SEK Budapest International School
Reviews & Information

We are truly an international family - Dutch-Spanish-Hungarian - and it was important to me that my children learn their mother tongue. I don't understand why some parents are obsessed with the Hungarian language. tThis is a BILINGUAL school in Hungary, not an English school. I consider the level of English education to be high, and I am satisfied with my children's knowledge. But if you are looking for an English school, why not go to AISB for multiple fees?!

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Sek is probably the worst option out of every international school in Budapest. Any public school is basically better than sek, price is ABSOLUTELY NOT worth it, the teachers are unprofessional, some of them dont even speak english and dont even teach their own subject… there are lots of cancelled classes too. The education in this school is terrible. the other reviews which says this school is good is the recepcionists and the staff at the school so dont believe any of them!! 90% of the pe classes were cancelled this year due to some “events” at the school so they cant even participate in any sporting events like other schools. I dont advise taking you kids to this school…

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We have moved to Hungary in 2021 with my family of 5. All 3 kids are still going to SEK and we are finally getting rid of this shit hole. This was the worst experience we had in a so called “international” school. They promote themselves as international school but all the foreign students are left alone, not dealt with and cared. Although the main language is English, there are teachers who don’r even speak English. Rich Hungarian and/or famous families’ spoiled kids are students at this school and they can act however they wish to do. Many of the nice comments here are either teachers at the school or staff. So do no believe them. These are facts that I finally can share as we are finally leaving this school. I recommend it to no one. Take your kid to governmental school instead of SEK!!

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I have 3 kids in the school and I am very satisfied with the education. This is a bilingual school with English and Hungarian, so I think the parents should carefully check the program before they come here not blaming the school, because they are not a fully English school... If they want a British school, go there for 2-3x more money. They offer two different diploma program, one of my children is in IB and she loves it, she has many options for the future.

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All teachers speak Hungarian and answer student’s questions in Hungarian, foreign students don’t know what’s going on, academic language is very low

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If SEK itself can be summarised into one word it would be horrible. The price is very high and you get nothing back from it. As there are many occasions when the teachers don't come in to class. One time the PE teacher (one out of the four PE teachers there) couldn't attend class and when my child wanted to go to the lesson he was immediately sent back to their class along with the five other students that wanted to attend PE . ( they didn't assign another lesson instead they left them in their class alone) there are only a couple good teachers. It is also obligatory to pay for the food even if you don't eat at all...by the way the food in this school is equal to prison food according to my child. Also for some reason the field trips costs so much! We checked the price of the tickets in the place they visited last year and I was shocked to see such a big difference. It was maybe 3 times the price plus the transportation. I think they don't even care about the education of the children in this school they only want the money… Im so glad I moved my child into another school at the beginning of this year.

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I had 2 kids in this school in different grades, however both had the same situation therefore not just a bad experience/ review it’s fact! After moving from overseas and the change for the kids (country, friends etc…) they had to go through the following: - Foreign kids got abandoned by the class teacher since the school couldn’t provide appropriate time for non Hungarians. The school my kids are currently in offers British curriculum and in Hungarian lessons they split the classes so the native English keep going in their daily lessons & curriculum and Hungarian lessons as a foreign language besides additional foreign languages. SEK doesn’t! Native & non native speakers are in the same lessons all the time. Kids were allowed to sleep at class during the Hungarian lessons since they couldn’t understand what the teacher was explaining and the teacher had no time for those non Hungarian speaking students (said to me personally by the teacher / not assuming) This situation leaded the kids to feel very frustrated and got them to the point hating to go to school. As well no homework was brought home since the kids couldn’t understand what the teacher gave for homework at all and nobody took the time at least to to translate what they had to complete. - The school has a lot of native speakers that are (some) learning English, therefore the English curriculum pass to the kids is quite low in comparison to my kids previous schools overseas. - Spanish: I’m Spanish native speaker but the teaching structure of the language was very poor. I’m aware SEK place themselves as a strong Spanish background school, however they just have a school in a Spanish city Valencia but besides that they are mostly present in South America but not known much in Spain as I thought and they place themselves after my research. Overall our experience was horrible and moved the kids to a real international school in Budapest. However not fair to the kids to move country leave friends behind and then get so isolated by the school that you thought chosen well after two months move school again just because the school just care about inscription fees and not doing a real focus of the level / language of the kids & well being. Just BUSINESS!!! I should have done my research better before choosing SEK but we arrived just before school year started and after visiting the main building and meeting the principal that places SEK Budapest as so international and have a conversation with the reception ladies that speak English thought it would be the same in the daily school life/ routine but I was wrong. So better do a good research talk to all your kids to be teachers to make sure their English level is accurate and then keep reading reviews before making a decision. Also don’t pay a forint before getting the books! However at the meanwhile I met at lest two families that experienced the same as me. Wish they'd written a review it would have help me, but is never too late!

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Our school is a gateway for our students to be successful in their life.

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The most unprofessional school we have experience. First of all has nothing to do with an international school class are in Hungarian, maybe in English too...If you looking for an international school avoid SÍEK experience.

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Excellent teachers, friendly staff!

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