← Back to homeColégio João Paulo II
Braga, Portugal · est. 2006 · Private
Illustration · Braga
Colégio João Paulo II was founded in September 2006 and belongs to EEAC - Ensino, S.A. It is a private school of Catholic origin working under pedagogical parallelism, and it names as its foundation the values of Love, Justice and Peace and the everyday living of the Christian faith. Starting with 83 students in 2006/2007, the school grew to 1400 students in 2023/2024: 123 in nursery, 315 in kindergarten, 365 in Years 1 to 4, 169 in Years 5 and 6, 246 in Years 7 to 9 and 182 in upper secondary. Its premises grew too: the Dume site was remodelled and enlarged in 2008, 2011 and 2016, and in 2019/2020 the school added the Sete Fontes site under the motto one school, two homes, one family. In Braga the school works on two sites and in Vila Real on a third, where the stages run from nursery to Year 12; Vila Real is given here in Portuguese spelling, and the Russian spelling needs to be set separately. A student's path runs from 4 months to Year 12. At the end of Year 8 the family chooses between staying on the official Portuguese curriculum and moving to the João Paulo II International School, where Years 9 and 10 are Cambridge IGCSE and Years 11 and 12 the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme, and where every subject is taught in English. The school says it is the first in Braga to offer the IB at upper secondary level, and that it is officially an IB World School authorised to offer the Diploma Programme. The international pathway sits in its own part of the Dume site, in rooms dedicated to it alone, with access to the laboratories, art rooms, sports hall and canteen. Compulsory IGCSE subjects are English, English Literature for native speakers, Portuguese as a mother tongue or foreign language, Mathematics, Sciences as a Double or Triple Award, and Physical Education; options are Art and Design, Design and Technology, Drama, Music, Business, Computer Science, Geography, History, Spanish, French, Physical Education as an examined subject and Global Perspectives. Examinations are external, with Cambridge International or Pearson Edexcel, at the end of Year 10. The IB Diploma is built on six subject groups and three core components: Theory of Knowledge, the Extended Essay and Creativity, Activity and Service; the school also speaks of the possibility of a bilingual diploma. The language of lessons is double. The Portuguese side leads here: the site, the internal rules, the educational project, the fee list and the admissions procedure are written in Portuguese, and lessons on the Portuguese curriculum run in Portuguese, while English becomes a subject in its own right from Year 3 with certification examinations from the University of Cambridge and runs five times a week in Years 1 to 4. The English side appears as a second language of lessons and on the international pathway becomes the only one. Besides English the school runs a foreign language workshop with French, Spanish and German in Years 5 and 6. Since 2021 the school has offered a dual diploma: under an agreement with Academica Corporation, students in Years 8 to 11 may be enrolled at the school and at an American high school at the same time, entirely in English and entirely online, and earn an American high school diploma alongside Portuguese upper secondary education. Since the same year, 2021, the school has run a digital transition on iPad and Apple tools. All extracurricular life is gathered into the João Paulo II Academy, divided into Schools of Being, Caring, Sport, the Arts, Knowledge and Parents and Grandparents; competitive sport is separated into a Sports Club with volleyball, karate and rope skipping, open from the age of 3. The Psychology and Guidance Service works from two psychopedagogical offices on each site. School transport covers several zones in the Braga and Vila Real regions. On its alumni page the school names its own students and says where they went: Universidade do Minho, Universidade de Lisboa and Technische Universiteit Delft. The school belongs to AEEP, the association of private and cooperative educational establishments in Portugal, and to APEC, the Portuguese association of Catholic schools, is named a Cambridge Educational Partner, takes part in the Escola Amiga da Criança initiative and provides its community with Office 365 Education licences.
Key facts
Tuition
≈ $4 792–10 479 a year
4 125–9 020 EUR
Programmes
IB · DP · Cambridge · IGCSE · Pearson Edexcel · National programme
Admits from
4 months · Pre-School
Languages of instruction
Portuguese, English
Languages taught
French, Spanish, German
About the fees Fees for the 2026/2027 school year on the Braga sites on the Portuguese curriculum: nursery and kindergarten 4125 euros a year or 11 instalments of 375 euros; Years 1 to 4 4400 euros a year or 11 instalments of 400 euros; Years 5 to 9 4730 euros a year or 11 instalments of 430 euros; upper secondary 4840 euros a year or 11 instalments of 440 euros. On the international pathway: Cambridge IGCSE in Years 9 and 10 8085 euros a year or 11 instalments of 735 euros; the IB Diploma Programme in Years 11 and 12 9020 euros a year or 11 instalments of 820 euros. Payment may be made once a year, requested in September and paid in October, or in 11 monthly instalments from September to July; paying by the year earns a 3 per cent discount. Lunch, extended hours and extracurricular activities are charged separately. The Years 1 to 4 fee includes music once a week, dramatic expression and theatre once a week, physical education twice a week, English with Cambridge five times a week, science and environment once a week and computing once a week. The kindergarten fee includes music, dramatic play and theatre, physical education and swimming once a week each, English four times a week and science and environment once a week; in the nursery groups, music for babies once a week, physical and motor expression twice a week, English twice a week and science and environment once a week. The Years 5 to 9 fee includes a heavier timetable in particular subjects, daily English, preparation for the national examinations and educational support with question rooms and tutoring; the upper secondary fee includes a heavier timetable in the specialist subjects, preparation for the national examinations and educational support.
