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Gavà, Spain · Private
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The British College of Gavà is a private British school in Gavà, 20 minutes from the centre of Barcelona and 200 metres from the sea, for children aged 3 to 18. The school belongs to the international group Inspired Education. Teaching follows the English National Curriculum: nursery under the EYFS, primary, secondary with Pearson Edexcel IGCSEs in Year 10-11, and in the upper years a choice of three pathways - the IB Diploma, the IB Career-related Programme (IBCP) or A Levels. The school runs the IBCP with three strands and partners: performing arts with the Institute of the Arts Barcelona, sports innovation with the Barça Innovation Hub and entrepreneurship with the Swiss school SUMAS. For athletes there is the e-Athletes programme, where study takes place online on an American curriculum through the US Performance Academy and leads to an American High School Diploma. Alongside the British programme pupils can obtain the Spanish ESO certificate. The language of instruction is English, and 80 per cent of teachers are native speakers; Spanish and Catalan begin in nursery, French in secondary. The school has about 660 pupils, up to three classes per year group, with children and staff from 47 countries. On Wednesdays the Wednesdays Without Walls programme of more than 50 activities replaces lessons, after school there are more than 20 clubs, and the Duke of Edinburgh's Award is offered. The school publishes its fees itself: from 9390 to 16060 euros a year, including lunch and an afternoon snack.
Key facts
Tuition
≈ $10 608–18 143 a year
9 390–16 060 EUR
Programmes
IB · DP, CP · Cambridge · IGCSE, A-Level · Pearson Edexcel
Admits from
3 years · Pre-School
Languages of instruction
English
Languages taught
Spanish, Catalan, French
Students
about 660 pupils, up to three classes per year group
Summer camp
Yes, open to all
About the fees Fees for 2026-2027 by year group: nursery (Nursery and Reception) 9390 euros, Year 1-2: 11650, Year 3-6: 13530, Year 7-9: 14780, Year 10-11: 15930, Year 12-13: 16060 euros a year (in the school's table the amounts are listed by stage: EYFS, Key Stage 1, 2, 3, 4 and the upper years). The fee includes tuition, lunch and an afternoon snack. Payment is in ten monthly instalments from September to June by direct debit; for payment of the whole year before 15 July there is a 1.25 per cent discount. Sibling discounts: 10 per cent for the third child, 15 for the fourth and 20 for the fifth and subsequent children. A separate price list applies to the e-Athletes programme.
Admissions The school accepts children from any country and calls itself the choice of local and expatriate families; pupils and staff of 47 nationalities study and work there, there is EAL support for those just starting English, and for transfers from another system the school carries out an initial assessment and draws up an adaptation plan. Applications are accepted year-round, including mid-year, if places are available. The procedure: an enquiry form, a visit or an online meeting, then from Year 4 an English test and CAT4 at the school, and for secondary and the upper years a reference letter from the previous school; an application form, recent school reports and a copy of the child's passport are needed. After the decision the place is confirmed by payment of the admission fee. The website has a table matching British year groups to Spanish, French, German and American ones.
Stages and year groups Grades Nursery (3 years) - Year 13 (18 years). Nursery and Reception (3-5 years) follow the British EYFS, with no more than 10 children per teacher. Primary is Year 1-6 (5-11 years), secondary Year 7-11 (11-16 years) on the English National Curriculum, with Pearson Edexcel IGCSEs in Year 10-11; Key Stage 3 has more than 15 subjects, including Spanish, Catalan, French, drama, meditation and public speaking. The Spanish ESO certificate can be obtained in parallel. The upper years Year 12-13 (16-18 years) offer the IB Diploma, the IBCP or A Levels, and for athletes aged 12-18 the e-Athletes programme with an American diploma. There are up to three classes per year group. The school day runs from 8:30 to 16:30.
