Boarding schools in Geneva and on Lake Geneva

Boarding school in Geneva: Collège du Léman in Versoix

If you are looking for a boarding school in Geneva itself, the house on this site is Collège du Léman in Versoix, in the canton of Geneva. The school gives its distances as 16 minutes and 10.1 km from Geneva city centre and 13 minutes and 10.0 km from Geneva Airport (Collège du Léman, Contact).

It teaches nearly 1,700 pupils aged 2 to 18, with families and staff from 120 countries; its About page gives 280 boarders and its Boarding Houses page boarding for 250 (Collège du Léman, About; Collège du Léman, Boarding Houses). Boarders are 10 to 18 and live in residential villas; teaching is in French, English or a combination of the two (Collège du Léman, Boarding).

Its choice of diplomas is the widest of the 11 houses on this site: the IB Diploma, the IB Career-related Programme, an American-style High School Diploma with AP, Cambridge IGCSE, the French Baccalauréat and a bilingual Swiss Maturité (Collège du Léman, High School). At 410 m it is also the lowest of the 11; this and every height in this guide is swisstopo's point height at the school's street address, read on 23 September 2026.

The 2026/27 boarding fee is CHF 117,500 for the full year, which the school's general conditions define as the annual tuition and boarding fees together (General Conditions Boarding 2026-2027). Health insurance, books, field trips, laundry and three mountain weekends are included; exam fees are invoiced separately (Table of Fees Boarding 2026-2027).

Boarding schools in Lausanne: Brillantmont and ENSR

Brillantmont has been owned and run by the same family since 1882 and is now in its fifth generation (Brillantmont). It is small: around 80 to 90 boarding and day pupils aged 13 to 18, from 30 nationalities, in Grades 8 to 12 plus a Grade 13 gap year (Brillantmont, Our School). Boys and girls live in separate houses on the campus, at 549 m (Brillantmont, Boarding).

Brillantmont teaches IGCSE and A Level alongside a US High School Diploma, every pupil learns French, and the school is accredited by CIS and NEASC (Why Brillantmont; Accreditations). It gives Geneva International Airport as a forty-minute drive (Brillantmont, Lausanne).

ENSR, the Ecole Nouvelle de la Suisse Romande, was founded in 1906 and is a co-educational school of over 600 pupils (ENSR, About). It teaches in French and English from kindergarten, which starts at 2½, and leads to the Swiss Maturity or the IB Diploma (ENSR, home page; ENSR, Kindergarten).

Its boarding house takes 60 girls and boys aged 12 to 18, at 595 m (ENSR, Boarding). The 2026/27 fee schedule offers 5-day and 7-day boarding, lists boarding from Grade 5, age 11, and states that VAT is invoiced separately (ENSR, Annual fees 2026/2027).

Near Montreux and Vevey: four houses on the Riviera

Haut-Lac in Saint-Légier, at 615 m, has about 600 day and boarding pupils aged 3 to 18, in bilingual English-French or English-only programmes that lead to the IB Diploma, the IB Career-related Programme or a US High School Diploma (Haut-Lac). Its boarding house takes pupils aged 11 to 18 for 7 or 5 days a week; the boarding page gives up to 40 boarders, the admissions page up to 32 (Haut-Lac, Boarding; Haut-Lac, Admissions).

Chantemerle in Blonay, at 679 m, was founded in 1966 by the Wegmüller family, who still run it. It has 45 boarders and 55 day pupils aged 6 to 18, about 60% of them Swiss, and prepares the Maturité fédérale in French or IGCSE and A Levels in English, with 5-day, 7-day or flexible boarding from age 9 (Chantemerle).

St. George's in Clarens, at 414 m, was founded in 1927 (St. George's, About Us). It teaches from 18 months to 18, boards boys and girls from 10, weekly or full (St. George's, Boarding), and leads from the Cambridge curriculum and IGCSE to the IB Diploma or A-Levels (St. George's, A-Levels).

Surval Montreux, on the Route de Glion at 576 m, is a boarding school for girls aged 12 to 19 (Surval Montreux, archived copy of 31 August 2026). It teaches an American High School Diploma, accredited by Cognia and with AP courses, and a Swiss Gap Experience, in English and French (Surval, Key Information, archived copy of 11 April 2026; Surval, home page, archived copy of 31 August 2026). It offers weekly boarding to families living in Switzerland (Surval, Weekly boarding, archived copy of 18 May 2026).

What sets each Lake Geneva house apart

Each line below gives the facts that set one house apart, all from the schools' own pages cited above. Use them to decide which two or three to visit.

