Frequently Asked Questions

Yes. SHKOLA is an American K–12 school that teaches entirely online. The institution is Academy of Global Education SHKOLA LLC, registered in the state of Florida, and it is accredited by ACS WASC — the same commission that accredits campus schools across the western United States and American international schools worldwide.

Students follow a US curriculum, earn US high school credits and receive a diploma and transcript issued by the school itself. “Online” describes how lessons are delivered, not the standing of the institution.

What online study does not change is your obligations at home: enrolment satisfies the American system but does not override the education law of the country where your family actually lives.

Yes. SHKOLA is a WASC accredited online school: it is accredited by ACS WASC, the Accrediting Commission for Schools of the Western Association of Schools and Colleges. The current accreditation was granted at the Winter 2025 Commission Meeting by letter dated 19 February 2025 and runs to 30 June 2028; the letter is published on the Accreditation page so you can read it rather than take our word for it.

Accreditation was granted to the institution across all K–12 levels, not to a single program or grade band. This matters, because partial accreditation is sometimes presented ambiguously elsewhere on the market.

SHKOLA is also a registered College Board member school under code 964748, which allows it to teach Advanced Placement courses and list them on the official transcript.

Two entities with two different roles. Academy of Global Education SHKOLA LLC is the educational institution, registered in the state of Florida, USA — this is the WASC-accredited school that issues the diploma and transcript. DIGISTUDENTS LTD (Cyprus, registration number ΗΕ 429034) provides operational services and is the party to your enrolment contract.

The split is deliberate: academic responsibility sits with the American school, contractual and payment obligations with the operating company. Both are named in the site footer and in the contract itself.

You never have to work out which one to approach. Write to the school and the request is routed internally.

An American diploma, issued by SHKOLA as an accredited online high school and accompanied by an official transcript listing every course, grade and credit earned.

In the United States there is no ministry that issues leaving certificates — each school issues its own. That is precisely why accreditation, not government approval, determines what the document is worth, and why universities check that an applicant graduated from an accredited high school.

Graduation requires 24 high school credits distributed across required subject areas: English, mathematics, science, social studies, world language, physical education and life skills, plus four electives. Middle school is set at 12 credits and elementary at 20.

The accredited high school diploma is printed on official letterhead, signed by an authorized officer and sealed. For university applications the transcript is normally sent directly to the admissions office, since many institutions do not treat a copy supplied by the applicant as official.

Yes. It is a US high school diploma issued by a WASC-accredited American school, and universities assess it as one.

What it is not is a replacement for your own country’s school leaving certificate. The two documents belong to two different national systems, and one does not automatically convert into the other.

If your child also needs a national certificate — to enter a domestic university on standard terms, for example — that has to be obtained separately through a local school, including any state examinations it requires.

Families in this position usually run both tracks in parallel. That is what the Second Diploma programme is built for: the child stays in their local school and earns the American diploma alongside it.

Four steps: a consultation with the admissions team of about 30 minutes, an academic diagnostic, three free trial days inside regular classes, then the contract and payment.

Most families complete the whole path in a few days. The limiting factor is usually not our side — it is how quickly the previous school releases the transcript, so it is worth requesting that document early.

Nothing is charged before the trial days, and no card details are collected at any point during them.

An academic transcript or report card from the previous school, plus the student's identity document.

The transcript is not a formality. The academic team uses it to decide which completed courses count toward the diploma credits and which have to be taken again. The more detail it carries — course titles, hours, grades — the more credit transfers.

A short general certificate transfers less than a full itemized record. If your previous school can issue the detailed version, ask for that one.

An assessment of your child’s level in core subjects and, separately, in English.

Its purpose is not to screen children out but to establish the real starting point. Formal grade and actual level diverge more often than parents expect, particularly when a child moves between education systems.

The result determines placement, not whether a place is offered.

We show you the specific gap — which subjects, and by how much — and set out the options.

Those are: placement at the level the diagnostic indicates, placement by age with parallel work on the gaps, or a preparatory period before entry into the main programme.

The decision stays with the family. What changes is that it is made on measured data rather than on assumption.

Three ordinary days inside real classes — not a demonstration lesson arranged for a visitor. No prepayment and no card details are requested.

Day one: the placement diagnostic, an introduction to the advisor, access to the BUZZ platform and a walk-through of the timetable.

Days two and three: your child joins a permanent group across several subjects, receives homework and has it marked.

At the end the family receives written feedback from the teachers and a recommendation on grade and format. Pay particular attention to how the homework comes back marked — that shows the substance of the feedback better than the lesson itself does.

Yes. We look for a group with an open place, a matching level and a compatible time zone, after a credit check that maps completed courses onto the US system.

If nothing is free for your grade and hours, the admissions team gives you the closest alternative or the date a new group opens, rather than leaving you on an open-ended wait.

Mid-year entry does require the credit check first, since courses already completed elsewhere have to be mapped onto the US system before placement is confirmed.

Through grade 12.

Entry into grades 11 and 12 requires a calculation before anything else: how many of the 24 credits are already earned at the previous school, and whether the remainder can realistically be completed in the time left.

We run that calculation before the contract is signed, not after. A student who cannot finish the credits in the time available should know that at the start rather than discover it in their final year.

Enough to follow a lesson and talk to the teacher. All teaching, all materials and all academic communication are in English.

The exact threshold depends on the grade. What an elementary student needs and what a tenth-grader writing literature essays needs are not comparable requirements.

The level is measured at the diagnostic rather than estimated from a certificate.

We offer a preparatory English course before entry into the main programme.

Enrolling a child into a programme they cannot follow because of language produces low grades — and those grades stay on the transcript permanently and affect GPA when the time comes to apply to university.

A preparatory term costs less than a damaged transcript, which is why we treat this as a placement question rather than an upsell.

There is no competitive selection.

There is a substantive assessment of whether your child can handle the programme in the format you have chosen.

Sometimes we recommend a different format or a different grade. Occasionally we say honestly that we do not have a suitable solution for a particular situation.

Book the consultation yourself, or together with your parents, and ask your own questions: how many hours a day, which subjects you can choose, who else is in the group, what happens if you fall behind.

Then treat the trial days as a normal school week rather than a tour. Do the homework and look at how it comes back marked.

If you conclude afterwards that the format is not for you, say so directly. A decision made against your will does not work in an online school, where the whole format depends on your own initiative.

No. Study is fully remote and creates no requirement as to citizenship, visa status or country of residence.

The reverse is also true, and worth stating plainly: enrolment is not a basis for obtaining an American visa. SHKOLA does not issue Form I-20 and does not support F-1 status.

Studying here creates no immigration status of any kind.

Yes. The minimum billing period is one school month, and monthly payment is available in every format. The annual plan carries a discount but is not compulsory.

A sensible sequence is three free trial days, then a month or two paid monthly, then a longer discounted period once the format has proved itself.

One limitation is academic rather than financial: credit is awarded for a completed course, so leaving in the middle of a course means the credit for it is not earned.

Yes, and the second child receives a 10% discount.

Children are placed in different grades and groups according to age and level.

Timetables are arranged with the family in mind, so that two schedules can realistically be managed in one household.

We look for the cause first — the pace of the group, the lesson times, the teacher, or the format itself.

In most cases the problem is solved by a transfer rather than by termination, and a transfer keeps the credits already earned.

If termination is genuinely the right answer, the procedure and the refund terms are set out in the contract and the Refund Policy.

The list of services, the term, the price and payment schedule, the conditions for changes and termination, the refund procedure and the handling of personal data.

The contract is concluded with DIGISTUDENTS LTD, the operating company. The academic side — diploma, transcript, compliance with accreditation requirements — sits with the American school.

Read the clauses on applicable law and dispute resolution before paying: they determine where any disagreement would be heard.

About thirty minutes of questions: your child’s education history, what the family is aiming at, and over what horizon. The recommendation depends on those answers.

The consultation commits you to nothing.

If we conclude that the family’s goal is better served another way — including by a school that is not ours — we say so.

Yes. On request we put you in touch with a current SHKOLA family.

This works better than testimonials on a website, because the questions are yours and the answers are not edited by us.

Bring both parents to the consultation and use the trial days to test the specific concerns rather than as a sales period.

The two sets of doubts are usually different from each other, and usually both reasonable. We are glad to address them separately.

This is common, and pressure does not resolve it: online study requires self-direction, and self-direction does not appear under coercion.

Resistance is usually about losing classmates, or about the decision having been made for them, rather than about the lessons themselves.

