← Back to homeEl Altillo International School
Jerez de la Frontera, Spain · est. 1998 · Private
Illustration · Jerez de la Frontera
El Altillo International School is a private school in Jerez de la Frontera, opened in 1998, taking children from the age of one to eighteen, with around 1200 pupils. What sets it apart in the province of Cádiz is three languages at once: the school calls itself the only trilingual school in the province and sets out the proportions year by year, from 98 per cent English in the first nursery year to 72 per cent English, 22 per cent Spanish and 6 per cent French by the fifth, with optional German added in the secondary years. The stages run right through and on different programmes: the nursery on the International Early Years Curriculum, the primary school on the International Primary Curriculum, the secondary school on the Spanish national curriculum together with the IB Middle Years Programme, and the senior stage offering a choice of the Spanish Bachillerato or the IB Diploma, the school having held IB World School status since 2016. Leaving results are disclosed in full: a 100 per cent pass rate both in the Selectividad and in the IB Diploma, 95 per cent admitted to their first-choice university in 2024, and a named list of more than thirty universities - from Cádiz, Seville and the Complutense to Edinburgh, Manchester, Maastricht, Columbia and Pennsylvania. The day is long: drop-off from 7:30, lessons from 9:00 to 17:00 with a break and lunch, clubs from 17:00 to 18:00. There is a great deal of extracurricular provision and it is named: eighteen sports, from lacrosse and triathlon to padel and pickleball, a music and dance school of its own, chess inside the curriculum since 2002, robotics, Arduino and a makers' club attached to the school's own Fab Lab, which serves not only the school but the town's makers too. The support services are a doctor's bay, a psychologist and named designated safeguarding leads. What the school does not state: its own street address, the fees, or class sizes.
Key facts
Programmes
IB · MYP, DP · IPC · National programme
Languages of instruction
English, Spanish
Languages taught
French, German
Admissions Admission runs in six steps: a first enquiry and booking of a visit or a video call, the conversation itself covering the family's needs and the programmes, the application with documents, the assessment - an interview with the child and a placement test where one is needed, a written offer of a place held for 5-10 days, and enrolment. With the application the school asks for reports from the previous school and anything bearing on support needs or high ability: for children with special educational needs and for the gifted recent reports are essential, and the school runs a separate Gifted and Talented programme for the latter. It sets no English-level requirement for applicants. It names neither a decision timescale nor the subjects of the placement test. The school takes foreigners: on its admissions page it invites those living abroad to start with a video call and promises international families assistance in several languages.
Stages and year groups Grades nursery from age 1 - the second year of the senior stage, up to 18. Four stages run right through: the nursery, ages 1-5, on the International Early Years Curriculum; the primary school, ages 5-12, on the International Primary Curriculum; the secondary school, ages 12-16, on the Spanish national curriculum together with the IB Middle Years Programme; and the senior stage, ages 16-18, offering the Spanish Bachillerato or the IB Diploma. The primary school day: drop-off from 7:30, lessons 9:00-11:00, break 11:00-11:30, lessons 11:30-13:30, lunch 13:30-14:30, lessons 14:30-17:00, clubs 17:00-18:00. In the secondary school and the Bachillerato the day has the same edges, but lunch moves to 14:30-15:30 and the lessons after it run from 15:30 to 17:00.
Accreditations and programmes verified against official registries
ACS WASC · accreditationIB · MYP, DP · authorised programmeInternational Schools Partnership · 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
ACS WASCAccrediting Commission for Schools of the Western Association of Schools and Colleges
An American regional accreditation of the institution, working since 1962 and covering some 5,500 schools in California, the Pacific and Asia. It judges the whole school: a self-study, then a team visit. It gives the same status to supplementary and virtual programmes, so the category of an entry is worth checking separately.
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 →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: MYP (ages 11-16), DP (ages 16-19). MYP is the middle stage, ages 11 to 16. There are no exams here either; at the end an optional electronic assessment of pupils' work is possible. 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 →IPC
International Primary Curriculum: a British primary school programme for children aged 5 to 11. It teaches through themes that draw subjects together rather than through separate subjects; it is published by the International Curriculum Association, formerly Fieldwork Education.
What this means for this school. This is a programme for the primary stage, not an accreditation of the school: the organisation sells it to schools and trains their teachers, but it does not check the quality of teaching at a particular school and keeps no public register of the schools working to it. There is no outside register to check it against, so the entry comes from the school's own words or from the record of its accrediting organisation. The programme has no leaving certificate: at the end of primary school a child moves on to the middle stage, and it is that stage which decides what they finish with.
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.
International Schools Partnershipschool network
A group of private international schools, founded in 2013 by five leaders from international education. The numbers diverge: the home page gives 121 schools in 26 countries and "132,000+" pupils, the "About us" page - 106 schools in 25 countries, the "Who and where we are" page - 121 schools in more than 26 markets and 118,000 pupils. The site writes that schools keep their own character, brand and curriculum when they join ISP, but does not say whether ISP buys the schools, manages them under contract or brings them together by membership.
