← Back to homeColegio Europeo de Madrid
Las Rozas de Madrid, Spain · est. 1989 · Private
Illustration · Las Rozas de Madrid
Colegio Europeo de Madrid, also known as CEM, has worked in Las Rozas de Madrid since 1989 and belongs to the international Cognita group of schools, more than one hundred schools worldwide. The school takes children from four months to the second year of the bachillerato, at eighteen, and calls itself bilingual: in the nursery English is the main language for almost all of the day, and from the first year of primary school teaching is in English and Spanish. It is authorised for the IB primary and middle years programmes (PYP and MYP), runs its own preparatory Pre-PYP programme for the youngest, and has applied as a candidate for the IB Diploma Programme, which it announces from 2027/2028 alongside the national bachillerato. As a second and third language pupils choose French, German or Chinese and take external exams in them: Cambridge for English, DELF, Goethe and YCT or HSK; the school is a Cambridge exam centre. The school publishes its university entrance exam results: one hundred per cent passed, in 2025-2026 the average access grade was 8.00, 13 students scored more than 12 out of 14, and the best result was 13.33. The school has a dedicated safeguarding team and a psycho-pedagogical department, the Be Well Together wellbeing programme, about twenty clubs, a school bus and a summer camp for children up to twelve. For families from other countries the school has a separate page about moving to Las Rozas.
Key facts
Tuition
≈ $4 112–8 597 a year
364–761 EUR a month
The year is counted as ten payments: the school does not say how many payments it takes.
Programmes
IB · PYP, MYP · National programme
Admits from
4 months · Pre-School
Languages of instruction
English, Spanish
Languages taught
French, German, Chinese
Registration fee
≈ $407
360 EUR
About the fees The school publishes its fees for 2026-2027 itself, as a file on its fees page: these are monthly payments, ten equal instalments from September to June. Nursery under one year 427 euros for 4 hours and 602 for 8 hours, first cycle ages 1-2: 364 and 520 euros, second cycle ages 3-5: 565 euros. Primary school: first and second grades 623 euros, third and fourth 660, fifth and sixth 678. Secondary school: first and second years 691 euros, third 718, fourth 731. Bachillerato: first year 751 euros, second 761. Discounts: 10 per cent for a younger brother or sister, 20 for the third child, 50 for the fourth and further children; 1 per cent for paying the year before September.
Admissions Registration is open all year. The school speaks directly to international families moving to Spain and helps them settle in Las Rozas; it names no restrictions on citizenship. The procedure has five steps: an interview with the admissions office and a question about free places in the age group, a visit to the school or an open day, a meeting of the child with the head of the stage and a level test from the fifth year of primary school, an official offer of a place if one is available and the school suits the child, and then the documents and the admission fee, which secures the place. Children are taken from four months, in the nursery building.
Stages and year groups Grades nursery from 4 months - 2nd year of bachillerato (to age 18). Nursery for ages 0-6 in a separate building (from four months to five years), primary school for ages 6-12, secondary school (ESO) for ages 12-16 and bachillerato for ages 16-18. Children aged 1-2 follow the school's own Pre-PYP programme, from age three the IB Primary Years Programme (PYP), in secondary school the IB Middle Years Programme (MYP), in the bachillerato the national programme, and the IB Diploma Programme is announced from 2027/2028 as a candidate. The school names no number of classes and no class sizes, and speaks of small classes.
Address Calle Cólquide 14, 28231 Las Rozas de Madrid
Accreditations and programmes verified against official registries
IB · PYP, MYP · 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
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: PYP (ages 3-12), MYP (ages 11-16). PYP is the primary stage, ages 3 to 12. It is not a set of subjects but a frame for the whole school: learning is built around lines of inquiry, and there are no exams at the end. MYP is the middle stage, ages 11 to 16. There are no exams here either; at the end an optional electronic assessment of pupils' work is possible.
