← Back to homeThe British School of Barcelona
Castelldefels, Spain · est. 1958 · Private
Illustration · Castelldefels
The British School of Barcelona is a private British school for children from 2 to 18 years old, with six sites in Castelldefels, Sitges, Barcelona and Cabrera de Mar; it is part of the Cognita group. The school was founded 68 years ago in Castelldefels as The Anglo-American School; it later took its present name and moved to its current site in the same town. It has more than 2000 pupils and, in its own words, more than 80 nationalities. All lessons are taught in English except Spanish and Catalan, which are offered at every level from beginners to native speakers; French and German are added in secondary school. The curriculum is the English National Curriculum from Early Years to Year 11, with the option of obtaining the Spanish ESO certificate; at the end of Year 11 pupils sit 9-10 GCSE examinations. In Year 12-13 students choose between A Level at the Nexus campus and the IB Diploma at Nexus and at the City campus in Barcelona, where the upper school is built around the IB. The British Schools Overseas inspection in October 2024 rated the school outstanding in every category, and it has held the Wellbeing Award for Schools since 2022, renewed in 2026. The school describes itself as non-selective. It publishes its fees itself, per year, in euros, separately for each campus.
Key facts
Tuition
≈ $6 891–23 645 a year
6 100–20 930 EUR
Programmes
IB · DP · Cambridge · A-Level
Admits from
2 years · Pre-School
Languages of instruction
English
Languages taught
Spanish, Catalan, French, German
Summer camp
Yes, open to all
About the fees The school publishes its fees itself for the 2026-2027 school year, per year, in euros; they are paid in 10 instalments, with a 2 per cent discount for paying the whole year by transfer before the start of the school year. Castelldefels, Sitges and Nexus: Pre-Nursery (Sitges only) from 6100 euros for 5 half days to 8600 euros full time, Nursery from 8600 to 12220 euros, Reception 12220, Year 1-2: 13860, Year 3: 16420, Year 4-6: 16580, Year 7: 17700, Year 8: 18370, Year 9: 16450, Year 10-11: 17250, A Level 19150, IB 19650 euros. Barcelona, City campus: Nursery and Reception 13190, Year 1-2: 15180, Year 3: 17980, Year 4-6: 18080, Year 7: 19175, Year 8-9: 19855, Year 10-11: 20930, Year 12-13: 20700 euros. Maresme: Nursery and Reception 12220, Year 1-2: 13860, Year 3: 16420, Year 4-6: 16580, Year 7: 17700, Year 8: 18370, Year 9: 18620, Year 10-11: 19420, Year 12-13: 19650 euros. Up to Year 8 the fee includes lunch and a snack (at City lunch up to Year 11), morning care from 8:30 before lessons for the younger pupils, materials and books, an iPad in Year 4-6 and insurance. A tuition discount applies from the third child.
Admissions The school admits international pupils and says so directly: children of more than 80 nationalities study there, there is a separate page for international families, online visits for those relocating and a settling-in programme with home visits, meeting the class before school starts and an assigned classmate buddy. Admission follows 7 steps: a conversation with the admissions team, a visit, an online application with reports from the previous school, passport or ID and a reference, an assessment or interview, a time-limited offer of a place, documents and the matriculation fee, and the start of school; if there are no places the child goes on a waiting list. No English is required for Pre-Nursery, Nursery and Reception. In Year 1-2 age-appropriate spoken English is needed, from Year 3 and in secondary school spoken and written English, with an English test, reports, a reference and a meeting with the head of the stage. For Year 12-13 five GCSEs graded 9-4 or equivalent are required, plus English and mathematics tests and possibly tests in the chosen subjects.
Stages and year groups Grades Pre-Nursery (age 2) - Year 13 (age 18). Early Years: Pre-Nursery from age 2 (Sitges only), Nursery and Reception, with the Curiosity Approach based on play and inquiry. Primary: Year 1-6 following the English National Curriculum with an inquiry-based approach. Secondary: Year 7-11 following the British curriculum with the option of the Spanish ESO, and 9-10 GCSE examinations at the end of Year 11. Pre-University, Year 12-13: A Level (usually 3 subjects out of 16 plus Spanish as a fourth, with the optional Extended Project Qualification) at the Nexus campus, or the IB Diploma at Nexus and City; for entry to Spanish universities there are after-school classes in Spanish subjects. Stages by campus: Castelldefels ages 3-16, Nexus 16-18, Sitges 2-11, City Esperança 3-6, City Lucà 6-18, Maresme 3-11 from September 2026 and secondary from September 2027.
Address Carrer Ginesta 26, 08860 Castelldefels, Barcelona
Accreditations and programmes verified against official registries
BSO · accreditationIB · DP · authorised programmeCambridge · A-Level · authorised programmeCognita · 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
BSOBritish government inspection of schools overseas
A scheme of the UK Department for Education: a school abroad is inspected against the standards for independent schools in England, including safeguarding and the standards for boarding. The inspections are done by independent inspectorates approved by the department, and the inspectorates themselves are monitored annually by Ofsted. The reports are published in full on the government website.
What the badge means for this school. The school has been through this organisation's accreditation. It was judged as a whole: governance, safeguarding, staff, premises, teaching. The entry stands in the organisation's public register - anyone can check it.
Register to check for yourself, and the full guide →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 →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: A-Level (ages 16-18). A-Level is the senior years, and their results are what British and many other universities admit on.
