← Back to the rankingDen Norske Skolen Málaga
Benalmádena, Spain · est. 1989 · Private
Illustration · Benalmádena
Den Norske Skolen Málaga is a Norwegian private school for grades 1 to 10 on the Costa del Sol, in Arroyo de la Miel in the municipality of Benalmádena, about 15 minutes from Málaga airport. It was founded in 1989 on a farm in the mountains above Benalmádena; it later moved to rented premises in central Fuengirola and since autumn 2006 has been in its own new building in Arroyo de la Miel. It is a private school with Norwegian state funding: teaching follows the Norwegian LK20 curriculum and Norwegian education law, and all pupils are Norwegian citizens. The school is approved for 140 pupils and usually has about 30 staff. On top of the Norwegian timetable it teaches Spanish and English in all grades, holds a Spanish culture week and celebrates Norwegian holidays, and spends a lot of time outdoors: a beach day at the start of the year, a ski day, mountain hikes and an annual mountain march. Every morning the leadership greets each pupil at the gate.
Key facts
Tuition
≈ $3 231–3 480 a year
2 860–3 080 EUR
Programmes
Norwegian programme
Languages of instruction
Norwegian
Languages taught
English, Spanish
Class size
Grades 8-10 have on average 14 pupils per class.
About the fees Fees for the 2026-2027 school year are paid per term: grades 1-7 pay 1300 EUR for the autumn term and 1560 EUR for the spring term, 2860 EUR a year in total; grades 8-10 pay 1400 and 1680 EUR, 3080 EUR in total. The second and further children get a discount of 176 EUR in autumn and 264 EUR in spring. The autumn term is due by 1 March and the spring term by 10 December; the school offers no individual payment plans or financial aid.
Admissions Only children who can document Norwegian citizenship are admitted: applications without a copy of a Norwegian passport are not processed. The exception is Swedish citizens in grades 1-10 when there is no Swedish school nearby; they need approval from the Swedish agency Skolverket before the application is processed. There is one intake a year, only for a full school year from autumn, and no short-term places. The main deadline is 1 February of the year the school year starts; after that, applications received by 1 September are processed while places remain, and admission closes on 30 September. If there are more applicants than places, the order is: current pupils, children of staff, siblings of pupils, children of Norwegian foreign service staff, then a lottery among those who applied on time and among late applicants. A place is secured by paying the enrolment fee within 7 days of the offer. Current pupils confirm their place by 1 December. A refusal can be appealed to the Statsforvalteren.
Stages and year groups Grades 1-10. Norwegian grunnskole following Kunnskapsløftet (LK20): barnetrinnet grades 1-4, mellomtrinnet grades 5-7, ungdomsskolen grades 8-10 with grades and exams under Norwegian rules. Three interdisciplinary weeks a year, and grades 8-10 have electives such as stage and media. There is no upper secondary level (videregående). There are no international programmes (IB, Cambridge).
Accreditations and programmes verified against official registries
UdirThe Norwegian Directorate for Education and Training (Udir) has approved the school as a Norwegian school abroad under the Private Schools Act: it teaches the Norwegian curriculum and receives a state grant.
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
UdirNorwegian Directorate for Education and Training (Utdanningsdirektoratet, Udir)
A Norwegian school abroad: the full-day Norwegian curriculum, approval by Udir under the Private Schools Act and a state grant.
What the badge means for this school. This is a Norwegian school abroad: it teaches the full-day Norwegian curriculum, and the Norwegian Directorate for Education and Training approved it under the Private Schools Act - this can be seen in the Statsforvalteren list. The entry is not a quality inspection. The curriculum and the qualifications are Norwegian. Whom the school admits and what it charges are on its own website. The entry stands in the organisation's public register - anyone can check it.
Register to check for yourself, and the full guide →Norwegian programme
The Norwegian school curriculum taught in Norwegian under the LK20 curriculum: barneskole and ungdomsskole (Years 1-10) and, at some schools, the upper-secondary videregående skole leading to the Norwegian vitnemål.
What this means for this school. The curriculum is set by the Norwegian state: the school is approved by the Norwegian Directorate for Education and Training (Udir) under the Private Schools Act, follows the Norwegian curriculum and receives a state grant. A child who returns to Norway carries on without switching from another system.
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 from the school's official website
·Swimming poolnot stated on the website
·Sports hallnot stated on the website
✓Laboratories
·Theatre or assembly hallnot stated on the website
✓Library
✓Catering
·School transportnot stated on the website
·Boardingnot stated on the website
Also on site: Sports ground or field · Art studio · Playground
Campus: The school has its own Spanish-style building in Arroyo de la Miel, which it moved into in 2006 and which was later extended. All classrooms are bright and air-conditioned, with broadband, large Promethean screens and AppleTV; there are group rooms. The science room for biology and chemistry was refitted in 2019, and there are separate craft rooms and an arts and crafts hall with sewing machines. The music room is equipped as a stage with microphones, sound, lights, drums, piano and guitars. The library with books for children and teenagers is open during long breaks on Mondays and Wednesdays, plus digital books. The canteen with a cook serves a hot dish, salad and sandwiches every day; meals are optional, and outside lunch the canteen serves as a lounge. Outdoors there is a playground upgraded in 2022, four table tennis tables, a covered ball court and the school's own padel court since 2022; grades 8-10 have their own zone indoors and outdoors. Every pupil from grade 1 has their own iPad, and grades 8-10 also use Macs. There is no after-school care (SFO) and no school bus; grades 1-4 have a play and learning group after lessons several days a week.
Clubs and activities: Fotballtrening (football training) · Dans (dance)
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 sizein the key facts above
Usually about 30 staff. The staff page names the principal, the deputy principal and the head of the lower grades, form teachers for all ten grades, nine subject teachers including special needs teachers, as well as assistants and canteen staff. The school describes its teachers as highly qualified and says new teachers from Norway join it for shorter or longer periods.
Safety and wellbeing from the school's official website
✓CCTV
·Security staffnot stated on the website
✓Access control
·Nurse or medical roomnot stated on the website
·Counsellornot stated on the website
✓Child protection policy
·Staff trainingnot stated on the website
✓Anti-bullying policy
The leadership greets pupils at the entrance gate every morning and knows who enters the grounds; the gate is under video surveillance during opening hours. The premises are approved by Spanish and Norwegian authorities, a Spanish security firm inspects the building regularly, there are fire drills twice a year, and pupils are insured to Norwegian standards until 20:00. Zero tolerance of bullying, its own anti-bullying action plan, pupil surveys, an anti-bullying pledge signed by every pupil and a buddy system. There is no school nurse, doctor, speech therapist or psychologist; the Norwegian educational psychology service visits twice a year, and the school works with the local police, child protection services, the Norwegian embassy in Madrid and the Norwegian seamen's church.
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 data55 Safety and wellbeing (12%) scored on disclosed data80 Accreditation and verifiability (10%)85 Teaching staff (10%) scored on disclosed data55 Facilities (10%) scored on disclosed data75 Clubs and activities (8%) scored on disclosed data64 "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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