International schools in Greece

Are you looking for an international school in Greece? You can find a list of selected schools at the bottom of this page. Use the search filters to select only girls' or boys' schools, prep schools, senior schools or sixth forms; or you can search for schools that offer a particular curriculum, such as the International Baccalaureate, the UK or US national curriculum or the International Primary Curriculum.

Widely regarded as the cradle of Western civilisation, Greece has strong educational traditions and a well-established international school sector that is centred on Athens, with schools also found in Thessaloniki, Larissa and Heraklion. 

There are diverse institutions offering the curriculums of the UK, the US, France, Germany and the International Baccalaureate Organisation, as well as bilingual schools that offer the Greek curriculum alongside the French or German one, and a multi-lingual European School. 

The vast majority are coeducational day schools, many educate children from nursery through to high school, some are run by Christian religious foundations and a few have long histories. The bilingual Deutsche Schule Athen was founded in 1896 and the English-medium Doukas School opened in 1917.  

Greece has 21 IB World Schools, of which 15 teach in English and six in English and Greek. A total of 14 are authorised to teach the IB Diploma and three, Platon School, Costeas-Geitonas School and the International School of Athens, follow all three IB programmes.

The School of European Education in Heraklion, Crete, provides free, public, multi-lingual education leading to the European Baccalaureate for students from European Union member states including Greece. It is accredited by the EU’s European Schools network.  

Education is compulsory for 10 years from age four to 14 and state schools are free. Two years of kindergarten is followed by six years of primary school and three years of gymnasium. A three-year Lyceum programme culminates in the Apolyterio school-leaving certificate and the Pan-Hellenic Examinations for entrance to Greek universities. 

In 2019, net enrolment was 82 per cent for kindergartens, 98.5 per cent in primary schools and 97 per cent at secondary schools. Greece had the highest proportion of young people attending university or college in the world, with gross enrolment of 148.5 per cent.