The three trial days exist partly for this. Your child sees a real lesson, a real group and a real teacher, and forms a view based on something.

If they are still against it afterwards, we advise not forcing the move. That is more honest, and considerably cheaper, than terminating a contract two months later.

Tell us at the consultation, including how long the break lasted and why.

The diagnostic is then run more carefully than usual: after a gap, the distance between formal grade and actual level is normally larger, and rebuilding a study routine needs its own plan and its own time.

We do not recommend the Independent format in this situation. Without a curator, the return to a working rhythm usually does not happen.

Lessons, materials and academic communication are in English. Administrative communication — admissions, the curator, reporting — is also available in Russian.

A parent who does not speak English is not an obstacle to enrolment: the language requirement applies to the student, not to the family.

SHKOLA is accredited by ACS WASC — the Accrediting Commission for Schools, Western Association of Schools and Colleges.

The accreditation was granted at the Winter 2025 Commission Meeting by letter dated 19 February 2025 and runs to 30 June 2028.

The letter is published in full on the Accreditation page. We publish the document rather than the claim, so you can check the name, the type and the expiry date yourself.

WASC is one of the six regional accrediting agencies in the United States, and its remit covers the western states and American international schools worldwide.

It matters because in the US there is no ministry that issues school leaving certificates — each school issues its own diploma. The weight of that diploma is therefore set not by government approval but by whether the institution is accredited by a recognised agency.

This is the single most useful thing to check about any American school, ours included.

There is no US government body that recognises or approves individual schools. The federal government does not issue school certificates and does not maintain a register of approved institutions.

The system works one level up: the government recognises accrediting agencies, and schools are accredited by those agencies. WASC is a recognised agency, and SHKOLA is accredited by it.

This is why the phrase “recognised by the US Department of Education”, which appears elsewhere on the market, is inaccurate on its face. We do not use it.

It is the first accreditation cycle that every new school goes through, and it grants the full rights of an accredited institution for a set term.

At the end of the term the school undergoes an extended self-study and external review to move into the next cycle.

The status is not a reduced one. A diploma issued during initial accreditation is the diploma of an accredited school.

A diploma issued while accreditation was in force keeps the status of a document from an accredited institution. That is fixed by the date of issue and is not annulled retroactively.

It is a fair question and worth asking of any school. We answer it directly rather than steering around it.

Through independent external review. The school prepares a self-study; the commission examines the programme, teacher qualifications, learning outcomes and internal processes.

It is a recurring procedure, not a certificate obtained once and displayed thereafter.

All K–12 levels — elementary, middle and high school.

Accreditation was granted to the institution as a whole, not to a single programme or a single stage. This is worth checking elsewhere too: partial accreditation is sometimes stated ambiguously.

An elementary student and a graduating senior are in the same position as regards institutional status. The only difference is that the diploma is issued on completion of grade 12.

College Board is the organisation that administers the Advanced Placement programme and the SAT.

SHKOLA is listed as a member school under code 964748, which gives it the right to teach AP courses and record them on the official transcript.

The code is used when registering for exams and when sending results to universities.

Check on the agency’s side, not on the school’s. Accrediting agencies maintain public lists of accredited institutions.

Three things are worth matching: the exact legal name of the institution, the type of accreditation, and the expiry date. A mismatch in any one of them is a reason to ask questions — of any school.

For SHKOLA: the ACS WASC letter is on the Accreditation page, the term runs to 30 June 2028, and the College Board code is 964748.

The curriculum is built in line with Florida State Standards.

Private schools in Florida complete an annual registration with the state Department of Education. That is a record-keeping procedure, not government approval of programme content.

We keep the two separate and ask that registration not be read as accreditation. They are different things and only one of them determines what a diploma is worth.

The diploma is not issued until the requirement is met. That is a rule of accredited schools, not internal strictness on our part.

This is why shortfalls are tracked in advance: the curator keeps a running credit count by year, so a deficit is visible long before the final year.

How it is closed depends on the size: summer courses, additional courses alongside the main load, or extending the period of study.

The critical case is a late transfer into grade 11 or 12 with little transferable credit — which is exactly why we run that calculation before the contract is signed.

A full list of courses taken by year, the grade for each, credits earned, cumulative GPA, and confirmation that graduation requirements were met.

Universities read the transcript alongside the diploma — often more closely. The diploma states that school was finished; the transcript shows the trajectory.

24 credits for high school. Middle school is set at 12 credits and elementary at 20.

A credit is the unit of a completed course: one year-long course equals one credit.

Credits are not awarded for attendance — the course has to be completed with a passing final grade.

The 24 credits are not accumulated freely. They are distributed across required subject areas: English, mathematics, science, social studies, world language, physical education and life skills, plus four electives.

This is why a transfer from another school is assessed on more than total volume. What matters is which areas the completed work covers.

A surplus of courses in one area does not compensate for a shortfall in another, so the mapping is done course by course before enrolment is confirmed.

A credit is the accounting unit for a completed course, and one year-long course corresponds to one credit.

Credits are not awarded for attendance. The course must be finished with a passing final grade for the credit to be recorded on the transcript.

The final percentage in each course is converted to a letter grade — A (90–100), B (80–89), C (70–79), D (60–69), F (0–59) — and each letter carries a numeric value.

GPA is the average of those values across all credited high school courses.

It is calculated cumulatively and appears in the transcript for each year, so the trend over time is visible to admissions officers as well as the final figure.

The status of the document is determined by the accreditation of the institution, not by how lessons are delivered.

That said, individual universities and individual national systems have their own views on diplomas from distance schools. That is a matter of a particular university’s admissions policy, not of the document’s validity.

The practical implication is to check the requirements of your target universities early rather than assume.

It is equivalent to the diploma of an accredited American school, and our graduates have used it to enter universities in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, the Netherlands, the UAE and Thailand.

Each university sets its own admission rules, so the requirements of a specific institution should be checked in advance.

We do not promise admission anywhere, and a school that does should be treated with caution.

Not always, and this is a point worth planning around rather than discovering late.

Several European systems — the German one in particular — require holders of an American high school diploma to provide additional evidence: AP exam results in specified subjects, SAT scores, or a year of university study already completed.

This is why we recommend planning AP courses as part of an admissions strategy rather than as decoration on a profile.

Requirements differ by country and by institution and they change, so confirm them with the target university directly.

Yes. Official copies are issued to graduates on request to the school administration.

Two documents behave differently. A copy for personal use is handed to you; a transcript for a university must in most cases go directly from the school to the admissions office, since many institutions do not treat an applicant-supplied copy as official.

Submit the request early. Processing times lengthen during application season, and university deadlines do not move.

Academic records of students and graduates are held by the school as an institution, and a transcript can be requested years after graduation.

If a specific university or authority imposes a requirement about retention periods, tell us and we will confirm the arrangement in writing.

The diploma is produced on school letterhead, signed by an authorised officer and bearing the institutional seal.

The transcript for a university is in most cases sent by the school directly to the admissions office. A copy sent by the applicant is not considered official by many institutions.

Agree the procedure and the timing with your curator in advance. During application season this is the difference between meeting a deadline and missing it.

Unweighted GPA is calculated on a scale to 4.0 regardless of course difficulty. Weighted GPA accounts for difficulty: Honors and AP courses carry more weight, and the result can exceed 4.0.

Universities frequently recalculate a submitted GPA using their own methodology.

What carries decisive weight is therefore not the number itself but the composition and level of the courses in the transcript.

No, and this is the most important question in this section.

The obligation to provide a child with schooling is set by the law of the country where the family actually resides. Enrolment in an accredited American school satisfies the American system; it does not switch off local legislation.

Check this before study begins, not after. The check is quick and the consequences of skipping it are not.

A number of states impose a duty of physical school attendance, under which study only at a foreign online institution is not treated as fulfilling that duty.

Countries traditionally described as strictly regulated include Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, Spain, Greece and Croatia — but the list and the way it is enforced change over time.

We do not give legal opinions on any specific country. Confirm the position with your local education authority.

There are usually two workable routes. The first is the Second Diploma programme, in which the child stays in the local school and earns the American diploma alongside it. The second is a transfer to a form of study that is officially permitted in that country, where one exists.

The first route is the safer of the two legally, and it is the one families choose more often.

Which applies to you depends on local rules, so treat this as a starting point for the conversation with your education authority rather than as an answer.

Yes. On request we issue confirmation of enrolment stating grade, programme, academic period and the school’s accreditation status.

