← Back to homeThe British School of Córdoba
Córdoba, Spain · Private
Illustration · Córdoba
The British School of Córdoba stands in the north-west of Córdoba and is spread over two buildings five hundred metres apart: the farther one houses the infant stage with its own garden, classrooms, library, kitchen and offices, the main one the primary stage, while the secondary and sixth form occupy a separate modern building with three laboratories, a new art room, a photography studio and a large music studio with separate practice rooms. The stages run from three to eighteen: Infantil 3-5, Primaria 5-11, Secundaria 11-16 and the upper stage 16-18. The curriculum is British, and at the end of the secondary stage pupils sit IGCSE - the school calls them an "objective external assessment"; beyond the British track the school is an IB World School. The great majority of lessons, the school says, are taught in English; Spanish language and social studies are separate subjects, and French is compulsory from Year 6 to Year 9. The rarest thing for a British school in Spain - it has a boarding house: "El Mirador del Británico" with shared bedrooms, study areas, a large lounge, its own dining room and green grounds, supervised around the clock seven days a week. The school invites international students specifically - for a term, a semester or a year and longer, with no Spanish required. The school describes its primary classrooms as colourful, spacious and creatively designed and gives their size - about twenty-five pupils per class. The school gives its fees as from 478 euros a month. In the site header the school displays the marks of Cambridge, Edexcel, the British Council and NABSS and a listing among the hundred best schools in Spain.
Key facts
Programmes
IB · DP · Cambridge · IGCSE · Pearson Edexcel
Languages of instruction
English
Languages taught
Spanish, French
Class size
about 25 in the primary school
About the fees The school gives its fee only as a lower bound: from 478 euros a month. The site gives no amounts by stage, no number of payments a year and no prices for lunch, transport or boarding.
Admissions The school takes pupils from any area and from other countries - subject to visa requirements - and says its community is made up of many nationalities; pupils can start at any point in the school year. There is a separate programme for international students: a term or less, a semester, or a year and longer; English is assessed against the grade the child is joining, previous school records are reviewed and there is an interview, while no international language test and no Spanish are required. Those with good English join mainstream classes, the rest get intensive English tuition at their level and a mentor. The general procedure is: contact with admissions, an application form with recent school reports, a school tour, assessment by age and English level, an offer of a place, then online enrolment in a single session - school forms, vaccination record, medical certificate, photo, identity documents of the child and parents (DNI, passport or TIE) and proof of payment of the admission and enrolment fees.
Stages and year groups Grades Infantil ages 3-5 - sixth form ages 16-18. Four stages: Infantil from three to five, Primaria from five to eleven, Secundaria from eleven to sixteen and sixth form from sixteen to eighteen. IGCSE examinations come at the end of secondary education, and the international programme at sixth form. Primary classes hold about twenty-five pupils each; the school does not state the size of classes at the other stages.
Address Calle México, 4, Nte. Sierra, 14012 Córdoba
Accreditations and programmes verified against official registries
IB · DP · authorised programmePearson · authorised programmeCambridge · IGCSE · authorised programmeNABSS · 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). 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.
Register to check for yourself, and the full guide →PearsonPearson Edexcel, a British exam board
It gives a school approved centre status: that means Pearson exams can be sat in the school itself. What is checked is the premises, the equipment, the secure storage of papers and the presence of trained invigilators.
What the badge means for this school. The school can run Pearson exams on its own premises. The status says nothing about teaching, about results or about the school itself: any school able to run an exam securely holds it. The entry stands in the organisation's public register - anyone can check it. Which Pearson qualifications this school is approved for is not stated here.
Register to check for yourself, and the full guide →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. At this school: IGCSE (ages 14-16). IGCSE means exams at around Year 10 or 11, the British counterpart of a lower secondary leaving certificate.
Register to check for yourself, and the full guide →NABSSschool network
NABSS (National Association of British Schools in Spain) is not an owner of schools but an association of British schools in Spain, founded in 1978 by a group of leading British schools in the country. According to the association, it has more than 80 member schools, which educate more than 49,000 children and employ more than 5,000 teachers. Only schools officially authorised by the Spanish authorities as foreign schools teaching the British education system and certified by the British Council after inspections can be members; new schools that are still developing are not admitted straight away. The association represents the schools' common interests, encourages collaboration between them and holds an annual conference; its school finder places member schools in Madrid, Catalonia, the Valencian Community, Andalusia, the Balearic and Canary Islands, Murcia and other regions. The association's site is nabss.org.
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
The school publishes nothing about where its leavers go: no share going on to university, no exam results, no list of universities.
Facilities from the school's official website
·Swimming poolnot stated on the website
·Sports hallnot stated on the website
✓Laboratories
·Theatre or assembly hallnot stated on the website
✓Library
✓Catering
·School transportnot stated on the website
✓Boarding
Also on site: Art studio
Campus: The school stands in the north-west of Córdoba and is spread across two buildings five hundred metres apart. The further one holds the early years stage: classrooms, a library, a kitchen, offices and a garden with shady areas for play and outdoor learning. The main one holds the primary school. Secondary and sixth form occupy a separate modern building with spacious, bright classrooms, three laboratories, a new art room, a photographic studio and a large music studio with individual practice rooms. The boarding house "El Mirador del Británico" has shared bedrooms, study areas, a spacious common room, its own dining facilities and green outdoor spaces.
Teaching staff from the school's official website
·Teachers listed by namenot published
·Teacher qualificationsnot stated
·Number of teachersthe school does not say
✓Students per teacher or class sizein the key facts above
On its team page the school lists more than eighty people by name and post - teachers, coordinators for subjects, the IB and CAS, learning support, administration and boarding staff; the Principal is Neil Murfin. The school gives the size of its primary classes - about twenty-five pupils. It publishes no teacher qualifications and no pupil-teacher ratio.
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 policynot stated on the website
·Staff trainingnot stated on the website
·Anti-bullying policynot stated on the website
Of the boarding house the school writes that supervision runs "24/7", that is around the clock seven days a week. It keeps its child protection policy in a separate "School Policies" section, but that page could not be read on this visit; on the pages that were read the school names no psychologist, medical room or security staff.
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%)84 Community rating (16%)no dataparent reviews are needed: the criterion switches on at the fifth verified one Exams and destinations (12%) scored on disclosed data55 Safety and wellbeing (12%) scored on disclosed data55 Accreditation and verifiability (10%)95 Teaching staff (10%) scored on disclosed data55 Facilities (10%) scored on disclosed data80 Clubs and activities (8%) scored on disclosed data55 Value for money (6%) scored at the median86 "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