Considering moving to Oslo

Hi Suchitra,

I am sailing in the same and boat and looking for same answer as I am also planning to shift to Oslo for 2-5 years.
Private English school are very costly which I came to know from their website however do not know exactly.

Please some one provide the answer to her questions and many will be benefited with that.,

Thanks in Advance
Vivek

Hi Ms. Chadha,

Welcome to Expat.com

A new topic has been created with your post on the Oslo forum in order to give more light to your questions.

Thanks,

Priscilla

Thank you ms. Priscilla. It's so kind of you. Best regards, suchitra

Hi vivek,
Good to see you here. Well, though as a family we have lived as expats in Dubai...we could afford a good life as it is a tax free country. Its quite a challenge here as 50% tax is HUGE and you are not even a citizen . Btw if I can ask you, which co. Are you planning to join.

Regards,
Suchitra

50% is the highest tax rate. 36 or 40% are common.
We do pay a lot, but in return we get free education (books, notebooks included, even laptops in high school), free health care (we only pay the first NOK 2000 + some medicine), and free dentist care for children.

University is free, and all students receive a grant and a state loan.
Kintergarten is quite cheap compared to the US, and every children above 2 is granted admission. Most above 1.

Tap water is safe 99,99% of the time, and in Oslo and Bærum is actually free. I don't know for the other parts of the country.

Food and car expenses are higher than in most country, but Norwegians do have a nice life. You regarded as poor when you can't have vacation abroad, can't get the latest iPhone or can't go the cinema whenever your friends want to. That's Norwegian poverty.

Services are also expensive since salaries are high. Very few have a maid or a cook. But many do hire someone for 2 or 3 hours a week.

1. For an upper middle class family what should be the ideal allowance in nok after tax deductions to lead a comfortable life. We have two school going children.
Erase the "upper middle class" from your vocabulary before you arrive here. Class and showing off your riches is a big no no.
I would say a 1 200 000 is really good before tax (let's say 7 000 000 after) if both parents work. 800 000 before tax is also very good.

2. Are there ggood and affordable speech/language therapists in Oslo. What could be the approx. Cost?
I think that would be free. Schools are required to offer remediation and there are extern specialists who are hired by the Kommune (city).

3. Are there school going children travelling between Fredrickstad and Oslo. Since OIS is the only international school in Oslo, incase of no vacancies we may have to look at options outside Oslo.
suggestions?
Bjørnholt skole has classes for 13-16 year-old. There are also IB sections in some high schools.
Kongsberg and Asker have also an international school. Kongsberg is quite far away, but Fredrikstad is even farther. No child commute there from Oslo.
International schools are quite expensive. If you are planning on staying here for a while, a Norwegian school would be a better choice.

From Sifo.no (a calculator for average consumers): http://kalkulator.referansebudsjett.no/php/standard.php
I chose 2 parents, 2 kids, 2 cars (cars are very expensive and public transportation is efficient, so you will probably have only one).

Månedlige utgifter for hele husholdet
Person 1: Kvinne 20 til 50 år.
Person 2: Mann 20 til 50 år.
Person 3: Jente 6 til 9 år som går heldag i SFO.
Person 4: Gutt 6 til 9 år som går halvdag i SFO.

Individspesifikke utgifter
Mat og drikke    6 496
Klær og sko    2 048
Personlig pleie    1 288
Lek og fritid    2 576
Reise (kollektivt)    1 950
Spedbarnsutstyr    0
Sum    14 358
Stordriftsfordel 20 % reduksjon

Husholdsspesifikke utgifter
Andre dagligvarer    530
Husholdningsartikler    550
Møbler    560
Telefon, mediebruk og diverse fritidsartikler    1 640
Bil (drift og vedlikehold)    4 800
Barnehage    0
Skolefritidsordningen (SFO)    4 516
Sum    12 596
Totalt forbruk
Totalt summert månedlig forbruk for hele husholdningen    26 954 (the money we spend per month, loan and rent excluded)

Here is the list of all the private schools in the area:

Ljabruskolen Steinerskole for elever med spesielle behov
Ljabrubakke 50 1165 Oslo
22 62 98 90 /22 62 98 91
ljabruskolen@steinerskolen.no;

Kristelig Gymnasium
Homansbakken 2 0352 Oslo
23 19 64 40/23 19 64 41
kg@kg.vgs.no;

Montessoriskolen Lyse
Villa Lyse
Hoffsjef Løvenskiolds vei 31c 0382 Oslo
23 25 40 50/23 25 40 60
rektor@monlyse.no;

Nyskolen i Oslo
Østerdalgata 7 A 0658 OSLO
21 89 98 20
sunniva.sandanger@nyskole.org

Oslo Montessoriskole
Huldreveien 28 Postboks 92 Slemdal 0710 Oslo
22 13 62 50
admin.oms@montessori.no;

Ryenberget skole
Enebakkveien 152 0680 Oslo
23 21 01 61 / 23 21 01 60
ryenbergetskole@delk.no;

St. Sunniva skole
Akersveien 4 0177 Oslo
23 29 25 00
administrasjon@stsunniva.no;

Steinerskolen i Oslo
Flyveien 2
Postboks 25 Hovseter 0705 Oslo
22 13 95 30/22 14 72 21
post.hovseter@steinerskolen.no

