← Back to homeDallington School
Madrid, Spain · Private
Illustration · Madrid
Dallington School is a small private British school in the Parque Conde de Orgaz district of Madrid, founded by two psychologists, Paola and María Recio, who also run it; its leadership separately names James Shallcross, co-author of the national inspection system for British schools in Spain. Children are taken from the age of two and stay to eighteen, following the British curriculum laid out from the Foundation Stage to Key Stage 5 with the Spanish year groups set alongside. In Years 10-11 pupils sit IGCSEs - usually between seven and nine subjects, of which English language and literature, mathematics, coordinated sciences, Spanish and French are compulsory - and the school explains that at least four passes are needed for recognition of the Spanish ESO certificate. The senior stage is called the Double Bac: three or four A-Levels of the pupil's choosing plus Spanish PCE examinations in a science or social science stream, aimed at universities both in Spain and abroad. The timetable has subjects of the school's own - CTS (Communication and Thinking Skills) and GAP (Global Awareness Project). The school runs its own psycho-pedagogical department: it is led by one of the head teachers, with twenty years in educational and clinical psychology, and staffed by speech therapists and educational psychologists. The menu is organic and deliberately restricted: no farmed fish, no eggs, no dairy except yoghurt, no nuts, no sugar in desserts, everything baked, steamed or grilled. The main thing a parent needs to know: the school has no A-Level results of its own yet - the first are expected in 2027.
Key facts
Programmes
Cambridge · IGCSE, A-Level
Languages of instruction
English, Spanish
About the fees The school publishes fees only for the senior stage, on the page for its Double Bac programme: a one-off enrolment fee of 870 euros for new pupils and 1045 euros a month; the school does not say how many monthly payments there are in a year. For the other stages - kindergarten, primary and secondary - there are no figures on the site.
Admissions The school opened admission for 2026/27 in October 2025. It reduces the procedure to an enquiry: fill in the form on the admissions page or telephone to arrange a visit and obtain information. On the pages read it names no entrance examinations, tests or enrolment fees. There are two admissions contacts - the school's main number and a mobile - plus the address admissions@dallingtonschool.com. The school says nothing about foreigners or citizenship on its admission page.
Stages and year groups Grades Pre-Nursery (ages 2-3) - Year 13, ages 2 to 18. The stages run right through and are set out alongside the Spanish ones: Foundation Stage - Pre-Nursery from 2 to 3, Nursery (1º Infantil), Reception (2º Infantil); Key Stage 1 - Year 1 (3º Infantil) and Year 2 (1º Primaria); Key Stage 2 - Years 3-6 (2º-5º Primaria); Key Stage 3 - Year 7 (6º Primaria), Year 8 (1º ESO), Year 9 (2º ESO); Key Stage 4 - Year 10 (3º ESO) and Year 11 (4º ESO) with IGCSE examinations; Key Stage 5 - Year 12 and Year 13, that is 1º and 2º of the baccalaureate, on the Double Bac programme. The school day runs from 9:00 to 16:30, with Key Stage 3 and 4 starting at 8:45 and the kindergarten finishing at 16:15; the doors open at 8:20 in primary and secondary and at 8:30 in the kindergarten, and a Breakfast Club runs from 8:00. Play Club and clubs run from 16:30 to 17:30. The senior stage has a compressed day: 8:30 to 14:30.
Address Calle Castillo de Aysa 8, 28043 Madrid
Accreditations and programmes verified against official registries
Cambridge · IGCSE, A-Level · authorised programmeThe school declares a NABSS (National Association of British Schools in Spain) inspection with full authorisation for four years following February 2026 and publishes the report, and it also mentions British Council inspections. These records were not put into accred: the organisations are not in the directory at /home/claude/site/src/data/accreditors.ts.
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
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), A-Level (ages 16-18). IGCSE means exams at around Year 10 or 11, the British counterpart of a lower secondary leaving certificate. 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 →Exams and destinations from the school's official website
Exam results The school publishes its IGCSE results itself, and in full: for 2026, more than half of the examinations at A*/A and an improvement on 2025 both in passes and in top grades; for 2025, every pupil met the requirements for the Spanish 4º ESO certificate. The school has no A-Level results of its own yet: the first are expected in 2027.
Facilities from the school's official website
·Swimming poolnot stated on the website
·Sports hallnot stated on the website
·Laboratoriesnot stated on the website
·Theatre or assembly hallnot stated on the website
·Librarynot stated on the website
·Cateringnot stated on the website
✓School transport
·Boardingnot stated on the website
Campus: Two sites in the Parque Conde de Orgaz district of Madrid, 1.5 kilometres apart: the Infant building at Ronda de Sobradiel 20 and the primary and secondary building at Calle Castillo de Aysa 8. On the pages read the school names no provision - no halls, laboratories or library; its Facilities page consists of two addresses and photographs. School routes are run by an outside carrier, Jeslusan, with buses serving Parque Conde Orgaz - Piovera and Campo de las Naciones, Barrio Salamanca - Retiro, Paseo de la Castellana, Chamartín and Valdebebas - Encinar de los Reyes; there is no bus after evening clubs.
Clubs and activities (16): Rugby · Football · Girls' football · Volleyball · Basketball · Tennis and padel · Net cricket · Athletics · Dance · Art · Cookery workshop · Chess · Robotics · Kumon · Motor skills · Little cooks
Summer camp: the school runs its own camp; whether it takes children from outside is not stated on the website
In summer 2026 the school runs a Summer School in weekly sessions: 22 to 26 June, 29 June to 3 July and 6 to 10 July, Monday to Friday from 9:00 to 16:00, with optional extended hours from 8:00 to 9:00 and from 16:00 to 17:00. It is an English immersion programme with activities and sports to choose from, public speaking and teamwork; it is taught only by the school's own native-speaker teachers. There are two groups, Infants and Fellows. The page gives no prices.
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 staff is published by name and by service: the founders and head teachers Paola and María Recio Zapata, both psychologists and teachers; the senior consultant and supervisor of secondary education James Shallcross - more than forty years in education, co-author of the national inspection system for British schools in Spain, nineteen years on the national committee of associations of British schools in Spain, and an MBE for services to education in 2000; the headmaster Peter Hay, responsible for implementing the British curriculum; lead teachers and the senior leadership team are named separately. The school does not state a pupil-teacher ratio or class sizes.
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 trainingnot stated on the website
·Anti-bullying policynot stated on the website
The school runs its own psycho-pedagogical department and describes its work in detail: it is led by María Recio, one of the head teachers, with twenty years in educational and clinical psychology and family psychotherapy, together with Paola Recio, also a psychologist, and a team of speech therapists and educational psychologists. The department makes sure the school adapts to each pupil's needs, identifies academic, pedagogical and emotional needs together with teachers and parents, prepares curriculum adaptations and advises families. The school names neither security staff nor a medical room.
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%)85 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 data60 Accreditation and verifiability (10%)85 Teaching staff (10%) scored on disclosed data55 Facilities (10%) scored on disclosed data65 Clubs and activities (8%) scored on disclosed data78 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.
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