• Collège du Léman: the only house in the canton of Geneva and the only one of the 11 teaching the French Baccalauréat, with nearly 1,700 pupils and boarding from age 10.
• Brillantmont: family-run since 1882, with 80 to 90 pupils aged 13 to 18 and A Levels alongside a US High School Diploma.
• ENSR: bilingual French and English from kindergarten at 2½, with 5-day or 7-day boarding for 60 pupils (12 to 18 on its boarding page, from 11 in its 2026/27 fee schedule).
• Haut-Lac: authorised for three IB programmes (Haut-Lac, FAQs), with bilingual, English-only or French-only IB Diploma pathways and a boarding house for up to 40.
• Chantemerle: a French-language Swiss section and an English-language Cambridge section in one school, about 60% Swiss pupils, and boarding from 9.
• St. George's: day places from 18 months, weekly or full boarding from 10, and a school minibus reaching as far as Verbier, Champéry and Sion.
• Surval Montreux: a girls' school for ages 12 to 19 with an American High School Diploma, a Swiss Gap Experience and weekly boarding for families in Switzerland.

Day places, weekly and full boarding

Six of the seven Lake Geneva houses take day pupils as well as boarders. Five publish weekly boarding, with weekends at home.

Weekly boarding is not the same everywhere. At Chantemerle, 5-day boarding runs without weekends and school breaks (Tarifs 2026-2027); at ENSR, laundry and weekends are included for 7-day boarders only (ENSR, Annual fees 2026/2027).

Curricula and teaching languages at the Lake Geneva schools

For a bilingual education, Collège du Léman, ENSR and Haut-Lac teach in both French and English, St. George's offers bilingual pathways and Surval Montreux teaches in English and French; Chantemerle runs a French-language and an English-language section side by side.

Fees 2026/27 at the Lake Geneva schools

The table lists each Lake Geneva house's 2026/27 boarding fee with a link to the school's schedule and its date. Read each figure with what it includes.

At Chantemerle, 7-day boarding in the Swiss section costs CHF 59,500 and 5-day boarding CHF 51,500 in 2026/27, prices the school gives as indicative (Tarifs 2026-2027). Collège du Léman's CHF 117,500 covers tuition and boarding together, as set out above; new boarders there also pay an application fee of CHF 500, an admission fee of CHF 4,800 and a CHF 6,000 security deposit (Collège du Léman, Tuition fees).

Day fees, one-off deposits and the differences between year groups are set out in Swiss boarding school fees 2026/27. Ask each school whether its figure includes VAT, insurance and exam fees before you compare.

Getting there: travel times the schools publish

Travel times appear here only where a school publishes them. For anything else, test the route at the hour your child would travel.

• Collège du Léman: Geneva Airport 13 minutes and 10.0 km, Geneva city centre 16 minutes and 10.1 km, Lausanne city centre 43 minutes and 54.1 km, within easy reach of the A1 motorway (Contact).
• Brillantmont: Geneva International Airport is a forty-minute drive (Lausanne location).
• Haut-Lac: 20 minutes from Lausanne and near Montreux, with a direct train to Geneva Airport (Haut-Lac, home page; Haut-Lac, Boarding).
• St. George's: a daily door-to-door minibus from Foundation Stage 1 upwards, covering Vevey and Montreux, Lausanne, Châtel-Saint-Denis and Port-Valais, and also Verbier, Champéry and Sion (School transport).
• ENSR: school buses serving 72 places in the region, among them Lausanne, Morges, Pully and Lutry, with fees in separate documents, and driving directions from motorway exit 10, Lausanne-Vennes (School bus; How to find us).
• Surval Montreux: Geneva Airport 1 hour by car or train and Lausanne 20 minutes by train, with transfers arranged by the school on arrival and departure days (Key Information, archived copy of 11 April 2026).
• Chantemerle publishes no travel times on the pages read.

Lake, terraces or mountains

Measured with swisstopo's point-height service at each school's street address on 23 September 2026, the seven Lake Geneva houses stand between 410 m at Collège du Léman and 679 m at Chantemerle (swisstopo, Get Point Height). On the site's altitude bands, Collège du Léman (410 m) and St. George's (414 m) are by the lake, below 480 m; Brillantmont, Surval Montreux, ENSR, Haut-Lac and Chantemerle, between 549 and 679 m, are on the terraces. The four Alpine houses in Villars and Leysin stand between 1,227 and 1,435 m; their winter ski programmes are set out, with sources, in Swiss boarding schools compared.

A Lake Geneva school suits a child who starts as a day pupil, a family that wants weekly boarding, or a timetable that needs a city and an airport within reach.

How to shortlist a school near Geneva, Lausanne or Montreux

• Decide whether your child will be a day pupil, a weekly boarder or a full boarder; not every house offers all three.
• Check the ages: day places start at 18 months at St. George's, boarding at 9 at Chantemerle and at 13 at Brillantmont.
• Match the diploma and the teaching language to your child's next school or university.
• Ask for the current fee schedule, what the boarding fee includes and whether VAT is added.
• Try the route at the hour your child would travel, using the times the school publishes.
• Ask for the boarding handbook and the safeguarding policy before a visit.

We are an independent search and selection service. We put the current published figures in front of a family and suggest a shortlist of houses with the reason for each; ask us for a shortlist and we answer within 24 hours.