← Back to homeCasa del Mar Montessori
Marbella, Spain · est. 2016 · Private
Illustration · Marbella
Casa del Mar Montessori Colegio Internacional is a small international Montessori school at Calle Linda Vista 10 in San Pedro de Alcántara, a district of Marbella on the Costa del Sol. It has about seventy pupils, and that is the main thing to know about it: the school is deliberately small. It takes children from six months and carries them to twelve years of age in four stages - Nido for the youngest, the Infant Community, the Children's House and the Elementary Programme - and it works to the Montessori method in its pure form: mixed-age classes, work with concrete materials, the child's own choice of activity. The school calls itself international and keeps its pages in English. It claims two certifications - the Association Montessori Internationale and the American Montessori Society - and both are about the method rather than about the school as an institution. The main thing a parent needs to know: the school ends at twelve, so after it a child goes on to secondary school elsewhere,; the school opened in 2016 and does not publish its fees on its pages.
Key facts
Languages of instruction
English
Admissions The school year runs from September to June, and new families enrol during the admission period from January to March of the previous school year. Admission depends on available places, with classes balanced by age and stage: Nido - from 6 to 15 months, Infant Community - from 15 months to 3 years, Children's House - from 3 to 6 years, the elementary stage - from 6 to 12 years. First the family attends an open house or takes an online tour, after which it receives a link to the application form; then comes a conversation between the parents and the admissions director, and the school sends the decision and next steps by e-mail. The school writes nothing about children from other countries or language requirements.
Stages and year groups Grades Nido from 6 months - Elementary, up to age 12. There are four stages, and they follow the logic of Montessori rather than of grades: Nido from six months, the Infant Community, the Children's House and the Elementary Programme up to the age of twelve. The classes are mixed-age, a child chooses their own activity and works with concrete materials in a prepared environment. The school ends at twelve: it has no secondary stage, and it does not write where its pupils go.
Address Calle Linda Vista 10
Accreditations and programmes verified against official registries
MSA · accreditationschool 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
MSAMiddle States Association of Colleges and Schools
One of the oldest American accreditations, working since 1887 in more than a hundred countries and linked to the Office of Overseas Schools of the US State Department. It judges the school as an institution across twelve areas, including finances, governance, premises and student support.
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 →Montessori
The pedagogy of Maria Montessori: a child chooses the activity, works at their own pace with special materials, and mixed-age groups are arranged so that older children teach the younger ones. It is used most often in the nursery and primary stages.
What this means for this school. The name Montessori belongs to nobody: any school may call itself a Montessori school, and there is no single body that checks this. There are associations that train teachers and recognise schools, but membership of them is voluntary, and our entry means exactly that the school describes itself this way. This pedagogy has no leaving certificate, so what to look at is what the school finishes with.
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
The school does not describe its premises on its website.
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
The school publishes its staff by name, with biographies: lead guides and assistants at each stage - Nido, Infant Community, Children's House and elementary, an English support teacher, a physical education teacher, an inclusive learning support teacher, the school director and pedagogical director, and the founder, who is also the admissions director. In the school's words its teachers are AMI-certified; for the lead guides AMI diplomas, education degrees and experience in various countries are named. In classes above the Infant Community, the school writes, there are 20-30 children of three ages, in the Infant Community usually 10-15.
Safety and wellbeing from the school's official website
The school says nothing on its website about security, medical care or pupil support.
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 data55 Safety and wellbeing (12%) scored on disclosed data55 Accreditation and verifiability (10%)85 Teaching staff (10%) scored on disclosed data55 Facilities (10%) scored on disclosed data55 Clubs and activities (8%) scored on disclosed data55 Value for money (6%) scored at the median67 "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