← Back to homeDos Latidos International Active School
La Cabrera, Spain · est. 2015 · Private
Illustration · La Cabrera
Dos Latidos is an active international school in La Cabrera, at the foot of the Sierra de Guadarrama, seventy kilometres north of Madrid. It was founded in May 2015 by Marigú López and Sergio Cotado, parents of twins - hence the name, "two heartbeats" - and started with three students; there are now more than seventy. The road to recognition took years: in 2016/2017 the school's candidacy was accepted into the NEASC accreditation process, in 2017/2018 the Community of Madrid authorised it to teach Infantil and Primaria as a foreign educational centre, in May 2019 it opened a new building put up for itself, and in 2020 it added the ESO stage. Today it holds full and definitive NEASC accreditation for all three stages. The stages carry names of their own: Blue House - kindergarten from three to five, Green House - primary from six to eleven, White House - ESO from twelve to sixteen. The school builds its bilingualism on the AICLE method: English comes through ordinary subjects such as history and science as well as a subject in its own right, and children join the English and Spanish workshops voluntarily. One feature other schools do not have: every Friday the whole school day is spent in the nature of the Sierra de Guadarrama, ten minutes' walk from the school.
Key facts
Languages of instruction
Spanish, English
About the fees Tuition is annual and may be split into up to twelve monthly payments; the family states in writing before 22 June how many payments it wants, and failing that the school assumes twelve. A new enrolment means signing a services contract, paying the annual registration fee and a deposit of 700 EUR per student, which is returned in full when the student leaves. A place for the following year is reserved by paying the registration fee; instalments are collected within the first five days of each month. Trips are not included in the fee and are paid for when booked. The school publishes the tuition amounts themselves as images by stage - Blue House, Green House and White House - and they do not appear as text on the page.
Admissions The school runs admission in four steps and says plainly that through them it looks for the family's agreement with the foundations of its project. The first is an information event in two parts: a virtual weekend presentation of the project with the school's founders and an individual tour during school hours with the head. The second is a provisional reservation: the family fills in a form and pays a deposit, refunded in full if enrolment does not go ahead; the place is held while the family decides. The third is an interview with the parents. The fourth is a visit to the school together with the child and enrolment: the enrolment form has the force of a service contract, and the family pays the annual registration fee and a deposit returned when the pupil leaves. The school takes children with special educational needs: it has teachers trained for them and works with outside specialists. At three the family chooses between a five-hour and a four-hour day at a reduced rate, and during settling in the child attends a shorter day for as long as needed. The school says nothing about foreigners or citizenship in its admission procedure.
Stages and year groups Grades Blue House ages 3-5, Green House 6-11, White House (ESO) 12-16. The stages: Blue House - Infantil from three to five, one group divided by level when an activity calls for it; Green House - Primaria from six to eleven, three groups Green 1, Green 2 and Green 3; White House - ESO from twelve to sixteen, two groups White 1 and White 2. The day: Blue House and Green House from 9:00 to 14:00, White House from 9:00 to 15:00; there is an extension from 8:30 in the morning and until 15:00 or 16:00 in the afternoon. The school keeps the same number of teaching hours a year as ordinary schools, though its calendar differs.
Address Calle Hontanar, 5, 28751 La Cabrera, Madrid
Accreditations and programmes verified against official registries
NEASC · accreditationschool 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
NEASCNew England Association of Schools and Colleges
An American accreditation working since 1885. For international schools it uses an approach where the visitors look first at live lessons rather than at folders of paperwork: the team works in the school for about a week. It is the only one here whose public directory honestly separates accredited schools from candidates.
What the badge means for this school. The school has been through this organisation's accreditation. It was judged as a whole: governance, safeguarding, staff, premises, teaching. The entry stands in the organisation's public register - anyone can check it.
Register to check for yourself, and the full guide →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
·Laboratoriesnot stated on the website
·Theatre or assembly hallnot stated on the website
·Librarynot stated on the website
✓Catering
·School transportnot stated on the website
·Boardingnot stated on the website
Also on site: Sports ground or field · Playground
Campus: A plot of 3900 square metres a few minutes' walk from the dehesa woodland and the mountain. A multipurpose sports court; a wooden house holding the head's office and the secretariat; a glass house for music. Outdoor play structures: trampolines, giant sandpits, outdoor kitchens, a climbing frame and a vegetable garden. The school built and opened its own premises in May 2019. Secondary students take physical education at the municipal sports centre - multipurpose halls, pitches and courts - and use the swimming pool once a month.
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 publishes ratios by stage: 10 students per teacher in Infantil, 14 in Primaria and 17 in Secundaria.
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
·Counsellornot stated on the website
·Child protection policynot stated on the website
·Staff trainingnot stated on the website
·Anti-bullying policynot stated on the website
Permanent contact with families runs through the school's own private Blended platform, email, telephone calls and a daily word at the school door; meetings with the family are held at least once a term and whenever either the family or the school asks for one.
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%)60 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 data55 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 data55 Value for money (6%) scored at the median74 "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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