Admissions Pre-registration runs online all year and by itself does not secure a place. After it the family is invited to a meeting with the Admissions team or the Pedagogical Management, which both parents and student should attend; the school may ask for grades and attendance and behaviour records from the last year or term. Priority goes to siblings of enrolled students, then to children of staff, then to everyone else in order of registration, all within the places available. A place is confirmed by telephone, after which a link to the enrolment steps arrives: the online form, identification documents for student and parents, the vaccination record, and payment of the enrolment fee. The Pedagogical Management may refuse an application that does not identify with the school's educational project and ethos, and is not obliged to give reasons. A child with special educational needs must be declared at the admissions interview, and such students are admitted if there is a place and if the school, together with the family, has the appropriate resources. Applications are accepted from the age of 4 months up to Year 12. At enrolment the guardian accepts the school's ethos and internal rules and, for basic and upper secondary students, accepts transfer to another school should three disciplinary reports considered serious or very serious be filed. Financial support and scholarships exist under criteria the school sets itself. The school admits foreign children: on the international pathway Portuguese is taught as a mother tongue or as a foreign language, English Literature is taught separately for native speakers, and the whole site, including the admissions procedure and the answers to questions, is mirrored in English. No nationality or residence requirement is set. Enrolment renewal runs from January, and a place not confirmed in time is considered vacant twenty-four hours later.
Stages and year groups Grades Nursery from 4 months, kindergarten, Years 1 to 4, Years 5 to 6, Years 7 to 9 and upper secondary Years 10 to 12; from 4 months to Year 12. The stages are split across sites. The Sete Fontes site in Braga holds nursery, kindergarten and Years 1 to 4, the Dume site in Braga holds Years 5 to 12 and the international pathway; a separate site in Vila Real runs the whole path from nursery to Year 12. At the end of Year 8 a student chooses between continuing on the official Portuguese curriculum and moving to the João Paulo II International School, where Years 9 and 10 are Cambridge IGCSE and Years 11 and 12 are the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme, with every subject taught in English. The school calls itself the first in Braga to offer the IB curriculum at upper secondary level. Extended hours run from 7:30 to 20:00.
Address Rua de S. Frutuoso 40, Dume (S. Martinho), 4700-085 Braga
Accreditations and programmes verified against official registries
IB · DP · authorised programmeCambridge · IGCSE · authorised programmePearson · authorised programmeThe school writes that it enters pupils for IGCSE either through Cambridge International or through Pearson Edexcel. The school is not in the official Pearson registry: the Portuguese list was swept in full on 27.09.2026 and agreed with the registry's own counter. The record therefore stands on the school's own word and does not count towards the score.
school 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 →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 this status would mean. 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 school is not in the organisation's register: the status comes from the school's own words. Which Pearson qualifications this school is approved for is not stated here.
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.
Exams and destinations from the school's official website
Where leavers go: Universidade do Minho · Universidade de Lisboa · Technische Universiteit Delft
The school names its own leavers on its alumni page and says where they went: Universidade do Minho for Industrial Engineering and Management, Universidade de Lisboa for Technological Physics and Technische Universiteit Delft. It publishes no overall placement rate and no summary by university. Separately, in describing the IB programme, the school lists universities worldwide that accept the IB diploma, but those are not its own placements.
