Choosing a school in Austria

School is compulsory for nine years, from the September after a child turns six. Almost all children start at a Volksschule (primary school) and stay for four years.

The first real decision comes at about ten, at the end of grade 4: Mittelschule or AHS (Gymnasium). Both cover grades 5 to 8. The Gymnasium continues to grade 12 and the Matura, the exam that opens university; from a Mittelschule, pupils move on at 14 to an upper secondary school or an apprenticeship. That second step matters as much as the first, and it is not a dead end either way.

At 14 the choice widens: a five-year college such as an HTL (engineering) or HAK (business), which ends with both the Matura and a professional qualification; a shorter vocational school; or an apprenticeship, where young people work at a company and attend a Berufsschule part-time.

Also on the site: Sonderschule, Land- und forstwirtschaftliche Schule, Gesundheits- und Krankenpflegeschule, Statutschule, Sonstige Schule.

Austrian schools differ in how far the day reaches, and the German words are not interchangeable. This is one of the questions worth asking on an open day, because it decides your family’s week.

• Ganztagsschule (verschränkt) — All-day school, integrated

  Lessons, lunch and free time alternate through the day. Attendance is for the whole day, every day.

• Ganztagsschule (getrennte Abfolge) — All-day school, separate afternoon

  Lessons in the morning, supervised care in the afternoon.

• Offene Schule (Nachmittagsbetreuung) — Optional afternoon care

  Families choose which afternoons their child stays.

• Bildungscampus — Education campus

  Kindergarten, primary and often lower secondary on one site (a Vienna model).

• Hortangebot — After-school club

  Care after lessons, sometimes run by the city rather than the school.

State schools charge no tuition. Families pay for materials, excursions, and lunch where the child eats at school. Private schools – most of them church-run – charge fees that vary widely; many reduce or waive them, and it is a fair question to ask directly.

On every profile you will see Öffentlich for a state school and Privat for a private one.

Registration happens at the school, not centrally, and the windows differ by province and by year. Rather than print dates that go stale, we list the open days we know about and link to each school’s own website, which is the binding source.

In Vienna, a primary school place is assigned by catchment area (Sprengel), but you may apply elsewhere and many families do. For a Gymnasium, the grade 4 report decides whether a child is entitled to a place; otherwise the school may set an entrance test. Ask the school what applies in your case – they answer this question every week.

• Find schools by address or district, filter by type and afternoon care, and see travel times from your home.
• Open days for the whole country, sorted by date. You can subscribe to them in your calendar.
• Every fact we read from a school website links back to the sentence it came from, so you can put it through a translator – or show it to someone who reads German.

We are honest about what we do not know: where a profile says nicht erfasst, the information is missing from our sources. It does not mean the school lacks it.