Register to check for yourself, and the full guide →National programme
The state school programme of the country the school stands in: it is set by that country's ministry of education, which also licenses the school and awards the leaving certificate. That certificate is used for entry to local universities, and abroad it is matched to the local one.
What this means for this school. This entry does not count towards the score, and that is deliberate. Every lawful school in a country works to the national programme, so on its own it tells one school apart from no other - unlike the French, German or Russian programmes, which are carried abroad and confirmed by the register of their organisation. We show it because a parent needs to know what programme their child is taught and what certificate the child will get. Counting it would lift the whole ranking at once and still tell nobody apart.
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
Exam results For the 2025-2026 university entrance exam (PAU) the school reports one hundred per cent passed, an average access grade of 8.00 and an average of 10.98 out of 14 among those who took the subject phase; 13 students scored more than 12 out of 14, three more than 13, and the best result was 13.33. The average grade rose by 0.5219 on the previous year. In languages over the year: 3 Cambridge certificates in the second and 2 CAE in the first year of bachillerato, 12 FCE in secondary school, 12 PET and 27 KET in primary; DELF A1, A2, B1 and B2, 5 Fit in Deutsch A1, 9 HSK. The school does not yet publish IB results: it announces the Diploma Programme from 2027/2028.
Facilities from the school's official website
·Swimming poolnot stated on the website
✓Sports hall
✓Laboratories
·Theatre or assembly hallnot stated on the website
✓Library
✓Catering
✓School transport
·Boardingnot stated on the website
Also on site: Sports ground or field · Art studio · Playground · Makerspace
Campus: Two buildings. The nursery building for children from four months to five years: spacious classrooms opening onto their own patios, a sensory room, a recently renovated library and outdoor play areas. The main building from the first year of primary to the second year of bachillerato: classrooms designed for the IB programmes, primary and secondary libraries, a science laboratory, the European Valley technology lab, an art room and hall, a bachillerato terrace, an outdoor athletics track, two multipurpose courts, a gym and a separate judo room, a playground. A canteen and a school bus through Las Rozas, Torrelodones, Majadahonda and other towns.
Clubs and activities (18): Football Club · Volleyball Club · Basketball Club · Judo Club · Fencing · Acrobatics · Sports Games · Speech Therapy · Debate Club · Lego Robotics & Video Game Design · Kumon · Chinese · German · French · Spanish, Ballet & Modern Dance · Piano · Painting Workshop · Gymnastics
Summer camp: the school runs its own camp; whether it takes children from outside is not stated on the website
The summer camp in Las Rozas runs from 22 June to 24 July, for children up to twelve, in themed weeks, for half a day or a full day, with lunch and an afternoon snack, in air-conditioned classrooms, one instructor per ten children. For ages 0-6 there are sports and games (football, judo, fencing, capoeira, chess), crafts, water games and a circus show with a talent contest; for ages 6-12 alternative sports, workshops on the theme of the week and an outing to Dehesa de Navalcarbón with a pool. Separately there is an intensive piano course with daily individual lessons of 30 minutes. The school gives prices via the registration link.
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 does not publish the number of its teachers; it writes that at every stage there are native or bilingual teachers and native language assistants. The leadership and coordination team is named: headteacher Marta Pérez Ximénez de Embún, the heads of the junior and senior schools, the coordinators of the PYP, the MYP and the bachillerato with the IB diploma, the heads of the humanities, sciences and modern languages departments, the school counsellor and the sports coordinator. Cognita teachers take professional development programmes run with UCL.
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 training
✓Anti-bullying policy
The school has a dedicated safeguarding team: specialists in child protection, mental health, digital safety, bullying and support for LGBTQIA+ young people, as well as a psycho-pedagogical department that also works with gifted children. The Be Well Together programme teaches social and emotional skills, and the school runs an anti-bullying policy. According to the school, the Cognita group vets staff on hiring, trains them in safeguarding and carries out a regular independent safeguarding review at every school. In the nursery there are staff trained in first aid. The school does not name security guards or video surveillance; the school policies are published only in Spanish.
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%)72 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 data75 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