Address Carrer de Josep Lluís Sert, 32, 08850 Gavà, Barcelona
Accreditations and programmes verified against official registries
IB · DP, CP · authorised programmeInspired · school is part of the networkschool 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
IBInternational Baccalaureate
A Swiss non-profit, working since 1968. Its programmes are among the most widely recognised school programmes in the world. Authorisation is granted stage by stage, so a school with the final stage does not necessarily run the younger ones; which stages this school holds is set out in the line below.
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. At this school: DP (ages 16-19), CP (ages 16-19, with a vocational slant). DP is the final stage, ages 16 to 19: six subjects plus a compulsory core of theory of knowledge, an extended essay and CAS. The diploma is accepted by universities all over the world, and in a number of countries it counts for admission on the same footing as the local leaving certificate. CP is the final stage with a vocational slant, ages 16 to 19: some of the DP subjects plus an applied qualification. It is meant for those heading into a trade or an applied degree rather than an academic one.
Register to check for yourself, and the full guide →CambridgeIGCSE, A-Level
Programmes of the University of Cambridge: the school teaches to Cambridge syllabuses and enters its pupils for exams that Cambridge marks itself. IGCSE means exams at around Year 10 or 11, the British counterpart of a lower secondary leaving certificate. A-Level is the senior years, and their results are what British and many other universities admit on.
What this means for this school. The papers are marked by Cambridge, not by the school, so a leaver's grade does not depend on how strict their own teachers are with them. To enter pupils for these exams a school has to be registered as a Cambridge exam centre; registration as a centre is permission to run exams rather than accreditation of the school, and it says nothing about the quality of teaching. IGCSE is taken at around Year 10 or 11 and A-Level in the final years, and it is the A-Level results that carry a pupil into British and many other universities.
Pearson Edexcel
A British exam board, the second after Cambridge. It issues its own versions of IGCSE and A-Level: the programme is the same in substance, what differs is who sets and marks the exams.
What this means for this school. The exams are set and marked by Pearson, and the school acts as an exam centre. Universities accept IGCSE and A-Level from Pearson on the same footing as the Cambridge ones. One caveat about checking: the Pearson centre search shows only those centres that agreed to be shown, so the absence of a school from it proves nothing.
Inspiredschool network
Inspired Education Group is a private school group founded in 2013. The group gives different figures on its own pages - 125 schools on some, "more than 100" on others - and we quote both: choosing for a group which of its own numbers is correct is not something we do. Its schools are in Europe, Latin America, Africa, the Middle East and Southeast Asia, and some of them keep their own historic names, such as King's College in Madrid and Riga. The group's site is inspirededu.com.
What this means for this school. The network owns or operates the school. Its accreditation and programme authorisation the school obtains separately, in its own name.
Exams and destinations from the school's official website
Average IB score
34 (world average 30.88)
Exam results The school publishes its results itself. IB Diploma 2026: a 100 per cent pass rate, an average score of 34 and a highest score of 41; the school calls this the best result in its history and mentions that in earlier years the top pupils reached 43 out of 45. IGCSE 2026: 52 per cent of grades A*-A and 65 per cent A*-B.
Where leavers go: University of Warwick · University of St Andrews · Durham University · Trinity College Dublin · Goldsmiths, University of London · Università Bocconi · ESADE · Eindhoven University of Technology · University of Amsterdam · University of Bristol · University of Bath · BIMM
and others, 15 universities in the school's list in allAccording to the school, 9 out of 10 graduates enter their first-choice university, including Russell Group universities. Among the named destinations: Warwick (one graduate with a full scholarship for mathematics), St Andrews, law at Durham, computer science at Trinity College Dublin, music at Goldsmiths, economics at Bocconi, business and marketing at ESADE, engineering in Eindhoven, Amsterdam; IBCP graduates received offers from Bristol, Bath, BIMM, EU Business School and Francisco de Vitoria; one graduate received a sports scholarship to Marian University in Illinois. Graduates most often go on to study in Spain, the Netherlands, Italy, the UK and the USA.
