupils join the international one.

The school runs the IB Primary Years, Middle Years and Diploma Programmes, with the French national curriculum taught in parallel. It says that since IB authorisation of the Career-related Programme in July 2026 it is the first and only school in France to offer all four IB programmes. The IB has not yet listed this publicly, so if the CP route is the reason for applying, ask for the authorisation letter and for which programme is actually running in the child’s year.

One thing a secondary family should know: a directory republishing ministry data lists both the primary school and the lycée as private, hors contrat, meaning outside contract with the French state. In practice that is a question about exams and where the diploma leads, so ask how the French baccalauréat sits alongside the IB routes.

Applying

Admissions are open all year, subject to places, and the school says applications for 2026–27 are open from kindergarten through Grade 12. There is no academic entrance test. The route is an online file, a family interview, a visit during the school day (the school prefers these to open days) and then a decision. The FAQ promises an answer within ten days; the admissions page says 48 hours. Expect something between the two.

Admissions: +33 6 51 27 98 19, admissions@internationalschool33.com. Secretariat: +33 5 56 91 63 64, admin@internationalschool33.com.

Fees for 2026–27

The fee pages are now headed 2026–2027, and the figures are unchanged from the 2025–26 schedule. What makes this school unusual is that your bill depends on your revenu fiscal de référence (RFR), the reference income on a French tax assessment. There are six bands:

Category	Reference income
1	Up to €54,000
2	€54,001–€73,516
3	€73,517–€120,000
4	€120,001–€158,122
5	€158,123–€200,000
6	Over €200,000

Annual tuition by stage and band, before the administration charge:

Stage	Cat. 1	Cat. 2	Cat. 3	Cat. 4	Cat. 5	Cat. 6
Kindergarten (2–6)	€6,210	€6,728	€7,245	€7,814	€8,435	€9,108
Elementary (6–12)	€6,831	€7,400	€7,970	€8,591	€9,263	€10,040
Collège (12–15)	€7,452	€8,073	€8,694	€9,419	€10,868	€12,524
Lycée (15–18)	€8,073	€8,746	€9,522	€10,350	€12,420	€15,525

Category 6 lycée is almost twice category 1. An annual administration charge of €155 to €569 sits on top, depending on stage and band.

The first year also brings an application fee of €600 (€549 for a second child, €466 for a third) and a €983 development fund payment per family. Both are described as non-refundable, with a seven-day withdrawal period. Put together, a first-year kindergartner in category 1 comes to €7,948 before meals; a first-year lycée pupil in category 6 comes to €17,677. Siblings get 10% off tuition for the second child and 15% from the third.

Here is the trap for new arrivals. Categories 1 to 5 require a copy of the 2024 tax assessment (TI 2024) before the second week of September; without it, category 6 is applied automatically. A family that has just moved to France may not have a French assessment at all, so ask admissions in writing how they handle that before signing.

Tuition is paid in ten monthly direct debits. A payment incident adds 10%, more than 30 days of arrears means exclusion, and leaving mid-year needs two months’ written notice.

What is not in the fee

Meals are a lunchbox from home or a delivered caterer, priced separately. Before- and after-school care runs from 08:00 and until 18:30, charged per session at roughly €1.50 to €10 depending on the pick-up time. Spanish, German, Mandarin and Russian are paid options at €500 a year for one hour a week or €850 for two. French Language B costs €2,200 a year and is compulsory for pupils with no French. Uniform, supplies, trips and external exam fees are extra too.

This is a school for a family that wants French and English in equal measure from the start and is comfortable with a fee that rises with income. The two things to settle before applying are which IB route is actually running for the child’s year and whether a tax assessment will be in hand by September. Lycée François Magendie is a public secondary alternative for older pupils only. The Bordeaux guide and France guide give the wider picture.

Friendly orientation, not an application. Dates, fees, and programme details move. Confirm everything with the school.