← Back to homeAquarela e Trails School
São Paulo, Brazil · est. 2003 · Private
Illustration · São Paulo
A private bilingual school in the Perdizes district, running since 2003 and made up of two buildings on the same street: Aquarela takes children from four months old and carries them through to five, and Trails continues into Ensino Fundamental. From the senior kindergarten group onwards half the lessons are taught in English: every group has its own English teacher, working in tandem with a Portuguese teacher. Trails classes hold no more than twenty children, the school day runs from 8:00 to 16:10, and after it an optional After School programme runs until 18:30. The fees include breakfast and lunch overseen by nutritionists, and the school has a psychologist and a psychopedagogue who run groups and support families. Pupils are prepared for the Cambridge English exams, but the school publishes neither fees, nor pupil numbers, nor exam results; a list of universities cannot appear at all - the school ends with the nine-year Ensino Fundamental.
Key facts
Admits from
4 months · Pre-School
Languages of instruction
Portuguese, English
Class size
No more than 20 pupils per class.
About the fees The school names no price for either building: it has no fees section at all, and to the question about discounts in the Trails frequently asked questions it answers that "as condições especiais são comunicadas diretamente durante o processo de matrícula".
Admissions Admission to Trails goes the way the school describes it itself: "O processo inclui preenchimento do formulário de interesse, visita à escola, entrevista pedagógica e entrega da documentação". The documents are "RG e CPF do aluno e responsáveis, comprovante de residência, histórico escolar e carteira de vacinação". No prior English is required: "Não. Trabalhamos com estratégias diferenciadas para cada nível de proficiência". Places are open in every year of the nine-year Ensino Fundamental, and full groups keep a waiting list. At Aquarela settling in is gradual and individual, and the school ties the move between infant groups not to age but to a child walking confidently: "o requisito para a transição entre grupos é o andar firme - não apenas a idade".
Stages and year groups Grades Berçário - Ensino Fundamental (the school does not name the top year of the nine-year Ensino Fundamental). Aquarela runs groups from four months to five years: Berçário (4 months - 1 year 2 months), Mini Maternal (1 year 3 months - 1 year 11 months), Maternal 1 (2 years), Maternal 2 (3 years), Jardim 1 (4 years), Jardim 2 (5 years) - all with the cut-off "completos até 31/03". Trails runs Ensino Fundamental and writes that places are open "para todas as séries do Fundamental", but does not name the year it takes children up to: the pages mention only projects by the 1st and the 3rd years.
Accreditations and programmes verified against official registries
Cambridge · authorised programmeschool is in an official registryconfirmed by a school document, by membership or by taking part in a networkclaimed by the school, no confirmation, not counted in the scoreGuide to all organisations → What stands behind each entry
CambridgeCambridge International Education
Part of the University of Cambridge. It allows a school to teach the Cambridge programmes and to enter pupils for the exams. There are four stages and they are authorised separately: primary, lower secondary, IGCSE and A Level. If the stages are known they are named in the line below; if that line is missing, the school does not publish them, and the Cambridge registry does not show stages either - it gives only the name of the centre, the country and whether private candidates are accepted. Cambridge calls what it does registration rather than accreditation, and the network holds about ten thousand schools.
What the badge means for this school. The school is allowed to run this programme and to award its certificate. This is a confirmation of the programme, not a judgement on the school as a whole. The entry stands in the organisation's public register - anyone can check it. Which stages - from the early years programme for three-year-olds up to A-Level - this school is approved for is not stated here.
Register to check for yourself, and the full guide →Exams and destinations from the school's official website
Exam results The school writes that it prepares pupils for the Cambridge English exams - "Os alunos têm suporte para alcançar níveis de proficiência compatíveis com as certificações Cambridge" - but gives not a single result.
Facilities from the school's official website
·Swimming poolnot stated on the website
·Sports hallnot stated on the website
✓LaboratoriesScience laboratory (Trails)
·Theatre or assembly hallnot stated on the website
✓LibraryYes (Trails)
✓CateringLunch and breakfast on campus, 1 hour 30 minutes for lunch and break every day.
·School transportnot stated on the website
·Boardingnot stated on the website
Also on site: Sports ground or field · Makerspace
Campus: Two buildings on Av. Prof. Alfonso Bovero in Perdizes. At Aquarela the listed spaces are Aquaplay with vegetable beds, Parque da Aventura with a wooden play structure, Salas Multiuso, Oficina with equipment for art and music, Solário, Espaço dos Mascotes with a rabbit and two tortoises, Deck, Campo with fruit trees, Horta, Quintal and Tanque de Areia. At Trails - "Salas bilíngues, laboratório de ciências, biblioteca, quadra coberta, espaço maker e ambientes para artes"
Clubs and activities: Dance · Theatre · Circus · Art studio · Basic sports training · Psychomotor skills
Teaching staff from the school's official website
·Teachers listed by namenot published
✓Teacher qualifications
·Number of teachersthe school does not say
✓Students per teacher or class sizein the key facts above
What the listings show: "Nossos professores são selecionados com rigor e formados continuamente"; four features of the staff are listed - "Professores bilíngues certificados", "Formação contínua em metodologias ativas", "Especialistas em educação socioemocional", "Olhar individual para cada estudante".
At Aquarela every group from Maternal 2 upwards has its own English teacher, working in tandem with a Portuguese teacher; in Mini Maternal and Maternal 1 English is taught by a single specialist across all the groups.
Safety and wellbeing from the school's official website
·CCTVnot stated on the website
✓Security staffAt Trails - "portaria controlada, monitoramento e protocolos de segurança para entrada e saída".
·Access controlnot stated on the website
·Nurse or medical roomnot stated on the website
✓CounsellorAquarela has two specialists: "Psicóloga: acompanhamento semanal com foco nas relações e comportamentos das crianças, formação continuada dos educadores e suporte às famílias quando necessário". "Psicopedagoga: atuação voltada ao processo de aprendizagem, identificando necessidades individuais e orientando estratégias pedagógicas". The LIV programme - Laboratório Inteligência de Vida - runs from Maternal 2 to Jardim 2 and in every Trails class.
·Child protection policynot stated on the website
·Staff trainingnot stated on the website
·Anti-bullying policynot stated on the website
Reviews
No reviews yet. The community rating counts towards the score once a school has five verified reviews - until then we do not show a zero, so as not to mislead.
Criteria breakdown criterion weight in brackets
Academics and programmes (16%)60 Community rating (16%)no dataparent reviews are needed: the criterion switches on at the fifth verified one Exams and destinations (12%) scored on disclosed data80 Safety and wellbeing (12%) scored on disclosed data70 Accreditation and verifiability (10%)85 Teaching staff (10%) scored on disclosed data55 Facilities (10%) scored on disclosed data75 Clubs and activities (8%) scored on disclosed data76 Value for money (6%) scored at the median55 "Scored on disclosed data" stands where we count only what the school has written about itself on its own site: exams and destinations, safety and wellbeing, teaching staff, facilities, clubs and activities. A low score here means the school does not write about this, not that the school does not have it: a school with good security and a sparse site will score low. A school can fill in its profile, and the score will be counted again.
The score is counted from 7 of the 9 criteria.Only those with checkable data count: programmes and accreditations from official registers, the fee from a published price list. Where it says "scored on the median", the school has no data and the middle of the list is put in its place, so that a gap gives no advantage. Admissions, teaching staff and reviews come in as their data arrives.
The full methodology → Similar schools in the country