Facilities from the school's official website
·Swimming poolnot stated on the website
✓Sports hall
✓Laboratories
✓Theatre or assembly hall
·Librarynot stated on the website
✓Catering
✓School transport
·Boardingnot stated on the website
Also on site: Sports ground or field · Art studio · Playground
Campus: The campus covers 26000 square metres among pine trees and gardens, 20 minutes from the centre of Barcelona, 10 minutes from the airport and 200 metres from Gavà beach. Nursery occupies a separate south-facing building: six classrooms with their own toilets, interactive boards at child height, a multipurpose room for rest, yoga, music and dance, renovated playgrounds and a Forest School area. Primary is in a traditional building with interactive boards, iPads and computers. The new secondary building has three laboratories for biology, chemistry and physics, art spaces and the shared dining hall with its own kitchen, where food is cooked to a nutritionist's menu. There are Apple computer rooms with VR headsets and 3D printers, drama and music studios with separate practice rooms, an auditorium for productions and concerts, and an art studio. For sport there is a large hall for basketball, volleyball and futsal, a fitness centre, an all-weather football pitch, and basketball and beach volleyball courts. The school announces a new centre for the upper years and a swimming pool as plans. Buses run on 4 routes: two to Barcelona and two to the west, to Sitges and Sant Pere de Ribes.
Clubs and activities: Football · Volleyball · Basketball · Climbing (Sharma Climbing Gavà) · Judo · Rhythmic gymnastics · Mugendo martial arts · Skateboarding · Multisport · Art Attack · Ballet · Mini Dance · Dance Fusion · Guitar · Piano · Violin · Percussion · Singing · Music therapy · Mine Coders · Mini Tech LEGO · MyGrandChef · Chess · Yoga · Study clubs · Duke of Edinburgh's Award
Summer camp: the school runs its own camp and takes children from outside as well
A summer camp on campus for children aged 3-12 (from Nursery to Year 7), both the school's own and from other schools, from 29 June to 31 July, Monday to Friday. Activities in English are led by teachers with British training, and the monitors speak English, Spanish and Catalan. Each week has its own theme, with projects, sport, cooking, robotics, dance and theatre, and water games; on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays there are trips to the forest, the beach and an amusement park. A full day from 8:30 to 16:30 costs 240 euros a week, a half day from 8:30 to 13:30: 190 euros, with lunch and snacks included.
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: 80 per cent of teachers are native English speakers
The school does not publish a staff list. According to the school, 80 per cent of teachers are native English speakers, and in nursery all teachers are native English speakers with specialist training in early childhood. Subjects are taught by subject specialists and sport by coaches, including Mugendo instructors and alumni athletes; the basketball team trains with Humaes Sport Group, and climbing takes place at the Sharma Climbing Gavà centre. Teachers undergo regular professional development. In nursery there are no more than 10 children per teacher.
Safety and wellbeing from the school's official website
·CCTVnot stated on the website
·Security staffnot stated on the website
·Access controlnot stated on the website
·Nurse or medical roomnot stated on the website
·Counsellornot stated on the website
✓Child protection policy
·Staff trainingnot stated on the website
✓Anti-bullying policy
The school publishes its policies: child protection and safeguarding, anti-bullying, first aid, behaviour, mobile phones in secondary, inclusion, special educational needs and complaints, as well as an inspection report. It says it has zero tolerance of bullying: every incident is dealt with immediately under the safeguarding procedure; teachers and safeguarding staff monitor children's wellbeing. There is a special educational needs coordinator, daily tutor time in secondary, a PSHE programme on the Unifrog platform, the Listening Project and mentoring by older pupils. A trained member of school staff travels on every bus. The school does not name security guards, video surveillance or a medical worker on its pages.
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%)92 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 data65 Accreditation and verifiability (10%)85 Teaching staff (10%) scored on disclosed data55 Facilities (10%) scored on disclosed data85 Clubs and activities (8%) scored on disclosed data78 "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 8 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