How to enrol a foreign child in a Polish school

For general education primary school, find out the obwód – the school territory at your address – through the municipality or the official website of the school. Contact the Director or the Secretariat. Do not choose a school only by proximity on the map: the nearest building does not always serve your address.

General information MEN allows admission of students from abroad on the basis of previous education documents; for regular admission, it is not necessary to automatically have each school certificate recognised. There are special arrangements for certain types of schools, especially vocational and post-primary schools.

• Name, date of birth and document of the child; details of parents or legal representative.
• Address of actual residence, telephone and email for contact.
• Certificates and certificates of classes or periods of study abroad that are available.
• Information about the child’s language and support needs.
• Application or local school form; request it in advance from the secretariat.

Do not postpone contact with school indefinitely. For a student who cannot produce documents, a qualification interview is provided by the principal, if necessary with a teacher. When the child does not know Polish, the conversation is conducted in a foreign language that he understands with the necessary support.

Explain how many years the child studied and what subjects he studied. Prepare available electronic boards and contact from the previous school, but do not pretend to be the missing original. The class is determined taking into account previous education, age and provided rules, and not simply by translating the number of a foreign class.

For foreigners whose Polish is not sufficient for studying, additional free language classes are provided. Tell the principal specifically: the child understands the common language, but does not understand the tasks, or starts from scratch. Separately discuss the assistance in the subjects and the communication with the class leader.

At the meeting, ask how to get the schedule, access the e-journal and absence reports. Enter the name of the contact person. Do not assume that the class will automatically provide an interpreter for every lesson: ask the school to explain the forms of support available.

Get a precise explanation: the school is not at your address, a specific parallel is overcrowded or the conditions of a specialized school are not met. Contact the education department of the municipality with the address, the child's age and the school's response. In cases provided for by law, the municipality may designate another school.

The mid-year admission is not to be confused with the annual e-campaign for the first grade. Ask the director about your specific case. Lease signing, assignment PESEL and the right to education are separate issues; do not consider the absence of a residence card as a sufficient explanation for any refusal of regular school admission.

• Admission, Class Selection and MEN Support
• Documents, interview and the role of the municipality
• UdSC Note for Parents

• PESEL: why you need a Polish identification number
• Meldunek: registering your residential address
• First steps after moving to Poland: documents, address, work and medicine
• How to add a child to a parent’s health insurance
• A child born in Poland: USC registration and the next documents