Register to check for yourself, and the full guide →Cognitaschool network
A group of schools launched in 2004; the legal entity in the footer of the site is Cognita Holdings Limited. The site names 90 schools in 21 countries, 14 curricula and more than 22,000 staff, and the numbers agree on all the pages read. The section on a school joining the group speaks of working with the owners of schools and of integrating the school, but does not say outright whether the school passes into ownership; the word "franchise" does not appear on the site. The majority owner of Cognita itself is named as Jacobs Holding AG.
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
34.5 (world average 30.88)
Exam results Results for 2026 according to the school. IB: average score 34.5 against a world average of 30.88, 99 per cent passed, 15 students scored more than 40 points and one the maximum 45. A Level: 100 per cent passed, A*-A in 44 per cent of entries, 25 per cent of students achieved at least three A grades. GCSE: 22 per cent of grades were 9, 53 per cent were 7-9. Over 11 years the school's pupils have received 106 Outstanding Learner awards from Pearson Edexcel and Cambridge, including 12 for the highest mark in the world and 7 for the highest in Europe.
Where leavers go: University of Oxford · University of Warwick · King's College London · University of Bristol · University College London · ESADE · Universitat de Barcelona · IE University · La Salle
According to the school's data on the class of 2026, 55 per cent of the leavers who went straight to university stayed in Spain, 21 per cent went to study in the UK and 24 per cent went to other European countries (the Netherlands, Switzerland, Italy, Germany, France) or to the United States, Canada and China.
Facilities from the school's official website
·Swimming poolnot stated on the website
✓Sports hall
✓Laboratories
✓Theatre or assembly hall
✓Library
✓Catering
✓School transport
·Boardingnot stated on the website
Also on site: Sports ground or field · Art studio · Playground
Campus: Castelldefels, Carrer Ginesta 26: separate areas for Early Years, primary and secondary; in secondary, rooms for every subject including IT, nine science laboratories, an art block, a music department with a teaching room and five practice rooms, a learning resources centre and a wellbeing centre; a shared 376-seat theatre, dining rooms, a medical room, a study garden, a gym, three outdoor courts and an artificial turf pitch. Opposite Nexus is the 897 square metre STEAM centre with a large laboratory, 10 classrooms, an art room and a science garden. Next door is a 9000 square metre rugby and football stadium with a World Rugby certified 8000 square metre pitch, a table tennis hall, six changing rooms and a 300-seat grandstand. Nexus, Carrer Ginesta 2-10: a three-storey centre with seminar rooms, an independent study centre and a cafeteria. Sitges: early years areas, a languages centre, an IT centre, a food technology centre, a STEAM area, a library, a soundproofed music room and three rehearsal rooms, a theatre, dining rooms, a medical room and play areas. Barcelona, City: Esperança in a Modernist building near Passeig de la Bonanova, 10 teaching spaces and a terrace; Lucà, two connected buildings, 5500 square metres indoors and 1200 outdoors, laboratories, an art room, workshops and 23000 square metres of sports facilities on and off site. Maresme, Cabrera de Mar: 16500 square metres, laboratories, music and art spaces, a covered gym, a 1400 square metre sports field, its own kitchen and 80 solar panels. Bus: 15 regular routes and 3 shuttles, used by almost 400 pupils.
Clubs and activities: Robotics · Programming · Modern dance and hip-hop · Trampolining · Skateboarding · Surfing · Ballet · Cookery · Start-up Kids · LEGO · Theatre · Drawing and handicrafts · ALOHA (mental math) · Padel · Swimming · Percussion · Guitar · Piano · Singing · Strings
Summer camp: the school runs its own camp and takes children from outside as well
In summer and in the holidays the school is open both to its own pupils and to children from other schools, aged 3 to 16, with programmes in English and Spanish. BSB Summer School for ages 3-12 at the Castelldefels and Sitges campuses, in English, from 25 June to 31 July 2026, half day (9:00-13:00) at 195 euros a week or full day (9:00-17:00) with lunch at 310 euros, with a one-off fee of 40 euros for children from other schools; there is a bus from Barcelona. BSB Summer Language School for ages 11-16 in Castelldefels offers immersion in English or Spanish. There is also the Campus Multiesportiu sports camp and holiday camps during the year.
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 sizenot stated
All primary teachers, according to the school, are fully qualified with subject specialisms; Spanish and Catalan are taught by a separate team of language teachers; in Early Years qualified teams specialised in the early years work with the children. Individual music lessons are given by peripatetic teachers: in the 2025-2026 school year all 64 pupils who sat music examinations passed, 8 with Distinction and 32 with Merit. The school does not state the number of teachers, class sizes or the pupil to 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
✓Counsellor
✓Child protection policy
·Staff trainingnot stated on the website
✓Anti-bullying policy
The school publishes a safeguarding and child protection policy, an anti-bullying policy, policies on first aid, health and safety, pupil supervision and missing children, preventing extremism and risk assessment, as well as a complaints procedure and a whistleblowing channel. The student support team runs individual and group sessions: mentoring, counselling, peer support. The Castelldefels and Sitges campuses have medical rooms. Escorts travel on the buses. The school does not describe video surveillance, security guards or staff vetting 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%)86 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%)95 Teaching staff (10%) scored on disclosed data55 Facilities (10%) scored on disclosed data90 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