← Back to homeColégio Internacional de Vilamoura
Vilamoura, Portugal · est. 1984 · Private
Illustration · Vilamoura
The school has run in Vilamoura since 1984 and takes children from 3 to 18 along two pathways at once. The national pathway follows the Portuguese curriculum, the international one the British curriculum, leading to IGCSE in Grades 9-10 and the IB Diploma in Grades 11-12. Lessons accordingly run in two languages: pages for parents and pupils, the timetable and the admission requirements are kept in both Portuguese and English; on the national pathway teaching is Portuguese with compulsory English from Grade 10 to 12, on the international pathway it is English, with Portuguese as a first or foreign language. Hence two languages of instruction. The school also teaches French, Spanish and Russian and prepares pupils for Cambridge certificates and DELF. Children of more than 40 nationalities attend. Since 2024 the school belongs to the Inspired group and recruits teachers across its schools. The campus covers 27000 square metres with laboratories, two gymnasiums and sports fields, a library and a dining hall. There is a psychology department with individual counselling, emotional-skills teaching from nursery onwards and staff training. From Grade 10 there is university counselling, with campus visits and help with personal statements.
Key facts
Tuition
≈ $7 458–17 367 a year
6 420–14 950 EUR
Programmes
IB · DP · Cambridge · IGCSE
Admits from
3 years · Pre-School
Languages of instruction
English, Portuguese
Languages taught
French, Spanish, Russian
About the fees Annual fees for 2026-27: international pathway from 8850 EUR in Nursery and Reception to 14950 EUR in Grades 11-12; national pathway from 6420 EUR in Grades 1-4 to 7630 EUR in kindergarten and 7350 EUR in Grades 10-12. Payment is by three termly or ten monthly instalments, eleven in Nursery.
Admissions The school takes children from 3 to 18 and considers applications all year round, subject to places. Children of more than 40 nationalities attend. The form of assessment depends on age: for the youngest it is observation during a visit or a taster morning, from Grade 3 of the international pathway an online GL CAT4 cognitive ability test, from Grade 5 of the national and Grade 6 of the international pathway a written assessment or an interview. From primary school upwards the most recent school report is required. An offer may be conditional, with an intensive English or Portuguese course to ease the transition.
Stages and year groups Stages run from nursery and kindergarten to Grade 12. National pathway: kindergarten, 1º-4º, 5º-6º, 7º-9º and 10º-12º ano. International pathway: Nursery and Reception, Pre 1 - Grade 3, Grades 4-5, Grades 6-8, Grades 9-10 with IGCSE and Grades 11-12 with the IB Diploma. The national upper stage is Grades 10-12, ages 15-18, the international one Grades 9-12, ages 14-18.
Address APT 856, 8125-911 Vilamoura, Algarve
Accreditations and programmes verified against official registries
IB · DP · authorised programmeCambridge · IGCSE · 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). 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: 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 →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
33.5 (world average 30.88)
Exam results The IB Diploma average score is 33.5. At IGCSE 100 percent passed and 48 percent obtained A* and A grades. At the national exams the average was 16.5, which is 4.1 points above the national average: biology and geology 17.2 and first place in the country, physics and chemistry 18 and first place, philosophy 19.2 and third place, mathematics 16.2. On these results the school is named first in the Algarve and fourth in the country, and ninth for Grade 9.
Where leavers go: King's College London · University of Edinburgh · Delft University of Technology · University of California, Berkeley · New York University · Georgia Institute of Technology · Trinity College Dublin · Nova School of Business and Economics · Instituto Superior Técnico · Universidade Católica Portuguesa
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
Campus: A campus of 27000 square metres: biology, chemistry and physics laboratories, two indoor gymnasiums, a synthetic grass football pitch, basketball, tennis and volleyball courts, music and art rooms, a ballet studio, individual music practice rooms, a library, a dining hall, a multipurpose room, interactive whiteboards and campus-wide Wi-Fi, and a school bus.
Clubs and activities: Model United Nations · Basketball · Football · Tennis · Netball · Touch rugby · Ballet · Chess
Summer programme away from campus: . The school runs no camp of its own on campus
The school runs its own summer camps on campus, and spring and carnival camps too. Beyond these, pupils have access to the Inspired group camps, held at its boarding schools and with partners in other countries: surfing in Portugal, English in the United Kingdom, football coaching in Spain, fashion design in Milan, scuba diving in the Bahamas.
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 sizenot stated
What the listings show: Teachers on the international pathway hold credentials as IB workshop leaders and Cambridge examiners.
Teachers are recruited across the Inspired network of schools; some are native English speakers. Specialist teachers deliver languages, mathematics, science, music and physical education. The school calls its teaching groups small and promises personalised guidance. A psychology department is in place.
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 policynot stated on the website
✓Staff training
·Anti-bullying policynot stated on the website
The school runs a psychology department: qualified psychologists provide individual counselling and learning support. From nursery onwards there are lessons in emotional skills, including a programme on working with fear and emotion workshops. Staff receive training on their own wellbeing and on work in a multicultural setting.
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 data80 Safety and wellbeing (12%) scored on disclosed data65 Accreditation and verifiability (10%)90 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