Where needed we also provide a record of academic performance, confirmation of instructional hours and a description of the curriculum by subject. This is the set that authorities checking compliance usually ask for.

Documents are prepared in English. Translation and legalisation, where required, are arranged by the family under the rules of its own country.

Whether a particular authority accepts these documents as adequate evidence is determined by that authority, not by the school.

An American school diploma is not a Russian certificate and is not automatically equated with one.

Russia provides a recognition procedure for foreign education documents. Whether it is needed and what it involves depend on the purpose the document is used for and on the regulations in force at the time.

Check the current procedure with Rosobrnadzor or a specialist. Rules in this area change, and an answer that was correct last year may not be correct now.

No. These are documents of two different national education systems.

If your child needs a Russian certificate — to enter a Russian university on standard terms, for example — it has to be obtained separately, through a Russian school, including the interim and state final assessments that requires.

Yes, and this arrangement is common.

It involves moving the child to a form of study provided for by Russian law, with attachment to an accredited Russian school for the purpose of sitting assessments.

In that structure SHKOLA delivers the American programme and diploma, and the Russian school delivers the Russian certificate. The two run in parallel rather than competing.

State final assessment in Russia is conducted by Russian schools and examination centres, in person and under the Russian procedure.

SHKOLA does not administer the OGE or the EGE and cannot substitute its own examinations for them.

Families who need these exams should set up the parallel arrangement described above in advance rather than in the final year.

An apostille is the simplified form of document legalisation used between parties to the 1961 Hague Convention.

You will need one if the receiving side — a university, an authority, an employer — requires a legalised document.

A US school diploma is a private document, so the usual sequence is notarial certification first, then the apostille from the authorised state body.

Then consular legalisation applies: the document is certified in sequence by the competent authorities of the issuing country and then by the consulate of the destination country.

The procedure takes longer than an apostille. Build its timeline into the admissions plan early rather than at the point of submission.

No. An online school does not issue Form I-20 and is not a basis for an F-1 visa.

Studying at SHKOLA neither creates nor confirms any immigration status of any kind.

Because the two roles are separated, and both parties are named in the site footer and in the contract.

Academy of Global Education SHKOLA LLC is the educational institution, registered in the state of Florida. It is the WASC-accredited school and it issues the diploma and transcript.

DIGISTUDENTS LTD (Cyprus, registration number ΗΕ 429034) provides operational services and is the party to the contract with the family.

For contractual obligations — payment, access to the programme, delivery of services — the responsible party is DIGISTUDENTS LTD, and the procedure for claims and dispute resolution is set out in the contract itself.

For the academic side — issuing the diploma and transcript, meeting accreditation requirements — responsibility sits with the WASC-accredited institution.

You do not need to work out which one to address. Write to the school; the routing happens internally.

In a number of jurisdictions, including EU member states, consumer legislation provides a right to withdraw from a distance contract within a set period.

The scope of that right depends on the consumer’s country and on whether performance of the services has already begun.

The withdrawal and refund terms that apply to your contract are set out in the contract itself and in the Refund Policy. We are not able to give a legal opinion on how consumer law applies in your particular country.

The school collects the data needed for teaching: the student’s name and date of birth, contacts for legal representatives, education documents, academic results, attendance and correspondence within the learning environment.

It is used to deliver teaching, issue education documents and communicate with the family. It is not passed to third parties for commercial purposes.

Because the contracting party is a company registered in the EU, European data protection requirements apply: you may ask what is held about your child, require correction or deletion, and withdraw consent to processing.

The exception is academic records, which the school is obliged to retain as an institution — otherwise issuing a transcript in future would become impossible. Requests go to the school administration.

Yes, and in cross-border education this is unavoidable: the learning platform, the video service and email are hosted outside the family’s country, including in the United States.

Transfer occurs to the extent needed for those services to function, and is governed by agreements with the providers and the safeguards described in the Privacy Policy.

The practical conclusion for a family: data cannot be fully localised inside your own country while studying at a foreign school, and a school claiming otherwise is misleading you.

If the jurisdiction of storage or a specific service matters to you, ask before signing and we will answer in writing.

FERPA applies to institutions receiving US federal funding and does not apply directly to a private school that receives none — which describes most private schools in the United States, not only ours.

Requirements concerning the data of younger children are reflected in the privacy policy regardless of whether those rules formally apply.

In practice the scope of your rights is set by European regulation through the contract with the Cyprus company, and it is broader than FERPA would give: access, correction, deletion and objection to processing.

If you need the school’s written position on a specific rule, request it from the administration.

By default both legal representatives receive access to records and reporting — regardless of who signed the contract and who pays. Parental rights and contractual relations are different things.

A restriction is possible only on the basis of a document: a court order limiting parental rights or establishing a different arrangement.

Send a copy of that document to the administration and access will be configured accordingly.

Without a document the school will not restrict one parent at the request of the other and will not act as an intermediary in a family dispute. That position protects the child first.

In a number of countries, study outside the local school requires notification, registration or in some cases prior permission.

That requirement is addressed to the family rather than to the school, and whether it applies has to be established with the education authority where you live.

We will supply confirmation of enrolment and a description of the programme if they are needed for such a procedure.

We issue confirmation of enrolment and study. It records an academic fact.

It is not an invitation, a sponsorship or a basis for obtaining any status.

How a particular consular or immigration authority treats that document is not something the school determines or predicts.

The American K–12 curriculum, built to Florida State Standards.

It is organized in three levels: Elementary (grades 1–5), Middle School (6–8) and High School (9–12), with a layer of Honors and AP courses above the standard track.

Language Arts, Math, Science and Social Studies, at four to five hours a week each.

The methodological emphasis is on practice, experiment and investigative tasks rather than memorisation.

Language Arts I–III, mathematics (Math 6, Math 7, Pre-Algebra), Comprehensive Science I–III, World History, Civics and US History.

The central task at this level is the shift from reproducing material to arguing from it and working with sources.

English I–IV, Algebra I–II, Geometry, sciences (Earth Space Science, Biology, Chemistry, Physics), World History and US History, Government, Economics, World Language, Personal Fitness, Life Management Skills, Digital Art Imaging, and four electives.

Together these cover the required subject areas for the 24 credits needed to graduate.

Four electives in high school let a student go deeper in a subject area and shape an academic profile aimed at a future specialism.

The choice is recorded on the transcript and read by admissions committees as a statement of direction.

This is why we advise choosing electives deliberately rather than filling the slots with whatever is left.

Deepened versions of standard subjects, run at a higher pace and to higher requirements.

Available: Pre-Calculus, Calculus, Probability & Statistics, Spanish III–IV, French III, ASL III, Chinese III–IV, Latin III–IV, Art History & Criticism I.

AP — Advanced Placement — are university-level courses to the College Board standard, ending in an external exam graded 1 to 5. Honors is a deepened school course with no external exam.

The difference is substantive: an AP result is verified by an independent organization, which is why admissions committees weight it more heavily.

AP is taught under College Board member code 964748, so the courses appear on the official transcript.

Twenty: Art History, Biology, Calculus AB, Calculus BC, Computer Science A, Computer Science Principles, English Language & Composition, English Literature & Composition, Environmental Science, Human Geography, Macroeconomics, Microeconomics, Physics I, Precalculus, Psychology, Spanish Language & Culture, Statistics, US Government & Politics, US History, World History.

Formally from grade 9; practically, once the student has completed the foundation course in that subject. Strong grade 8 students are admitted case by case.

We actively discourage collecting AP courses for the sake of a line on the transcript. A low exam score is worse than no score at all, because it is reported and it stays.

From the observable to the abstract: demonstration and example, then discussion with the teacher, then application, and only after that the formal terminology.

That order reduces the amount of material a student reproduces without understanding — which is the failure mode this sequence is designed to prevent.

A platform tool that explains an unfamiliar term directly in the context of the material being studied.

An unresolved word is one of the most underrated causes of gaps: a student stops understanding a text at a specific term but only notices several topics later.

Clarifying at the point of use, rather than at the point of failure, is the reason the tool sits inside the lesson.

Three differences, and all of them matter. First, the result is built cumulatively across all four high school years through GPA and transcript, rather than by one final examination — which changes the value of every term.

Second, from grade 9 there is choice of courses and of their level (standard, Honors, AP), so the student shapes the content of their own education instead of following a single plan.

Third, a significant share of assessment falls on written work rather than oral answers, which shifts the skills being developed.

On a 100-point percentage scale converted into the letter system A–F.

