High Schools in Europe that teach lessons in english

[GenevievePelli]

Hi, My family is relocating to Europe from the US for work. My husband can work in any EU country so this gives us flexibility to choose the location. However, our kids are in high school and only speak english unfortunately. My youngest already struggles academically. My oldest will be a senior next year. It seems a little late to expect my kids to suddenly pick up a foreign language at this age - enough to comprehend the lessons and graduate anyway.
To make the transition as easy as possible, does anyone know of high schools that teach in English that are free or affordable? I found American boarding schools but $30K plus per year per child is no where close to anything we can afford. Thanks for your help.

You will find English speaking high schools in all European countries but Central and Eastern European and Scandinavian countries tend to have better English language programmes.

https://www.international-schools-database.com

Ireland would be the most obvious place.

Nearly all schools in Ireland teach through English.

Cross-post @ChimneyPot

France has a few state international schools, including https://www.csianglo.org in Lyon and a few in Paris. The Anglophone section has British and American streams. My eldest child decided to live with their father in Lyon during lockdown, at age 13, for the purpose of learning French from scratch. Came back fluent 3 years later and had a great experience there.
The school is well used to children arriving without a word of French and they catch up quite quickly. They study the French International baccalaureate.

Most Dutch schools offer secondary education in a choice of English or Dutch. It's called TTO - tweetalig onderwijs (two language education). Dutch itself would obviously be taught in Dutch and is a core subject so I'm not sure how you'd get around that, but I'm sure the schools find ways as there are lots of ex-pats.
The Netherlands is a great country for children and very family-orientated. You don't need to speak Dutch to live or work here either.

@ChimneyPot @DeireadhFomhair I was told by a few Irish friends that High School student must pass an Irish language test to graduate. Not true?

No it’s not true.

if you start your education in Ireland before the age of 11 you are required to study Irish but you only need to take an exam if you were born in Ireland and started your education in Ireland before the age of 11 and are not otherwise exempt.

If your children are 11 or older when they move to Ireland studying Irish is not required.

In all your definition of "international" schools, are these free, affordable, or public? My search kept coming up with only private international schools with hefty price tags.

I know several people who attended international schools - in France, Portugal, Germany, among others. The subjects are taught in English.

See post above from @ChimneyPot re Irish exams.
Schools in Ireland are not "international", they're just schools. You've the option of state or private depending on where you live and what you want.

International schools are found all over Europe. They can be expensive.

Forget Spain unless lots of money and even then...

Right, but I am looking for countries that offer free, affordable or public options like @ChimneyPot mentions versus the high private costs of many international schools. Got any info on that? So far, Ireland is for sure an option.

Awesome! So Ireland is a for sure option! Thank you @DeireadhFomhair for these details.

Interesting! I have to check this out! Thank you!

What do you mean by affordable? Eg, the American International School in Cyprus follows a US curriculum, at least for some of the time. It’s 10,000 euros a year for upper high school. Younger years are cheaper.

Ireland?

Lots of good schools, all but a few teaching in English.

Also, broad curriculum (Leaving Cert) that might align with American core university-bound track.

It depends what you want to do at the end of it. If you want your child to apply in the US for college as a US student then you will get the best value by paying the cash for an American school as they will teach as US schools do.

If you want your d to apply to European universities then you will need to go to a country where everyone speaks English and English can be taught alongside other languages. Ireland’s a tricky one here because while, yes, you can absolutely get taught in English there aren’t many internationally ranked universities there . So you would still need to jump through whatever English language hoops the chosen European university has. It might be a good idea to pick what you want your dc to do for uni first and then work backwards.

Whoops! that was supposed to say thank you (@ChimneyPot ) AND @DeireadhFomhair on the ireland info. (didn't mean to slight you there, Chimney!)

This is certainly more reasonable than the 50,000 euros and more I keep finding. Free is in my budget! lol But we can stretch to pay tuition somewhere if our other expenses are in line versus also paying high rent or other high cost of living in certain areas. TY

Malta? English is one of the official languages, and secondary school upwards is taught in English. Malta ranks 11th in the world for education standards.

You'd be fine applying to American universities with one year of Irish Leaving Cert coursework under your belt, especially if your courses were taken at honors level.

Irish students are accepted into American universities every year with the Irish Leaving Cert curriculum.

International schools in Sweden are free, as are all schools including private. But also some Swedish public schools teach in English or do International Baccalauriate which is in English.

If you are relocating for work, surely you’ve accounted for the cost of private education when you decided it was a good idea?