While Johannesburg’s CBD has taken a huge hit in recent years, with many businesses and professionals moving south to the Western Cape, whether Cape Town or the winelands, Jo’burg’s northern suburbs have seen a decent growth. Wealthy South Africans and international families are settling in Midrand, Rosebank, Sandton, Houghton and surrounding areas, close to blue-chip company headquarters, designer stores, boutique hotels, award-winning restaurants – and the best schools, both international and local.
- Education in Johannesburg
- Choosing a school in Johannesburg
- Special education needs in Johannesburg
- Pre-schools, kindergarten and nurseries in Johannesburg
- Best schools in Johannesburg
Education in Johannesburg
For an international curriculum, the main choices are theAmerican International School Johannesburg (AISJ) offering American high school diploma or International Baccalaureate (IB), the Lycée Jules Verne (French Baccalaureate), Deutsche Internationale Schule (German Abitur/IEB). St John’s College offers the option of Cambridge AS and A levels in the standalone sixth form, and Redhill offers the IB as well as the Independent Examination Board IEB.
Most of the local private schools attracting international students offer the IEB (private matriculation), generally considered more modern and challenging than the NCS (state certificate examining the CAPS curriculum). A bachelor’s pass in either enables students to join a South African university - University of Pretoria, Stellenbosch University and University of Cape Town (UCT) are all popular choices. They can also enter most universities overseas, including in the USA and UK (though Oxford and Cambridge admission pages say they don’t accept it, we are told that it’s assessed on an individual basis). In 2022 the IEB launched a new International Secondary Certificate (ISC), which some South African schools are expected to adopt (so far, it’s only been taken in Eswatini, Mozambique and Namibia). It includes Further Studies papers, considered equal to A levels, and should become globally recognised in time.
The southern hemisphere school year runs from January to December, with the long holiday over Christmas (summer), and only a few weeks off in June/July, when many international families want to head north to spend time with families and friends during their long summer break. It’s a problem for international families, especially with teenagers moving to start the two-year IGCSE, A level or IB diploma courses where children have to either join half way through a school year or repeat six months. In Jo’burg, only Lycée Jules Verne and AISJ have adopted the northern hemisphere’s school calendar, making them popular even with families without French or American connections
Choosing a school in Johannesburg
The biggest player in the international market is without doubt AISJ, which feels like a university campus complete with mini golf course, wetlands and the most incredible playgrounds. For junior and senior years (grades 11 and 12) there’s a choice of the two-year IB diploma or the American high school diploma, but there are no AP classes, so it’s difficult to enter grade 12 (school will not accept an IB candidate into senior year), unless the pupil is happy to forgo AP credits towards college. The huge campus and decent number of American teachers come at a cost – tuition fees are easily three to four times higher than at other schools. The principal justifies them by saying they are benchmarked against other American schools overseas, but for those who are not having fees paid, or at least highly subsidised, by their employers, it’s a huge financial commitment.
The main campus of the Lycée Jules Verne, which also has a primary school campus in Pretoria, is bilingual and claims to have pupils from 82 nationalities, but teaches only the French Baccalaureate, though the fact that it’s assessed 60 per cent by exams (over the last two years) and 40 per cent by continual assessment, might broaden its appeal. It’s part of the Agency for French Education Abroad, meaning pupils can move seamlessly between the nearly 500 affiliated schools.
The Deutsche Internationale Schule Johannesburg, confusingly not connected to the Deutsche International Schule Pretoria, is one of the largest German schools in the whole of Africa, catering for a large local German-speaking population, as well as English-speaking families. There’s a choice of the bilingual stream (from grade 5) leading to the Abitur and the IEB or the English stream (from grade 8) leading to the IEB, with German as a second foreign language, plus a German language diploma.
Redhill proudly boasts that is the only school in South Africa to offer a choice of the IEB matriculation or the IB diploma in grades 11 and 12 (the latter route is only open to those achieving 75 per cent in grade 10 in subjects they want to study at higher level).