The course grade combines homework, ongoing quizzes, tests and the final exam, so regular work through the year weighs at least as much as one final performance.

The practical implication for families: systematic absences and unsubmitted assignments affect the outcome more than a single poor test does.

In high school, usually six or seven courses a year — noticeably fewer than in most national systems, where twelve or more run in parallel.

The American logic is different: fewer subjects at a time, deeper treatment of each, and more weight on independent work.

For a transferring student this usually means not a lighter load but a redistributed one.

Lessons run in a day shift (9:45–14:45) or an evening shift (16:45–19:45), with extracurricular activities daily from 15:00 to 16:45.

The year follows the American calendar. Families receive the full calendar with holiday dates at the start of the year.

On the full programme, around four to five hours of lessons plus homework — comparable to a conventional school.

An AP course adds a noticeable load on top of that. It is a university-level programme and needs to be planned with time set aside, not fitted in around the edges.

Assignments are submitted through the platform and the teacher gives written feedback within 48 hours.

What matters is not that the work is marked but that the feedback has substance: the student should understand what was wrong and why.

This is worth checking during the trial days, when you see a real piece of homework come back.

The teacher registers it during the lesson, not from the results of a test.

What follows depends on the size of the gap: additional practice, an adjustment of pace, or individual sessions.

The curator tracks the issue to closure so that it does not quietly stay open.

Along four lines, each with its own deadline. Transcript and GPA build from grade 9 and are almost impossible to correct after grade 11.

Course level — standard, Honors or AP — determines how an admissions committee reads the difficulty of the load, and is chosen when planning each year.

External exams need their own calendar: dates are fixed, and a retake shifts the whole application.

Finally the document package itself — transcript, school profile, recommendations — is assembled in the final year, on the basis of everything above.

No credit is awarded, and the grade stays on the transcript and counts toward GPA. It is not removed retroactively.

This differs fundamentally from systems where a final mark is assigned “on balance”.

The course is retaken, usually over the summer or alongside the following year, so that graduation is not delayed.

It is also why we respond to a decline during a term rather than at the end of it: correcting a current situation costs far less than repeating a course.

Textbooks, workbooks and assignments are hosted on the BUZZ platform and included in tuition.

Content follows Florida State Standards, and for AP courses the College Board course requirements.

No additional textbooks need to be purchased.

The Personal Fitness course is part of the high school programme and covers the theory of physical conditioning, load planning, health and nutrition, together with independently performed and logged physical activity.

It cannot replace in-person team sport, and we do not claim that it does. It satisfies the credit requirement and teaches the underlying knowledge.

If your child plays sport, keep the club or team — the course is not a substitute for it.

World Language is part of the required high school core. At Honors level: Spanish III–IV, French III, ASL III, Chinese III–IV and Latin III–IV. At AP level: Spanish Language & Culture.

In practice, which languages run in a given year depends on whether a group forms. Spanish is available in group format almost always; rarer languages more often run individually.

If a specific language matters for your plans, raise it at the consultation so availability can be checked before you commit.

Two diploma programs, Full-Time K–12 and Second Diploma, plus the Group, Flexible, Independent and Individual formats, which differ in how much live teaching and support they include.

Exam preparation and AP courses are also available separately from the main program.

A complete American online school with live classes: 17+ live lessons a week, groups of up to 6, a personal advisor, an extracurricular program and a US diploma on completion.

It replaces school rather than supplementing it.

A format for international students in grades 9–12 who keep attending their local school while earning credits toward a US high school diploma online in parallel. The timetable is built around evenings and weekends.

It is also the arrangement that resolves the legal question for families in countries with a strict school attendance requirement, since the child continues to attend locally.

The full high school course is 8 credits.

Starting in grade 9 they are distributed 3/3/2 across the years; starting in grade 10, 4/4; starting in grade 11, all 8 are taken in one year, or sometimes 6 where partial credit transfers.

Credits beyond the group programme are added through tutoring sessions and paid for separately.

Substantial — the child is carrying two programmes at once.

We discuss this frankly at the consultation, because underestimating the load is the main reason families leave the format mid-year.

Group: a full timetable of live lessons in a mini-group, with a curator, reporting and extracurricular activities.

Flexible: independent study plus one individual session a week with a curator, with reporting.

Independent: access to the platform and materials only, with no live lessons and no curator.

Students with a high level of self-organisation and active support from the family.

We do not recommend it for younger students, or for students who have already had episodes of falling systematically behind. In those cases the absence of a curator predictably makes the outcome worse.

One-to-one lessons on an individual plan, at convenient times and in any time zone, with full adaptation of pace.

It is justified where a student is well ahead, where there are significant gaps to close, or where a schedule cannot fit a group timetable.

At the consultation, weighing age, level of independence, the family’s goals, time zone, the child’s other commitments and budget.

The format is a working hypothesis and can be adjusted after the first few weeks. It is not a decision you are locked into.

Yes, and for many families that is the reason for moving.

Lessons occupy one shift — day or evening — and the other half of the day is free, with no travel to school and back.

The homework is real rather than symbolic, and in high school with AP courses the load is comparable to a serious in-person school.

The honest formulation: the online format returns the time a family spends on logistics and waiting, but it does not reduce the academic work itself.

Lessons start in three slots: 06:00, 12:00 and 00:00 US Eastern time. That covers most time zones.

Families in East Asia, Australia and New Zealand should check the compatibility of a specific timetable at the consultation, before signing — not after.

Yes — this is one of our core groups of students.

A flexible timetable, recorded lessons and independence from location make it possible to combine training camps, competitions and tours with a full school programme.

Athletes planning to enter a US university on an athletic track should also check the eligibility requirements that apply to online coursework, since those are set by the athletic association rather than by the school.

Yes. When you move, your child stays in the same school, with the same teachers and the same programme. Only the time zone changes.

For families in the middle of relocation this removes the break in education that usually costs somewhere between six months and a year.

Yes, provided all required credits are earned and the programme requirements are met. One graduate completed grades 11 and 12 in a single academic year.

Acceleration is agreed individually: it requires capacity on the student’s side, not only the family’s wish.

The programme adapts: a move to a group with a different pace, additional sessions, or a change of timetable.

The decision is made according to the cause rather than the symptom. Overload, a knowledge gap and loss of motivation call for different responses, and treating them the same way is what usually fails.

Yes, through individual sessions with a teacher — in school subjects, English, or exam preparation. A lesson costs $45, and instalments are available for packages from 36 lessons.

One important distinction: sessions outside the programme do not earn credits and do not appear on the American transcript, because credit is awarded only for a completed course inside the accredited programme.

If the aim is to strengthen a specific area, this works well. If the aim is a diploma, it does not.

Recordings of all lessons are kept, and the curator builds a plan for returning to the programme.

For an extended absence we discuss adjusting the load. The goal is that the student comes back into the programme rather than meeting an accumulated backlog.

A small group objectively works better than a large class: the teacher notices a loss of attention immediately.

That said, the online format demands more self-regulation from the child than a physical classroom does.

The trial days are the most honest way to test this on your particular child rather than in the abstract.

Tell us at the consultation.

We will say directly what we can and cannot provide: there is no in-house special education service, but a small group, an individual pace and a curator do in some cases make a workable arrangement.

The decision is made on the specific situation, and if we do not think it will work we say so rather than enrol and hope.

At the consultation we select groups so the timetables are compatible with the family’s rhythm, bearing in mind that children of different ages study in different groups and at different times.

If full compatibility is not achievable in the chosen formats, we show you that before the contract is signed, together with the options — rather than presenting it as a fact in September.

Full-Time in group format starts at $715 a month on annual payment, Flexible at $324 and Independent at $211. How much does an accredited online school with certified teachers and AP courses cost in your case? It depends on program, format and grade.

Second Diploma: group format from $341, Flexible from $247, Independent from $162.

These are starting points. Ask admissions for a calculation for your child's grade and chosen courses — the annual total often differs from the base monthly figure.

High school has more subjects, higher subject difficulty and higher requirements for teacher qualification, and it adds preparation for external exams.

The price difference reflects a difference in the volume of the service, not marketing segmentation.

There is no single monthly price, because the cost is built from the number of subjects and lessons per week.

Two subjects at two lessons each and a full one-to-one programme are fundamentally different volumes.

The base unit is a lesson with a teacher at $45, from which the configuration you need is assembled. Current rates for all formats are published on the Pricing page.

All live lessons for your format, 24/7 access to the BUZZ platform, all textbooks and materials, lesson recordings, the work of a personal curator, reporting for parents and the extracurricular programme.

