2 June 2026
This is the question most families find hardest, and the one where the available advice is least useful. Almost everything written in English compares Spanish schools to schools elsewhere, which is not the comparison that helps you choose.
Public schools
Free, and in most of the country genuinely good. Teaching is in the regional language, which matters enormously depending on where you land. In Madrid or Seville that means Castilian Spanish. In Barcelona it means Catalan. In Valencia it means Valencian, with Castilian alongside. Nobody told us that, and it is the single biggest factor in how quickly a child settles.
Places are allocated by a points system that weighs your registered address very heavily. That is why the flat and the school are one decision rather than two, and why choosing a neighbourhood before checking its catchment is the most common expensive mistake.
Concertado schools
Semi-private, part funded by the state, usually with a modest monthly fee. This is where a large share of Spanish families sit, and it is the option arriving families most often overlook because there is rarely an equivalent where they come from. Many are religious in origin, though how much that shows in daily life varies enormously between schools.
International and private schools
Teaching in English, following a British, American or International Baccalaureate curriculum. The obvious choice if your children are older, arriving mid-qualification, or if the move might not be permanent. The cost is significant and varies so much by city that any number we quote here would mislead you. Ask three schools directly.
Age at arrival matters more than language
The instinct is to assume a child with no Spanish needs an international school. In practice, younger children routinely reach fluency inside a year in a public classroom and would be under-served in an English-speaking one. Teenagers arriving mid-qualification are a genuinely different case, and for them the international route often is the right answer. Age at arrival is the better predictor than current language level.
Start earlier than feels sensible
Admission windows open months before the school year and close quickly. June is already late for a September start in most cities. If you have settled on a city, contact schools before you have a visa, before you have a flat, before you have anything else. They will talk to you, and what they tell you may change which neighbourhood you target.
