International schools: where a family has a choice

For a family with children the school decides the town more firmly than price does: you can put up with a price for a year, not with a school.

An international school here means one that does not teach in Spanish: a British, German, French or American curriculum, or the IB. 73 places out of 132 have at least one; 59 have none — which does not mean there is nowhere to study, as Spanish state schools are free and mostly fine in coastal towns. It means something else: your child enters a class where everyone speaks Spanish except them.

Four different systems under one word

«International school» in Spain means at least four different things. The British curriculum with IGCSEs and A-levels is the most common on the coast, chosen well beyond British families because it offers English and a recognisable exit exam. The International Baccalaureate is pricier and more academic, but travels anywhere. German and French schools are backed by their home states, cheaper than British ones, but expect the language at entry. American schools are rare and usually the most expensive.

Choosing between them is mostly choosing where the child will study next. The British curriculum suits the UK and Ireland, the IB suits continental Europe and the US, and the Spanish state system suits a Spanish university, entered through its own route without extra exams.

The Spanish state school is not a fallback

Two thirds of moving families choose it by default, and most of the time that turns out right. It is free, in coastal towns it is full of newcomers and used to them, and a child under ten or eleven picks up Spanish within one school year — faster than the parents reach B1.

Age decides everything here. Move at six and within a year the child is indistinguishable from the locals. Move at fourteen, mid-way through exam preparation, in a foreign language and without friends, and it becomes the hardest part of the whole relocation — the point at which family plans most often break. Past twelve, an international school stops being a luxury and becomes a way not to lose a year.

One thing to know about bilingual regions. In Catalonia, Valencia, Galicia and the Basque Country state schools teach in the regional language, with Castilian as a subject. For a child that is mostly a plus; for parents it is a second language they will at least need to follow, if only to read letters from the school.

Where the choice is widest

Small towns with a school

A big city with schools is expected. What matters more is a town of a few tens of thousands where a school followed a foreign community — usually the same places where the British and Germans settled long ago.

What to ask a school before moving

Whether places exist in the right year group for next year — decent coastal schools have waiting lists, and «we arrive in August» often means no. How many children are in a class and how many are native speakers of the teaching language. What the fee includes and what it does not: bus, lunches, books, trips and an entry fee are usually charged separately and add a noticeable share to the headline price. And what happens if you leave mid-year, and whether anything is refunded.

And the question asked least often: how many children left in the past two years, and where they went. The answer says more about a school than an entire website full of laboratory photographs.

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