Schooling and childcare in Warsaw

Who gets a place, and at what age

Preschool covers children from the start of the school year in the calendar year they turn three until the year they turn seven, and from two and a half in justified cases. A six-year-old must complete the compulsory year of preschool preparation, compulsory schooling begins in the calendar year the child turns seven, and education is compulsory to eighteen. A six-year-old may start school a year early if they attended preschool the year before or hold an opinion from a psychological-pedagogical counselling centre. Children who are not Polish citizens use state preschools and compulsory-stage schools on exactly the same terms as Polish citizens, and the same holds in state secondary schools to eighteen or the end of secondary school.

• Immigration status does not gate a school-age child's access to compulsory education.
• The equal-access rule narrows afterwards. State adult schools, post-secondary schools and vocational courses are open on the same terms only to listed categories, among them EU, EFTA and Swiss citizens and their family members with a right of residence, holders of a permanent residence permit or long-term EU resident status, Karta Polaka holders, refugees and people with subsidiary or temporary protection, and holders of a residence card annotated for labour-market access.
• Post-secondary schools additionally require a Polish language certificate at B1 or above.

Your catchment primary is not a competition

A child living inside a state primary's catchment is admitted to year 1 on the parents' zgłoszenie, which is a notification rather than an application. Competitive recruitment applies only to candidates from outside the catchment, and only for the places left once catchment children are seated. Where you rent therefore settles which primary school your child is entitled to, which is worth establishing before you sign a lease rather than after.

The Mazowieckie secondary timetable, and how tight July is

For state secondary schools the calendar is set by the Mazowiecki Kurator Oświaty, who must publish each year's dates by the end of January. In 2026 the application window ran from 14 to 27 May and closed at 16:00, with aptitude and language-competence tests from 28 May to 11 June and a second sitting to 1 July. Applications were then supplemented with the primary certificate and the eighth-grader exam results between 3 and 7 July, lists of qualified candidates appeared at noon on 17 July, and places were confirmed by producing the original documents between then and 16:00 on 21 July. Final admitted lists followed at noon on 22 July, with a supplementary round from 23 to 27 July and its results on 10 August. Miss the confirmation slot and the place goes.

• Arriving over the summer means the main round is already finished and the supplementary round is what remains.
• Warsaw also has international and bilingual schools, which run their own admissions on their own timetables. Approach each school directly rather than working from the kurator's dates.

Preschool and year 1 run on the city's calendar

For preschools and year 1 of primary the timetable is set not by the kurator but by the body running the school, which in Warsaw is the city, and the law requires it to be published with the admission criteria by the end of January each year. The round itself falls in the weeks after that, so watch for the January announcement rather than working to a remembered date. The 2026/27 round has closed: the city's recruitment system now directs parents to the list of free places and tells them to contact the head of the preschool or school, because admission during the school year is the head teacher's decision. A mid-year arrival negotiates with individual schools, not with a central system.

Language support is an entitlement, not a favour

A child who does not speak enough Polish to follow lessons is entitled to free extra Polish lessons for up to 24 months, organised by the body running the school. There is also help from a teaching assistant who speaks the child's home language for up to 12 months, and catch-up classes in curriculum subjects for the same period. Schools may employ an intercultural assistant, and may run a preparatory class, which lasts to the end of that school year and can be extended by up to one further year. Ask for these by name, because a school with few foreign pupils may not offer them unprompted.