No textbooks need to be bought separately.

AP courses, additional subjects beyond the standard programme, individual tutoring sessions, and exam preparation in the formats where it is not included.

All of these are family choices rather than compulsory conditions.

For grades 9–12 in group format, preparation is included in the tuition.

In the Independent and Flexible formats it is added at $142 a month.

No. Fees for SAT, AP, IELTS and TOEFL are paid directly to the examining organisation, which sets them.

The curator flags registration deadlines, but the payment is made by the family.

3% for paying three months ahead, 5% for six months, 7% for ten months or annual payment, and 10% for a second child from the same family.

Discounts do not stack: the single most favorable one is applied.

Yes. €100 for a referred student who enrols in the school, and €40 for a student who starts tutoring sessions.

The reward is credited once the referred student has actually started studying and paid, not at the point of enquiry.

For a referral to be counted, the family you refer should name you at first contact. Reconstructing the link afterwards is not possible.

Internal instalments are available for tutoring packages: for 36 lessons, 50% at the start and 50% within a month; for 72 lessons, 50% at the start and two payments of 25% over six weeks.

If the schedule is broken, the cost is recalculated at the rate of the more expensive package. Take that condition into account when planning.

Instalments are available through the 7Pay service.

This is a paid service from a third-party provider. Its terms are set by the service itself, and the school is not a party to that relationship.

Euros or US dollars, and roubles for Russia.

Payments go through Stripe or by bank transfer, depending on the payer’s country.

Tell the admissions team and we will offer an alternative method from those available for your jurisdiction.

International payment restrictions change, so this is resolved individually and at the time of payment rather than by a general rule.

The grounds, procedure and timeframes for refunds are set out in the contract and in the Refund Policy on the site.

We strongly recommend reading those sections before paying.

A school refusing to show refund terms before payment is a universal warning sign, and that test is worth applying everywhere — including to us.

The contract (the public offer), an invoice and confirmation of payment.

If your employer, insurer or an authority requires a document in a particular form, tell us in advance and we will confirm what can be issued.

Request a calculation from the admissions team.

It is prepared taking account of grade, format, additional courses and applicable discounts.

The annual total often differs from the headline monthly price, and it is better to see it in full before deciding.

No. The diagnostic and the three trial days are free, and payment begins with the first academic period.

If any line appears in your quote beyond the stated cost, ask for written justification. That is a reasonable rule with any school, ours included.

Tuition is charged for an academic period and access to the programme, not for individual lessons delivered, so an absence does not trigger an automatic recalculation.

Lesson recordings remain available and the curator helps the student catch up.

For a prolonged illness, contact the administration — those situations are considered separately.

More than 130 certified teachers from 10 countries.

They include native English speakers from the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada and elsewhere, as well as bilingual teachers with confirmed C2 level and international certification.

A three-stage selection followed by compulsory training in online teaching methodology. Around 15% of candidates are accepted.

We assess not only subject qualification but the ability to run a lesson in a small online group: holding attention, noticing incomprehension, and giving feedback with substance.

It is the second of those that eliminates most candidates.

TEFL, TESOL, Cambridge certificates and subject-specific qualifications; some teachers hold master’s degrees or second degrees in the fields they teach.

Profiles listing qualifications are published on the Teachers page.

In the individual format, on three parameters: the subject request and target result; the student’s age and learning style; and compatibility of schedules and time zones.

For younger students, and for those anxious about language, priority goes to teachers experienced with beginners rather than to the strongest subject specialists. At the start that matters more.

In group format the composition is set by the group.

Yes. Tell your curator; the situation is reviewed and another teacher assigned if needed.

We treat these requests as routine. A mismatch with a teacher happens and is nobody’s fault.

A maximum of 6 per teacher. This is an upper limit fixed as a rule, not a marketing line — actual group sizes are often smaller and are visible in the timetable.

Group composition is stable through the year, so children study with the same classmates. That matters both for learning dynamics and for the online class to feel like a class.

In a group of six, staying silent is not an option — which is both the advantage of the format and the difficulty of the first weeks, particularly when English is not the first language.

Teachers work with this methodically: they start with short answers and supported questions rather than extended speech.

Do tell the curator if your child is anxious. The teacher is briefed and the pace of involvement is adjusted.

On three criteria at once: grade, the result of the entry diagnostic, and time zone.

The second is decisive. A spread of levels inside a group harms strong and weak students alike, so we would rather offer a later start date than place a child in a group at the wrong pace.

Composition is fixed for the academic year.

We move the student to a group at a more suitable pace — whether they are behind or ahead.

The second case is rarer but just as damaging to ignore: a strong student in a slow group loses motivation.

The student's personal mentor and main point of contact at school, who tracks progress, sends weekly reports to parents and follows up on every absence.

They track progress and completion of the program, support motivation, hold non-academic meetings, respond to absences and lateness, and handle communication with parents.

The teacher is responsible for a subject; the curator is responsible for the child as a whole.

A teacher sees one slice. The curator sees the full picture: where performance is dropping, where load is rising, where burnout is starting.

It is the curator who connects those signals and initiates changes.

In high school, one for each of the six or seven courses — so six or seven subject teachers plus the personal curator.

In elementary school there are fewer: one teacher covers several subjects, which matters more at that age than narrow specialisation.

The curator stays the same for the whole year and remains the constant point of support through any changes in the teaching team.

Yes. Teacher profiles with qualifications and experience are published on the site, and during the three trial days your child studies with the same teachers who will lead the group.

That is the most honest form of introduction available: you see them teaching, not presenting.

If questions about a specific teacher remain after the trial days, raise them with admissions before signing.

Written feedback within 48 hours.

The standard is set for written, developed feedback — not for assigning a mark.

Yes, through the platform — both students and parents, without intermediaries.

The curator remains the entry point for questions that go beyond a single subject.

Where possible, yes. We treat continuity as valuable, particularly in elementary and middle school.

Full continuity cannot be guaranteed: in high school the set of subjects changes from year to year, Honors and AP courses are taught by specialists, and some changes happen for academic reasons.

The constant is the curator, who stays with the student regardless of changes in the teaching team.

Teachers who specialise in the specific exam — SAT, IELTS or TOEFL.

The specialisation is not a formality. Exam structure, marking criteria and typical mistakes differ enough that a generalist is outperformed by a specialist.

Yes. The school employs Russian teachers, including OGE and EGE examiners, textbook authors and specialists with academic degrees.

The main programme is nevertheless taught in English. Russian-speaking staff support administrative communication and specific subject work, not the core curriculum.

Tell the curator straight away, without waiting for grades to drop.

It is solvable: by adjusting pace, by additional language work, or by changing teacher.

The problem is harmless in week two and expensive in the second term.

Another teacher is assigned to the group, and the curator ensures the context is handed over: material covered, the group’s pace, and the particulars of individual students.

A mid-year change of teacher is a routine situation in any school. What matters is not that it happens but whether the group keeps continuity.

BUZZ — a learning environment that holds everything in one place: course structure by week, materials and textbooks, submission and return of homework, tests, a gradebook with a percentage for each subject, correspondence with teachers and the curator, and recordings of every lesson.

Parents have their own separate access. The platform is available around the clock, from any device and any country.

A computer or laptop, a webcam, a microphone and a stable internet connection that reliably supports video.

A tablet is fine for watching lessons, but written work and tests need a full keyboard.

Every lesson is recorded. After a missed lesson the student watches the recording, and the curator helps rebuild the sequence and close the assignments.

Material is not lost. But regular absences do show in results, and the curator responds before that becomes a pattern.

In a group of six it shows quickly: the teacher sees a student drop out of the work and addresses them directly, and reports it to the curator if it repeats.

We cannot remove the problem by technical means and do not promise to — the device is in your home, not in a school classroom.

What works: a dedicated workspace, other tabs and applications closed for the duration of the lesson, and the phone out of reach.

The platform and video work in an ordinary browser and need no special configuration.

That said, the availability of individual services depends on internet regulation in a given country and changes over time.

Test the connection during the free trial days — before paying, not after. If your country has known restrictions, say so at the consultation and we will check in advance.

The handling and storage of data are described in the Privacy Policy.

The legal side, including which data protection requirements apply, is covered in the Legal section of this FAQ.

Reconnect once the connection is restored and watch the missed part in the recording.

For a prolonged or repeated failure, tell the curator. If the problem is on the school’s side, the lesson is compensated.

Elementary students may need help logging in during the first weeks. After that children manage on their own.

