Best schools in Luxembourg

The romantically named Grand Duchy of Luxembourg has been helped by farsighted government policy and a liberal tax climate to become a global magnet for banking and financial services. But unfortunately international schools are a bit of a rarity.

Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, night city skyline at Grund along Alzette river in the historical old town of Luxembourg

Education in Luxembourg

Just squeaking in under 1,000 square miles, this tiny, rich, expat-heavy country is in very easy reach of the more obvious financial centres of western Europe, so not everyone who works here lives here, particularly as the cost of housing rivals London or Paris. However, the appeal of its manageable size, multilingual, multinational approach and more relaxed lifestyle has seduced increasing numbers of expats to settle here rather than just zip in and out.

Although there is more to Luxembourg than its city - including some very beautiful countryside complete with fairy-tale castles and mediaeval architecture - most international families choose to live in the capital or in the surrounding towns and villages. Naturally, the international schools have chosen to spring up where this is captive audience is to be found, so they are all based in or around the city itself.

Luxembourg’s own educational system is modelled on the French version and offers an internationally recognised baccalaureate. Almost all state schools are free but there are a few private secondary schools, subsidised by the state, which supervise their curricula and teachers’ qualifications (similar to the approach of the AEFE).

Choosing a school in Luxembourg

This country may seem an anachronism in the modern world, with its feudal head and High German dialect, but you need not worry about your children getting a dated education as the schools compare favourably with their European counterparts.

There are all the usual curricula available in the international schools. And one of the joys of Luxembourg is the relative ease of getting from A to B - a doddle compared to its rivals, London, Paris, Milan and Frankfurt. So wherever you choose to live - whether in the west in Strasson, the south in Howald or the more central districts of Merl or Belair - 20 minutes maximum is probably all it takes to drive to any of the international schools.

The state system offers a truly trilingual education which begins by speaking and teaching Luxembourgish in pre-school, then learning to read and write in German at the age of six, with French introduced in the following year. German remains the teaching language (with mandatory English lessons) all the way through, except in the academic lycées classiques where French takes over. This multi-lingual approach continues at the University of Luxembourg which teaches in English, French and German.