There are several locally-renowned independent schools offering only the private IEB matric. Girls’ schools Roedean (sister school of the one in Brighton, England), St Mary’s Waverley and Kingsmead College are all worthy of consideration, alongside boys’ schools The Ridge School and St John’s College. The latter offers the most able a choice of pathways at age 16 – to the IEB or to the ‘more challenging’ AS and A levels in a separate co-educational sixth form.
A sprinkling of IEB Crawford International schools in the area are part of the schools division
of the ADvTECH group, listed on the Jo’burg stock exchange. Likewise, Curro, claiming to be the biggest player in the education market, has a few schools here. One of them, Cooper College, offers the Cambridge curriculum from age 14 instead of IEB.
These schools have a reasonable contingent of international families, or at least families with a global outlook, and perhaps a second passport. While in theory a second African language (most popularly Afrikaans, isiXhosa or isiZulu) is required, exemptions can be granted for overseas arrivals in certain circumstances, and a European language taken instead.
Due to safety and security issues, children need to be ferried around, or put on a school bus where it exists, so taking the location of the school into account is paramount when deciding where to live, but there are certainly some lovely areas to consider.
Special education needs in Johannesburg
These schools all say that they cater for children with special educational needs on a case-by-case basis and will admit a child as long as they think they can provide the necessary support to allow him or her to thrive in their school. Most schools will allow and organise a one-on-one facilitator if required, paid for by the parents.
AISJ has a large SEN unit, with clearly defined support and dedicated staff (see the GSG review).
Pre-schools, kindergarten and nurseries in Johannesburg
Schooling in South Africa is not compulsory until the year a child is turning seven (grade one), though the optional reception year (turning six, grade 0) is strongly recommended by the government and is part of the national CAPS curriculum. Most families will want to start their child much younger than this (grade 00, 000 or 0000), and many schools have great pre-schools attached.
All the international curriculum schools have a pre-school, taking children from 18 months (Deutsche Internationale Schule), age 2 (Lycée Jules Verne), age 3 (Redhill) or age 4 (AISJ).
Some of the Reddam House and Crawford International IEB schools have pre-schools, including Crawford Fourways (from Grade 000).
As for local independent schools, St John’s College and sister school St Mary’s Waverley, both single sex for the core compulsory grades, are co-educational in their Reggio-inspired nursery schools (The Bridge and Little Saints, respectively). From The Bridge, some girls move literally across the footbridge over the main road to Roedean, which doesn’t have its own pre-school.
Another option is to choose from the plethora of private pre-schools dotted around the city, often run out of residential homes and catering for a handful of children, just ask for recommendations locally and check the school is properly registered with the authority.
Best schools in Johannesburg
American International School of Johannesburg 
American elementary curriculum/ American middle school curriculum/ American high school diploma/ IB diploma; ages 4-18; co-ed; day; independent: private non-profit; 750 students
American International School of Johannesburg campus (pre-K to G12) offering AISJ high school program or IB diploma. International HS students attracted by great reputation bus in from Pretoria.
Click here to read our full review of the American International School of Johannesburg
St John’s College
Cambridge international advanced programme/ AS levels/ A levels/ IEB South African National Curriculum/ IEB South African National Senior Certificate (NSC); ages 3-18; co-ed; day; independent: private non-profit; 1,500 students
St John’s College is a reputable traditional, Anglican school from nursery to IEB matriculation (option of AS/A levels in sixth form). Girls in nursery and sixth form only.
Click here to read our full review of St John’s College
These schools have been brought to our attention, but until we have more reports from parents, we are unable to consider reviewing them.
Roedean School
Ages 5-18; girls only; day and boarding; Independent; 800 students
Rodean School is the sister school of the famous English public school, but is firmly South African with an international outlook. Girls only from 5-18 with boarding for seniors.
For more information on the schools above, please go to each school’s individual entry on The Good Schools Guide international search.