In the Independent format, where there is no curator, parental involvement in keeping discipline is needed continuously — that is the trade-off of the format.

The format allows for it, but it needs a plan.

All lessons are recorded, so an outage means a missed lesson rather than dropping out of the programme, and the curator helps rebuild the sequence.

Worth arranging in advance: a backup connection such as mobile internet, and a charged device for the duration of a shift.

If outages are regular and fall at the same time of day, say so at the consultation — a different lesson slot often solves it.

A lesson lasts 45 minutes, with breaks between lessons, and part of the extracurricular programme — Life University, clubs, competitions — is built around activity away from the monitor.

Even so, an online school objectively increases screen time. Daily routine, movement and eyesight remain the family’s responsibility.

We state that directly rather than talk around it.

Lesson recordings and text materials allow work at an individual pace, which removes some barriers on its own.

The range of accessibility features supported should nevertheless be checked against your specific need before enrolment.

Describe it at the consultation and we will say plainly what we can provide and what we cannot.

Access to the learning environment is provided for the period of study.

Academic documents — diploma and transcript — are issued separately by the school and remain available to a graduate regardless of account status.

Materials you want to keep personally are worth saving before the programme ends.

Yes, at any point in the academic year. The limiting factor is usually not our calendar but how long the previous school takes to release the transcript.

The timing matters differently at different stages. In elementary and middle school it has almost no effect on the outcome; in high school it affects it directly, because an unfinished course earns no credit.

An official academic transcript or report card, the student’s identity document, and the diagnostic.

If documents are in another language, a translation will be required. The admissions team will tell you what form it needs to take.

In four steps. You provide an official transcript listing courses, grades and, ideally, instructional hours.

The academic team then matches each course against the American programme by content and volume, and decides whether it transfers fully, partly or not at all.

You receive the result course by course, with reasons, and the placement plan is built on it.

The more detailed the source document, the more credit transfers. This is worth knowing before you request it from the previous school.

Not necessarily. Courses comparable in content and hours are credited; the rest have to be taken.

We explain for each course whether it transferred and why. This is an academic decision, not a negotiating position.

The transcript is considered in any case. The absence of American accreditation does not block a transfer; it only makes matching courses harder.

The academic team looks at content, instructional hours and confirmed results.

The more detailed the record — topics covered, hours, a description of the grading system — the more credit transfers.

Usually not. The diagnostic and transcript analysis establish the entry point without losing a year.

The exception is a significant gap between formal grade and actual level. In that case we show you the calculation and discuss the options rather than deciding for you.

The one matching age, documents and diagnostic results.

Where those three point in different directions, the decision is made together with the family, with the consequences of each option for the transcript and graduation date spelled out.

The diagnostic locates them, and the curator and teacher build a plan to close them: additional assignments, revisiting topics, or individual sessions.

Gaps carried over from a previous school are the norm when changing education systems, not an exception.

Usually a few weeks.

The small group size and the curator’s work shorten it noticeably, but the first two to three weeks remain a period of higher load. Plan for that rather than assume a smooth start.

The credit arithmetic, above all.

We count how many of the 24 are already earned and how many remain, and build a plan for the years left.

The later the transfer, the less room for manoeuvre — which is why the calculation is done before the contract is signed, not after.

This is common in relocation and it is workable.

Collect everything you have for each period of study — report cards, certificates, extracts, even incomplete ones — and give it to admissions as one package with the dates.

The academic team assembles a continuous educational history from it and determines how much transfers. Gaps in documentation are closed through the diagnostic rather than left as a blank.

Yes. The withdrawal procedure is set by your school’s rules and by the law of your country of residence.

We recommend not closing the relationship with your current school until the decision is final — and checking the legal requirements of your country of residence first.

Yes. We issue an official academic transcript with courses, grades and credits.

The decision on what to credit is taken by the receiving institution under its own rules.

The transcript is issued to the American standard by a school accredited by ACS WASC, which is the main criterion for a receiving institution.

The final decision nevertheless rests with that institution, as it does for any transcript from any school.

Yes, and for many families it is the more measured decision: the child keeps their place in the local school while the American programme runs alongside.

It is particularly relevant in jurisdictions with a strict school attendance requirement, where a full transfer would create a legal problem.

Study is not interrupted: the school, the teachers and the programme stay the same.

Only two things need adjusting — the timetable for the new time zone, and, where relevant, a check of the new country’s requirements as to form of schooling.

There is no direct correspondence between the systems: a Russian school year does not convert into credits automatically, because course volume and content are counted differently.

The academic team matches subjects by content and hours. Mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology and history usually transfer well.

Discrepancies arise in subjects structured differently between the systems, and those are the ones to expect questions about.

Tell the admissions team.

We can begin with the diagnostic and the trial days, and take the final decision on grade and credit transfer once the transcript arrives.

Partly, yes — and this follows from a different sequencing of subjects, not from distrust of the previous school.

The American programme arranges mathematics and the sciences in a different order, so a transferring student finds some topics familiar and others missing.

The diagnostic shows both. Familiar material is covered faster; missing material is added.

Yes. Credits previously earned at the school remain in the student’s academic history, which makes returning simpler than enrolling from scratch.

Check the specifics with admissions: how much is retained depends on which courses were completed and which were interrupted mid-way.

Transcripts from these systems are considered in the ordinary way: the academic team matches content and course volume against the American programme and determines how much transfers.

There is no automatic correspondence between systems — IGCSE, A-levels and the IB diploma are structured differently from the American credit system — so the calculation is always individual.

SAT, IELTS, TOEFL and AP exams.

These serve different purposes and should be chosen against a goal rather than taken as a set: SAT for admission to American universities; IELTS and TOEFL to evidence English for foreign universities and visa purposes; AP to demonstrate university-level academic preparation.

A standardised exam for admission to American universities, delivered in digital format.

Two sections — Reading & Writing and Math — each scored from 200 to 800, for a maximum of 1600.

It runs seven times a year: March, May, June, August, October, November and December. Registration is at collegeboard.org.

An international English language exam required for admission to universities in the UK, Europe, Canada and elsewhere.

The Academic version has four modules — Listening, Reading, Writing and Speaking — each scored 0 to 9, from which an overall band is derived.

An academic English exam accepted by more than 11,000 institutions worldwide.

The iBT format covers Reading, Listening, Speaking and Writing, with a maximum of 120 points — 30 per section.

By the requirements of your target universities and region.

British and European universities have traditionally been oriented toward IELTS; American ones more often accept both.

The choice follows from the list of universities, not the other way round — so it is worth working through at a consultation with the list in hand.

An external exam for a university-level course, scored 1 to 5.

Exams are held in May and registration closes in November. Missing that deadline means losing a year, so the curator tracks it separately.

Each university sets its own policy.

Some grant credit for a score of 3, others require 4 or 5, and others consider AP only when reviewing the application without awarding credit.

It has to be checked for the specific university and the specific subject — policies differ between departments within the same institution.

For several European systems, AP results are a condition rather than a bonus.

German universities, for example, have traditionally required holders of an American high school diploma to provide additional evidence of academic preparation, including AP exams in relevant subjects.

This needs to be established before grade 10, while the choice of courses is still open. Afterwards the transcript is fixed.

With a diagnostic built to the structure of the specific exam, not to general English or general mathematics.

The student works through tasks in the real format and to real timing, after which the teacher analyses the result section by section: where points are lost and why — gaps in content, misunderstanding of the task format, or running out of time.

Those three causes need different responses, which is why the diagnostic comes before the plan.

From the diagnostic result toward the target score, prioritising the sections with the greatest scope for gain.

Lifting a weak section from 60 to 75 per cent is almost always cheaper in time than lifting a strong one from 85 to 90.

The programme is divided into blocks: content work, format and strategy practice, and timed practice, with interim checks along the way.

It depends on the gap between the current and the target result.

After the diagnostic the teacher states a realistic timeframe.

If the time remaining before the exam is objectively insufficient for the target score, we say so directly and propose adjusting either the target or the date.

Yes — and it is the most efficient scenario.

With an official result broken down by section, the weak points are visible precisely, so the work is targeted and nothing already mastered is repeated.

Yes. Internal practice tests are a compulsory part of the programme, and a full-format mock exam is held one to two weeks before the real date.

Results are analysed section by section, because a total score on its own says nothing about what to fix.

No. Guaranteeing the result of an external exam that depends on the student’s own work is impossible, and promises of that kind are a sign of bad faith.