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
Exam results The 2024 cohort: a 100 per cent pass rate in the Selectividad (PAU), a 100 per cent pass rate in the IB Diploma Programme, and 95 per cent admitted to their first-choice university. The school publishes neither an average diploma score nor a distribution of grades.
Where leavers go: University of Edinburgh · Cardiff University · University of Birmingham · University of Kent · University of Manchester · University of Warwick · University of Pennsylvania · Columbia University · University of Wisconsin Green Bay · Maastricht University · Fontys University · Université Libre de Bruxelles
and others, 37 universities in the school's list in allThe school sets the list out on its senior-stage page with no breakdown by year and no number of leavers per university; alongside it stand the 2024 figures - 95 per cent admitted to their first-choice university and 100 per cent receiving careers guidance. The school does not state the proportion who go on to university.
Facilities from the school's official website
·Swimming poolnot stated on the website
✓Sports hall
✓Laboratories
·Theatre or assembly hallnot stated on the website
·Librarynot stated on the website
✓Catering
✓School transport
·Boardingnot stated on the website
Also on site: Sports ground or field · Art studio · Makerspace
Campus: The campus stands in a quiet residential area of Jerez, 15 minutes from El Puerto de Santa María. It has its own Fab Lab with 3D printers, a laser cutter and milling machines plus a Jr Maker Space for younger children, and the lab works not only for the school: the town's makers use it too. There are chemistry and physics laboratories, computer rooms, classrooms with interactive whiteboards, a music school and a music room, an art room and an arts workshop, a reading corner, cooperative work areas and a sleep room for the youngest. Sport means indoor and outdoor facilities, football pitches and padel and pickleball courts. Catering is in-house: the menus are planned by the school doctor to Evacole standards, three menus are cooked - general, one-year-old and vegetarian - with separate dishes for allergies and intolerances, and table manners are taught at the table as a programme of their own. The school bus runs ten routes - Jerez, Sanlúcar de Barrameda, El Puerto de Santa María, Prado del Rey and Arcos, El Cuervo with Lebrija and Trebujena, two Chiclana lines, San Fernando with Puerto Real, Medina Sidonia, and Rota with Costa Ballena and Chipiona. The school has no library of its own - only a reading corner is named on the campus; it names neither a swimming pool nor a theatre.
Clubs and activities (30): Acrosport · Badminton · Baseball · Basketball · Chess · Climbing · Football · Handball · Ice hockey · Lacrosse · Padel · Pickleball · Rhythmic gymnastics · Roller skating · Rugby · Table tennis · Triathlon · Volleyball · Dance · Music school · Music theory · Sevillanas · Arduino club · Makers' club · Robotics · Ambassador programme · Digital leaders · Student council · House captains · Eco-School council
Summer camp: the school runs its own camp; whether it takes children from outside is not stated on the website
Summer programmes run from 23 June to 31 July. In June there are three week-long camps: a Holiday Club for children aged 1-5, a Fun Club for years 1-3 of primary and a sports camp for years 4-6. In July there is a camp for children aged 1-2, a summer course for ages 3-5 and primary, intensive language courses at every level, and subject-recovery classes for the secondary and senior stages. The programme covers STEAM, art workshops, sport and English and French. The school publishes 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 leadership is named: principal Vanessa L. Moore Rodríguez, deputy principal José Luis García Deza, heads of stage Deli Leal Ruiz (Early Years), Charo Ortiz Cantero (Primary), Manuel de la Rosa Marchante (Secondary) and Maite Martos Martos (Baccalaureate), plus the heads of finance, admissions and marketing. The designated safeguarding leads are named separately - Sebastián Gómez Ávila and his deputy Charo Ortiz Cantero. The school describes its teachers as native speakers in each of the three languages and says it works to the Learning.First approach and a framework of five competencies built together with Hughes Hall at the University of Cambridge. It publishes neither the number of teachers, nor qualifications, nor the pupil-teacher ratio, nor 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 room
✓Counsellor
✓Child protection policy
✓Staff training
✓Anti-bullying policy
The school has a child protection policy with named designated leads - Sebastián Gómez Ávila and deputy Charo Ortiz Cantero - and all staff are trained in safeguarding and in recognising emotional distress, with background checks at recruitment. There is a medical room with a nurse for first aid, health checks and emergencies, and a doctor, a defibrillator and a LifeVac device on campus, with staff trained in first aid. There is a psychologist service. The school publishes as separate documents a child protection and safeguarding policy, a safeguarding alert policy, a school bullying action policy, a safe recruitment policy, an intimate care policy, a weapons policy, a special educational needs support policy and rules on the use of devices and networks; the internet is filtered and digital safety is taught, and there is peer tutoring among pupils. The school names no CCTV, no security staff and no access control system.
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%)88 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 data80 Accreditation and verifiability (10%)90 Teaching staff (10%) scored on disclosed data55 Facilities (10%) scored on disclosed data80 Clubs and activities (8%) scored on disclosed data78 Value for money (6%) scored at the median95 "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.
The full methodology → Similar schools in the country