International Schools
For most families moving abroad, the school decision is made before the tax one — and it is the decision that is hardest to reverse. These guides cover fees, admissions, waiting lists and curricula across 19 cities, alongside the planning that pays for it all.
School fees are a liability you can see coming
Almost nothing else a family pays for is this predictable. You generally know which years the fees fall in, roughly what they will be, and in which currency — often a decade ahead.
That predictability is the whole opportunity, and it is why school fees belong in a financial plan rather than in a monthly budget. A full international education from early years to university entry can run to a sum comparable with a property purchase, arriving in instalments across fifteen years. Families who treat it as a dated liability — funded deliberately in advance, in the currency the school bills in — consistently find it less disruptive than those meeting each term’s invoice from income, particularly when a posting ends, a package changes or the currency moves against them.
The guides below are the practical half: what schools cost in each city, how admission actually works, and where families live to reach them. The planning half is a conversation, and it is worth having before the first application rather than after the third invoice.
Model the cost with the education savings calculatorThe decisions that apply wherever you are going
Curriculum, accreditation, timing and funding travel with you. Read these before shortlisting schools in any particular city.
Choosing an international school abroad
Curriculum, accreditation, continuity and exit routes — the questions to ask before you shortlist anywhere.
ReadPlanning for school fees
What a full international education actually costs across a child’s school career, and how families structure for it.
ReadScholarships and bursaries
Where meaningful awards exist, what they are worth, and the timelines that decide whether you can apply at all.
ReadAccreditation, and why it matters
What IB, CIS, WASC and BSO actually certify — and what a school claiming none of them is telling you.
ReadBest countries for international schooling
Where provision is deep, where it is thin, and where fees buy the most for a relocating family.
ReadMoving schools mid-year
Curriculum mismatches, entry points and the academic cost of arriving in February rather than September.
ReadSchools, fees and admissions in 19 cities
Every city below has its own guides to fees, applications and waiting lists, and to the areas families live in to reach the schools. Only guides that exist are linked.
United Kingdom
256 education guides in total. Browse everything in the expat guides library.
What families ask us most
Frequently asked questions
5 questions
How much do international school fees actually come to?
Across the cities covered here, tuition at an established international school typically runs from roughly USD 10,000 a year at the lower end to well over USD 40,000 at the most sought-after schools in Hong Kong, Shanghai, Dubai and Singapore. Tuition is rarely the whole bill: registration and assessment fees, a refundable or non-refundable capital levy, transport, uniform, examination entry and trips are usually charged separately, and a debenture or capital certificate can be required before a place is confirmed. The per-city fee guides set out what is charged and what sits on top.
Link to this questionWhen should we start applying?
Earlier than most families expect. In the tightest markets a place at a well-regarded school is applied for twelve to eighteen months ahead, and some year groups are effectively closed to new applicants outside the main entry points. Waiting lists are not usually first-come-first-served either: siblings, corporate places and nationality quotas can all rank ahead of a new applicant who applied earlier. The waiting-list guides for each city explain how that ordering works locally.
Link to this questionIB or British curriculum?
The honest answer depends on where the child is likely to finish school rather than where they are starting. The IB Diploma is widely portable and recognised by universities in most countries. A British curriculum through IGCSE and A-level is narrower at the top end but transfers cleanly between British-system schools worldwide, which matters if further moves are likely. What tends to cause difficulty is switching systems late — a move into the final two years of either programme is disruptive in a way an earlier move is not.
Link to this questionDoes where we live change the school we can get into?
Sometimes directly and almost always practically. Some schools operate catchment or feeder arrangements, but the bigger constraint is usually the commute: a school forty minutes away in traffic is a very different proposition at 7am every morning from one ten minutes away. The "where to live" guides pair each city’s school clusters with the residential areas families actually choose, which is a different question from where property is cheapest.
Link to this questionHow do expatriate families usually fund fees?
Where the employer does not cover them, the pattern that works is treating school fees as a known, dated liability rather than an annual surprise — because unlike most spending, the timing and rough size are known years ahead. That predictability is what makes it plannable: a defined pot, built over the years before the fees start and drawn down across the school career, behaves very differently from meeting each invoice out of current income. Currency matters too, since fees are usually billed in the local currency while income may not be. This is a conversation worth having early; we are happy to have it.
Link to this questionPlanning for school fees?
Tell us where you are moving and when the fees start. We will come back with what the schooling is likely to cost in that city and how families in your position typically fund it.