What we are responsible for is the structure of the preparation, regular diagnostics and an honest assessment of progress.

Confirmed graduate results include SAT 1437, IELTS 8.0, IELTS 7.0 and IELTS 6.5.

A final score is always determined by the starting level and the work put in, so another student’s result is not a forecast for your child.

In a group of up to 6 on a fixed timetable, or individually with adaptation to your time zone.

An individual lesson costs $45, and instalments are available for packages from 36 lessons.

Yes. Preparation is available as a standalone programme — in a group of up to 6 or individually — without enrolling in the school programme.

It starts the same way as for our own students: with a free diagnostic built to the structure of the specific exam.

One limitation: preparation earns no credits and does not appear on the American transcript, since credit is awarded only for completed courses inside the accredited programme.

Registration and payment are handled by the family: SAT and AP through collegeboard.org, IELTS and TOEFL through official test centres.

The school tracks deadlines and advises on procedure but cannot register a student on their behalf.

SAT and AP are taken in person at authorised College Board centres.

That network is uneven: in some countries the nearest centre is in another city or another country, and places on popular dates sell out months ahead.

IELTS and TOEFL are taken at official test centres. Both have at-home online formats, but not every university accepts them — check with your target institutions before booking.

The key point: AP results are self-reported by the applicant, so a low score need not be disclosed — unlike a school grade, which stays on the transcript permanently.

The risk of an unsuccessful AP is therefore lower than commonly assumed.

That said, there is no sense in taking courses at random: the AP course itself appears on the transcript and raises the visible difficulty of the load, so it should be chosen deliberately.

On a calendar.

Grade 10: settling on a direction and countries, choosing courses and their levels against the requirements of target universities, and planning AP.

Grade 11: sitting external exams, building the university list, and developing the academic profile.

Grade 12, from September: assembling the package — transcript, school profile, recommendations — and meeting the deadlines.

We help build a realistic list based on GPA, exam results, the family budget and the requirements of particular countries.

The final choice stays with the family.

Yes, and the American practice is worth understanding here.

A package usually includes two types: a school recommendation describing the student in the context of the programme and their class, and letters from subject teachers about work in a specific discipline.

Letters are confidential — the applicant normally waives the right to read them, and that waiver is what gives them weight with admissions committees.

We work through which types of support exist and which are realistically available to an international applicant.

Those include university scholarships for academic achievement, awarded either automatically on application or through a separate form; partial tuition discounts; and foundation scholarships with their own deadlines, usually earlier than university application dates.

We do not promise funding. What we do is make sure the deadlines are known in time to act on them.

No. The school has no contractual or partnership arrangements with universities, and we do not use the word “partners” about them.

Graduates’ admissions are the result of their own applications, not of any preference.

Participation in college athletics carries separate requirements as to the composition and origin of qualifying high school courses, and online schools go through a specific review process against them.

Clarify this with the relevant athletic association early — in grade 9 or 10.

Course composition cannot be changed retroactively, which is what makes late discovery expensive.

Set up the parallel arrangement described in the Legal section in advance.

The American diploma does not replace a Russian certificate, and the questions of state exams and recognition of foreign education have to be handled alongside study rather than after it.

In grade 9 or 10.

Course composition, their difficulty level, the set of AP courses and exam dates all shape a transcript that cannot be changed by grade 12.

The most expensive admissions mistakes are made not in the year of application but two years before it.

By comparing GPA and external exam results against that university’s requirements for international applicants, including the language threshold and proof of funds.

The curator and advisers help make that comparison honestly — including in cases where the target is not achievable as things stand.

We provide the academic documents needed for an application.

Visa procedures are the remit of consular authorities and of the university itself. The school is not a party to them and does not give visa advice.

Yes. American universities assess an application in the context of the school, so a school profile describing the programme, grading system and graduation requirements is a standard part of the package alongside the transcript and recommendations.

The exact composition depends on the university’s requirements and should be clarified early, not in the week of the deadline.

We support the student through the submission process and provide academic documents in the format the receiving system requires.

Filling in the application and writing the essays remain the applicant’s own work. The university is assessing them, and substituting authorship is unacceptable — on ethical grounds, and because a mismatch between essay and profile is noticed.

Both are early application formats for American universities, with deadlines substantially ahead of the main round.

Early Decision generally carries a commitment to enrol if admitted; Early Action does not.

Plan them from the start of grade 12, and choose exam dates so that results arrive in time for the earlier deadline.

Four roles: the teacher, the personal curator, a methodologist and a quality control specialist.

The family’s point of entry is the curator.

Do not brush it aside: boredom is more often a sign of mismatched pace than of lack of interest.

It has two opposite causes that need opposite responses. If the student is ahead of the group, they need a faster pace, Honors or AP courses, or a move to another group.

If they do not understand the material, boredom works as a defence — and then the answer is revisiting the gap, not more challenge.

Tell the curator which it looks like, and the diagnosis is made properly.

The curator contacts the student directly, and the parents if needed.

The response follows the specific episode rather than accumulated statistics at the end of the month.

Contact with former classmates depends on you and does not end automatically — you stay in the same city and the same clubs and activities, if there were any.

What changes is that daily contact by default disappears, and friendships have to be maintained deliberately.

Many students say that after a few months there are fewer acquaintances and roughly the same number of actual friends.

Through parent access on the platform, where you can see at any time the current percentage in each subject, submitted and outstanding work, deadlines for open assignments, attendance and comments from teachers.

A practical tip: watch the outstanding assignments and their deadlines rather than the grades. Performance almost always falls through unsubmitted work first, and grades follow later.

Contact the curator without waiting for the next report.

We establish the cause — a knowledge gap, overload, a conflict in the group, loss of motivation, or something outside school — and propose a specific response.

General advice is useless in this situation, which is why we do not offer any until the cause is known.

It is kept to a minimum: you do not need to help with homework, and attendance is monitored by the curator.

The exceptions are logging in for younger children, and the Independent format, where the family takes on the monitoring role itself.

Three mechanisms at once.

A live timetable with a teacher who notices an absence in a group of six; a curator who responds to a missed lesson the same day; and a motivation system built on leagues and a weekly stipend.

This does not fully solve discipline — no school does — but it makes an absence visible immediately rather than a month later.

A ranking of four leagues — Diamond, Gold, Silver and Bronze — each split into junior and senior divisions.

Points are awarded for attendance, meeting personal goals, participation in lessons, results of work, involvement in extracurricular activities and catching up on missed material.

The top three in each league receive prizes, with cash awards in the first half of the year.

A bonus credited at the end of a week when three conditions are met: all lessons attended, no lateness, and no lag behind the programme.

Bonuses are spent in the school online shop or applied as partial payment toward the next period.

The response starts with the first missed lesson, not after a month.

The teacher registers the absence the same day and the curator contacts the student; if there is no reply, the parents.

If absences continue we do not stop at notifications: the curator works with the family to establish the cause, because sustained disappearance almost always has one that is not about school.

This is the main objection to the format, and answering it in generalities would be dishonest.

Three things work: a permanent group of up to 6 where children genuinely know each other; clubs and Speaking Clubs with participants from 40+ countries; and joint projects, competitions and events.

The comparison to make is not with an ideal school but with a real one — a class of thirty where a child speaks to three or four people.

A programme covering adult-life skills absent from the standard curriculum: health, cooking basics, time management, communication and relationships, and personal finance.

Sessions run alongside the main timetable.

Careers sessions held on Wednesdays, now in their fourth year.

Each week a working professional joins — from a pilot or paediatrician to a game developer or finance manager — and answers students’ questions about the route into the profession, the qualities it needs and its real difficulties.

The sessions are free and open to all.

For non-native speakers, a safe environment to practise English on live topics where a mistake does not cost a grade.

For everyone, contact with peers from 40+ countries around shared interests — from games and sport to history and travel.

Tell the curator.

In a group of six a situation is contained and resolved faster than in a large class — but only if it is known about.

Copying, plagiarism and submitting someone else’s work as your own are treated as violations. The work is annulled, and repeated instances are considered at administration level.

On artificial intelligence specifically: these tools are acceptable as aids — for explaining material, checking your own text, or practice — but not for producing work submitted for assessment.

The distinction is between a tool that helps a student learn and one that replaces the learning being assessed.

A parent on camera changes how the group behaves, so regular attendance at lessons is not provided for. This applies to all families equally and protects your child and the others.

Transparency is provided differently: parent access with grades, work and attendance, weekly reporting, and lesson recordings.