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: The school stands on two sites in Braga and keeps a third in Vila Real. The Dume site occupies an estate of about 8000 square metres and consists of a restored mansion and a purpose-built modern building. The mansion holds the Dom Jorge Ortiga library, with separate areas for individual reading, group study, events and exhibitions, along with the offices of the Pedagogical Management, the Administration and the Design and Communication Office. In the modern building, the upper floor holds twenty-one classrooms, four individual offices for middle management, a Music Education room, a Visual and Technological Education room, two properly equipped laboratories for Physics and Chemistry and for Biology and Geology, an IT room, a staff room and a room for receiving parents; Years 5 to 9 and part of the upper school work there. The ground floor holds two gatehouses, north and south, fourteen activity and teaching rooms housing kindergarten, Years 1 to 4 and part of the upper school, two psychopedagogical offices, a Visual and Technological Education room, the reprography room, the uniform shop, the administrative services with the secretariat, four offices and a meeting room, the chapel, the refectory, the bar and the auditorium. From there one reaches the outdoor space with two equipped parks and a concrete football and basketball court. An adjoining building holds three offices, the sports hall, a multipurpose hall, changing rooms, a synthetic-turf football pitch and athletics tracks; outside there are two car parks. The school has its own van and bus, which it uses for school transport, field trips and travel between the sites. The Sete Fontes site opened in 2019 in a landmark building of 6492 square metres with 9700 square metres of surrounding grounds: the ground floor holds the canteen, a welcome room, themed rooms for music, creativity, pottery, the future and painting, a covered play area, bathrooms for children and adults and a gatehouse; the next floor up holds twelve classrooms for kindergarten groups of three, four and five-year-olds, a laboratory, two multipurpose rooms and an office; the floor above that holds twelve classrooms for Years 1 to 4, two offices, the staff room, the library, the IT room, the psychopedagogical office, a laboratory and a multipurpose room; the top floor holds nine nursery rooms, three of them baby rooms with milk kitchens and changing areas, three for one-year-olds and three for two-year-olds. An indoor slide links the ground floor and the two floors above it. Outside there are two playgrounds, the sports field, a large wooded area and a car park. The international pathway works in its own part of the Dume site, in rooms dedicated to it alone, with access to the laboratories, art rooms, sports hall and canteen.
Clubs and activities: Voleibol · Karaté · Rope Skipping · Música · Teatro · Dança · Ballet · Pintura · Olaria · Voluntariado · Oficina das Línguas Estrangeiras
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: A teacher at the school, as the school itself writes, must be open to innovation and take an active part in continuous training - scientific, pedagogical, personal, social and religious; the school describes its teachers' practice as impartial, multicultural and inclusive. The team works under the motto Valores e Futuro on a Christian and humanist ethic. The school draws on the 2018 IGEC inspection report and on internal and external assessment indicators when it sets its goals. Staff receive continuous training under a plan aligned with the educational mission, through the school's own Escola do Ser.
The teaching body has grown along with demand, and the school says it bets on its stability: this gives continuity of pedagogical support, stronger bonds with the children and shared working habits. In Years 1 to 4 one class teacher works with a co-teacher, and in artistic education and physical education the school provides for co-teaching. The Psychology and Guidance Service runs consultancy sessions, individual meetings with students and class-level interventions; it has two specialist psychologists working directly with teachers and families. There is tutoring led by a teacher or a psychologist, and rooms open to all students from Year 5 where subject teachers answer questions. Since 2021 the school has run a digital transition on iPad and Apple teaching tools: a teacher can monitor what a student is doing, allow a piece of work to be shown on the Apple TV, lock the iPad to a single app or block access entirely.
Safety and wellbeing from the school's official website
·CCTVnot stated on the website
✓Security staff
✓Access control
·Nurse or medical roomnot stated on the website
✓Counsellor
✓Child protection policy
·Staff trainingnot stated on the website
·Anti-bullying policynot stated on the website
Both sites have gatehouses, two of them on the Dume site, north and south. Everyone in the school community must carry a document allowing quick identification. The person in charge of the gatehouse asks a visitor for identification when he does not know them or when their identity, origin or intentions raise doubts, and admits no one without identification or anyone presumed likely to disturb the school's work. For everyone except students, teachers and staff, movement within the school is restricted to the service being visited, after identification and with escort from the gatehouse. Cars are admitted to the grounds only in exceptional cases and for loading and unloading. A child is released only to the parents, the legal guardian or a person named in writing by the guardian at enrolment, with their identifying details; changes must be reported to the secretariat at once. The enrolment fee includes school insurance. Mobile phones and electronic games are forbidden at school, as are dangerous objects and behaviour endangering anyone's physical integrity. Students' rights expressly include the safeguarding of their safety at school and respect for their physical and psychological integrity, and everyone's duties include contributing to the preservation of the safety and physical and psychological integrity of others. Recording or filming during and outside lessons without management authorisation is forbidden. The school has a whistleblowing channel. Disciplinary procedure is set out with deadlines, and cases requiring intervention are reported to the Ministry of Education service responsible for coordinating school safety.
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 data70 Safety and wellbeing (12%) scored on disclosed data80 Accreditation and verifiability (10%)90 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.
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