Will Frankfurt be a Brexit winner? The central German city — the nation’s financial hub — is certainly hoping that the UK’s impending exit from the EU will mean thousands of bankers arriving from London.
Such an influx would put pressure on an international school system already stretched by demand from overseas residents. As well as hosting most of the world’s large international banks, Frankfurt is home to pan-European institutions such as the European Central Bank and EIOPA, Europe’s insurance regulator.
Related article: Frankfurt welcomes bankers fleeing Brexit
Whether or not the Brexit boost materialises, the advice is for expats to apply for school places as early as possible — and to have a back-up plan if their preferred choice is full.
International baccalaureate
Learn English is the primary language used in class at Frankfurt International School (FIS), a coeducational school for three to 18 year olds. Lessons are also taught in German, Korean, Swedish, Dutch and Japanese. A large school with a main campus about 15km north-west of the city centre, it has around 1,800 students from more than 60 countries and follows the IB syllabus all the way through. The class of 2016 averaged 36/45 points in the IB diploma, against a global average of 30. Oversubscribed, FIS advises families to apply at least six months before the school year starts in August.
Pay* €22,120
Live A three-bedroom home in Oberursel, the suburb where the school is located, has a small garden.
Available through Engel & Völkers, €1.1m ($1.3m)
French
Learn The Lycée Français Victor Hugo is 7km north-west of central Frankfurt and is an all-through school for three to 18 year-old girls and boys. It follows the French national curriculum with an emphasis on foreign languages. Students can opt for the bilingual stream, with extensive German and English tuition, or the international stream — an immersive German programme. Final-year students can choose to take the German Abitur exams, the qualification needed to attend university, in addition to the French baccalaureate. Class sizes average 21 students, and almost 80 per cent of pupils are French.
Pay €4,590
Live A three-bedroom apartment in a 19th-century building in Westend, a well-healed neighbourhood, is 20 minutes’ drive from the school.
Available to rent through Engel & Völkers, €3,500 per month (about $4,000 per month)
Related article: Five reason to live in Westend, Frankfurt
American
Learn Along with FIS, the coeducational Internationale Schule Frankfurt-Rhein-Main (ISF) is the best known of the city’s international schools. It has around 900 students, from preschoolers to 18-year olds. In their final two years, students can take US Advanced Placement courses, recognised by universities worldwide. The IB diploma is also taught. Lower down the school, German is offered from pre-school upwards, as either a mother tongue or foreign language.
Pay €19,485
Live A four-bedroom apartment is available close to the school in Hattersheim am Main, a riverside town just west of the city.
Available to rent through Skyline Immobilien, €1,500 per month ($1,740 per month)
Something different Freie Schule Frankfurt, which opened in the 1970s, was one of the first schools to promote the concept of alternative education in Germany. Roughly 6km north of the city centre, the children decide what to learn and when. Currently there are about 50 enrolled children, aged three to 13, with fees capped at around €300 a month.
*Fees typically increase as the child moves up the school. The figure given is the average annual cost of tuition for final year students, and does not include additional payments such as registration fees.
Photographs: Mehmet Kaman/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images; Deejpilot/Getty Images