Students are expected to take part in lessons, meet submission deadlines, treat classmates and teachers properly, and use school channels for communication.

Expulsion is a last resort, applied for systematic breaches of the rules, for behaviour that puts other students at risk, or for prolonged failure to meet obligations.

It is preceded by contact with the family and an attempt to resolve the situation.

The curator holds non-academic meetings, monitors the student’s state and responds to changes in behaviour and motivation.

This is pedagogical rather than clinical support: the school does not provide psychotherapy and does not make diagnoses.

If the curator sees signs beyond their competence, they raise it with the family and recommend a specialist.

Through the administration and immediately, not through an informal word with the children.

A group of six makes concealed bullying considerably less likely than a class of thirty, and all communication runs through school channels and is therefore traceable — a real advantage of the online environment rather than a weakness.

Report anything you notice, including from your child’s account of it. Acting early is the whole point.

Three differences matter more than the delivery format. The result is built cumulatively over four years through GPA and a transcript rather than through one final examination. From grade 9 the student chooses courses and their level, so the content of their education is partly theirs to shape. And assessment leans heavily on written work.

The online part changes the logistics: no travel, lessons in one shift, a group of up to six instead of a class of thirty, and every lesson recorded.

What does not change is the academic load. An online school returns the time spent on travel and waiting; it does not reduce the work.

One practical caveat: enrolling in an American school does not switch off the education law of the country where you live. Check local requirements before you move.

They are built on different logics. The American system accumulates credits across a broad set of required areas — 24 credits spanning English, mathematics, science, social studies, world language, physical education and electives — and produces a GPA from continuous assessment.

The British system narrows early: IGCSE across a wide set, then two years on three or four A-level subjects assessed largely by terminal examination.

The practical trade-off is breadth against depth. American breadth keeps options open longer and suits students who have not settled on a direction; British depth suits those who have.

For admissions, neither is universally stronger. What matters is what your target universities ask for, which is why the list of universities should come before the choice of system.

Neither is better in general — they are recognised differently by different systems, and the honest answer depends on where your child is applying.

The IB Diploma is a fixed two-year programme with six subject groups, an extended essay and theory of knowledge, and is widely recognised in Europe. The American track is more flexible: course level is chosen year by year, and depth is added through Honors and AP where the student actually wants it.

For US universities the American transcript with AP courses is read natively and needs no interpretation. For European systems, an American diploma often needs supporting evidence — AP results or SAT scores — whereas the IB usually does not.

There is no automatic conversion between the two systems, so switching mid-course is costly. Decide the direction before grade 10, not after.

Academically, yes: the programme is complete, the school is WASC-accredited, and it issues a US diploma and transcript. This is a replacement for school rather than a supplement to it.

Legally, it depends on where you live. Some countries impose a duty of physical school attendance that study at a foreign online school does not satisfy. Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, Spain, Greece and Croatia are traditionally described as strict, though rules change — confirm with your local education authority.

Where a full replacement is not possible, the usual solution is the Second Diploma format: the child stays in the local school and earns the American diploma alongside.

Socially, what the format cannot replicate is a physical playground. What it offers instead is a stable group of six, clubs with students from 40+ countries, and daily extracurricular time.

Yes. When you move, the school, the teachers and the programme stay the same — only the time zone changes.

Lessons start in three slots (06:00, 12:00 and 00:00 US Eastern), and the timetable is adjusted to the new location. Families moving to East Asia, Australia or New Zealand should check compatibility of a specific timetable in advance.

For families in the middle of relocation this removes the break in education that a change of school system usually costs — typically between six months and a year.

One thing to check on arrival: whether the new country requires notification or registration for study outside a local school.

Yes. Study is fully remote and creates no requirement as to citizenship, visa status or country of residence. Our students study from more than 40 countries.

The reverse also holds and is worth stating: enrolment gives no immigration status. The school does not issue Form I-20 and is not a basis for a US visa.

The one real constraint is local law rather than ours. In countries with a compulsory physical attendance requirement, study only at a foreign online school may not satisfy that duty — check with your education authority before starting.

Yes — that is exactly what the Second Diploma programme is for. The child keeps their place in the local school and earns credits toward an American diploma in parallel, with the timetable built around evenings and weekends.

The full high school course is 8 credits: 3/3/2 across the years starting in grade 9, 4/4 starting in grade 10, or all 8 in one year starting in grade 11.

This is also the arrangement that resolves the legal question in countries with strict attendance requirements, since local schooling continues.

Be realistic about the load: the child carries two programmes at once, and underestimating that is the main reason families leave the format mid-year.

Yes. American universities assess the institution, not the delivery format, and a diploma from a WASC accredited online school counts as a standard US credential.

What the admissions committee actually reads is the transcript: which courses were taken, at what level, and how the GPA moved across four years. Advanced coursework is what signals difficulty of load.

Each university sets its own rules, so check the requirements of your target institutions early rather than assume.

One specific case: students planning to compete in college athletics face separate requirements on the origin of qualifying courses, and those need checking in grade 9 or 10.

Yes, but often with additional evidence, and this is the point most families discover too late.

Several European systems — the German one in particular — require holders of an American high school diploma to supply more: AP results in specified subjects, SAT scores, or a completed year of university study.

Others accept the diploma directly, sometimes with a language qualification such as IELTS.

Because the requirement affects which courses are chosen, it has to be established before grade 10 while the transcript can still be shaped. Our graduates have entered universities in the UK, the Netherlands, Canada, the UAE and Thailand.

Recognition follows accreditation, not the delivery format. A diploma from an accredited school is assessed on the same basis whether lessons were delivered online or in a classroom.

That said, individual universities and individual national systems do have their own admissions policies regarding distance schools. That is a matter of policy at a specific institution rather than of the document’s validity.

The practical test is straightforward: check that the school appears on its accrediting agency’s public list, match the exact legal name, the type of accreditation and the expiry date, and then check the admissions page of your target universities.

For some systems, yes. German universities have traditionally required holders of an American diploma to provide additional evidence of academic preparation, and AP exams in relevant subjects are among the accepted forms.

Other European systems accept the diploma without AP, sometimes asking for SAT scores or a language qualification instead.

Because requirements attach to specific subjects, the choice matters: AP Calculus and AP Physics carry different weight for an engineering application than AP Psychology would.

Establish the requirement before grade 10. AP registration closes in November for May exams, and a missed deadline costs a year.

Yes, if the comparison is honest: in a permanent group of up to 6 a child knows every classmate, while in a typical class of thirty a child actually speaks to three or four people.

Three things do the work: a permanent group of up to 6 where children genuinely know each other and the composition stays fixed for the year; interest and speaking clubs with participants from 40+ countries; and joint projects, competitions and an afternoon activity block every day.

What the format cannot reproduce is unstructured physical contact — a playground, a corridor, a shared bus home. If that is central for your child, keep a sports club or activity outside school.

The three trial days are the honest test: your child joins a regular group and you see how they respond.

By making a problem visible early rather than at the end of a term. In a group of six the teacher registers incomprehension during the lesson, not from a test result.

Around that sit several mechanisms: written feedback on assignments within 48 hours; a curator who responds to a missed lesson the same day; a parent view of the platform showing outstanding work and deadlines in real time; and a weekly stipend tied to attendance and keeping pace.

When a lag does appear, the response depends on its cause — a knowledge gap, overload, or lost motivation need different answers, and treating them alike is what usually fails.

A practical tip for parents: watch unsubmitted assignments rather than grades. Performance falls through missed work first, and grades follow later.

Less than most parents expect. You do not need to help with homework or monitor attendance — the curator does that, and contacts you when something needs your attention.

There are two exceptions. Elementary students may need help logging in during the first few weeks. And the Independent format has no curator at all, so the family takes on the monitoring role permanently — which is why we do not recommend it for younger children.

What is genuinely yours: the physical setup. A dedicated workspace, other tabs closed during lessons, the phone out of reach, and a sensible daily routine.

Reporting comes weekly, and the platform is open to you at any time in between.

It depends on the format, and being wrong about this is expensive — so we would rather say so before enrolment than after.

The Independent format is not suitable: with no curator and no live lessons, a student who already struggles with self-organisation predictably does worse. We say this openly to families considering it on price.

The Group format is a different proposition. A fixed timetable, a teacher who notices an absence in a group of six, a curator responding the same day, and the league system together make discipline external rather than purely internal.

If there have already been episodes of falling systematically behind, tell us at the consultation. That changes which format we recommend, and the three trial days will show how your child handles a real week.