The International School Ruhr (IS Ruhr) reveals an impressive overall ratio of 1 teacher to 10 students, excellent curricula and assures intensive individual learning. In doing so, it offers the perfect choice for many expat and German executives.

A school geared towards international requirements is essential when choosing a base to live and to work. Currently 120 students feel well cared for, attending school between between the hours of 7:30 am and 5 pm. The school is able to enrol children from the age of 3 to 18.

As an accredited IB World School, IS Ruhr offers the renowned IB Primary Years program for children from the age of three years up to the end of primary school. The middle school certificate offered is the International General Certificate of Secondary Education, IGCSE taught and examined according to the University of Cambridge requirements. Students in grades 11 and 12 study the two year course of the IB Diploma offering them the opportunity to study in Germany as well as all well-known universities worldwide.

The Background

Essen is one of the largest cities in Germany and a bustling centre of the Ruhr metropolitan area, where many companies with international connections have located their headquarters. The presence of the International School Ruhr has proven fundamental to the wider appeal of the region to many families.

The IS Ruhr opened its doors in August 2010 in the lovely Villa Koppers park, just a few minutes from the city centre of Essen, acquiring another building closeby during 2013 to meet growth. Authorised by the German ministry of education, IS Ruhr is an accredited supplementary school (“anerkannte Ergänzungsschule”). Parents are thus freed from the institutional German system of compulsory education.

International School Ruhr is managed by SBW Haus des Lernens, an educational management company that has been offering high-quality education since 1980 and currently manages 15 schools – among them three international schools in Switzerland and Germany as well as one bilingual school in Munich. The main sponsor of the IS Ruhr is the Initiativkreis Ruhr.