Steinerskolen på Nordstrand
Solveien 113 1162 Oslo
23 38 47 90/23 38 47 99
nordstrand@steinerskolen.no;

Østmarka skole
John G. Mattesons vei 13 0687 Oslo
22 75 76 70/22 75 76 80
post@ostmarka.gs.oslo.no;

ASKER
Asker International School
Johan Drengsruds vei 60 1383 Asker
916 91 487
post@askeris.no

Steinerskolen i Asker
Nesvangen 10 1394 Nesbru
66 85 26 80/66 98 20 78
asker@steinerskolen.no;

Vollen Montessoriskole
Vollenveien 34 1390 Vollen
66 98 71 20

Skolen@vollenmontessori.no;
BÆRUM
Bærum Montessoriskole
Ballerud Allé 1 1363 Høvik

67 83 08 40
post@montessori-baerum.no
Norges toppidrettsgymnas Ungdomsskole Bærum AS
Postboks 134 1319 Bekkestua
67 10 15 82/67 10 15 61
ntgu@ntg.no;

Steinerskolen i Bærum
Grav gårdsvei 5 1358 Jar
67 16 22 70/67 14 88 65
grav@steinerskolen.no;

EIDSVOLL
Steinerskolen på Øvre Romerike
2074 EIDSVOLL VERK
63 95 12 77
eidsvoll@steinerskolen.no;
___________________________________________________________________________
FYLKESMANNEN I OSLO OG AKERSHUS
..
FROGN
Drøbak Montesorriskole
Osloveien 27 1440 Drøbak
64 93 05 23/64 93 54 46
dmonsko@online.no;

LØRENSKOG
Lørenskog Friskole
Postboks 185 1471 Lørenskog
67 92 23 00 / 97 92 23 00
rektor@lorenskogfriskole.no;

Rudolf Steinerskolen i Lørenskog
Kantarellveien 10 1476 Rasta
67 91 40 00
lorenskog@steinerskolen.no;

NESODDEN
Rudolf Steinerskolen
Skoklefall
1450 Nesoddtangen
66 96 50 80/66 91 49 83
nesodden@steinerskolen.no;

SKEDSMO
Oslo Kristne Senter Grunnskole
Fetveien 1 2007 Kjeller
64 84 64 60/64 84 64 01
grunnskolen@oks.no; ase@oks.no;

ULLENSAKER
Hoppensprett ungdomsskole
Industrivegen 34 2069 Jessheim
92 21 80 81/92 29 70 09
ungdomsskole.jessheim@hoppens prett.no

VESTBY
Soon Sjøskole
Storgaten 29 1555 Son
64 98 50 90 64 95 82 60
rektor@soonsjoskole.no;

ÅS
Steinerskolen i Ås
Haugerudveien 3 1430 Ås

Thank you so much. Thats quite an information which I am studying.

Best regards

You can drop most of those schools as they do not offer education in English (except the International school in Asker). There is no difference in quality between private and state schools, but private schools offer special courses/pedagogy (Steiner, Montessori, christianity, sport..).

How long are you planning on staying, and how old are your children?

Hi,

My elder boy is 7 and younger daughter is 4 years old. We would prefer schools where medium of instruction is English. Our stay in Norway would be between 2 to 5 years.

Thanks!

Yes, two years would be too short to choose a Norwegian-speaking school, especially for the oldest.

Then if your salaries allow you to:
Oslo International School in Bekkestua (Bærum, to the west from Oslo) or farther west: Asker International school.
Frogner International Pre-School (in Oslo, neighbourhood: Frogner)

Here some more information about schools:
http://www.uio.no/english/for-employees … l/family/.

For kindergartens it would not be so important, since every child has the right to bilingual care if needed. Pretty much every employee speaks English, so they would not even have to hire someone. Your little one could then learn Norwegian at the same time.
However I find the pedagogy in Norwegian kindergartens to be less pre-school oriented. No much preparation to writing and reading. It's perfectly fine if you intend your child to go on to a Norwegian primary, slightly less if you would like the International school. You can still start with a Norwegian kindergarten and then switch for an International one when they get a free spot.

If I were you, I would try to find a house or flat in the western part of the city or in Bærum to avoid long commuting from/to school.

Well, we did write to OIS and asker. Asker is positive. I liked the childrens international school at Fredrickstad a lot with what they have put on thier school website, emphasis on music et al..I was too keen on it but commuting is out of question. The whole thing is like a puzzle to us now. We are starting to put the pieces..hope we make a

good picture out of it..

Thank you so much dear. 

However, can you please confirm if remedial/ speech therapies are at free of cost . Thanks !

That's great, because Asker is not that far away from Oslo. Commuting is easy, though there is always a lot of traffic on the E18 to reach Fornebu.

About speech therapists, you can write to servicetorget@asker.kommune.no (Asker), post@baerum.kommune.no (Bærum) or Oslo (health): postmottak@hel.oslo.kommune.no or Oslo (general): postmottak@oslo.kommune.no

I'm unsure about what kind of service they can offer. It depends on your child's needs.
A friend of mine has a child with impaired hearing. She receives help from both school and health services.