← Back to homeThe English International College
Marbella, Spain · est. 1982 · Private
Illustration · Marbella
A British school near Marbella founded in the summer of 1982: it began with five classrooms and 32 pupils, and within a year took extended premises and full primary and secondary departments. In November 1983 the school was inspected by Her Majesty's Inspectorate from Great Britain, on 23 March 1984 it was accredited by the Junta de Andalucía, at the same time it joined NABSS, and in 1993 it joined the European Council of International Schools ECIS; since September 1993 it has been licensed to accept Spanish nationals at all levels. Since 2025 the school has been part of Forfar Education. It teaches children from 3 to 18 on the British curriculum: Early Years and Reception, primary school, Key Stage 3, IGCSE in Years 10-11 (Cambridge or Pearson exams) and International A Levels in the Sixth Form. The language of instruction is English, as the school states directly; Spanish is taught four times a week, French from Year 5, and from Year 7 pupils choose French or German. The school day starts at 8:45 and ends at 15:30 in primary and 16:00 in secondary. The school keeps small classes (no more than 17 children in Early Years), the Stepping Stones programme for children who need to catch up in English, a learning support service, a school counsellor and an educational psychologist, and a smartphone-free school policy. In the 2026 A Level results 69 per cent of grades were A* or A; over the last six cohorts pupils have gone to more than 70 universities in the UK, the Netherlands, Spain, Ireland, the USA, Canada, Switzerland and Italy. The school does not publish its fees on the site.
Key facts
Programmes
Cambridge · IGCSE, A-Level
Admits from
3 years · Pre-School
Languages of instruction
English
Languages taught
Spanish, French, German
Admissions The school usually takes applications in the spring term, from January to March, but tries to consider them throughout the year. The steps: an enquiry, a school tour Monday to Friday from 9:00 to 15:00, a registration form with the two latest school reports and a writing assessment for applicants to Years 3-10. Children in Early Years and Reception are invited to a play date with the teacher, from Year 1 to a taster morning with English and mathematics assessments and lessons in class; a medical form is returned beforehand. At the last step the school asks for a reference from the current school and standard safeguarding information. Sixth Form entry is selective: usually at least seven IGCSEs at grade 5 or above (or seven GCSEs at grade 6 or above), including English and mathematics, and grades 7-8 in the subjects of the future A Levels; pupils from other systems are considered on equivalent qualifications and, where needed, subject assessments. The school was founded for international families and since 1993 has been licensed to accept Spanish nationals as well at all levels; for children who lack English there is the Stepping Stones programme in Years 1-4.
Stages and year groups Grades Early Years (age 3) - Year 13. Stages: Early Years and Reception, Infants (Years 1-2), primary school (Years 3-6), Key Stage 3 (Years 7-9), Key Stage 4 (Years 10-11) with a two-year IGCSE course and Cambridge or Pearson exams at the end of Year 11, Sixth Form (Years 12-13): AS exams at the end of Year 12 and International A Levels in Year 13. In Key Stage 3 the subjects are English, mathematics, science (from Year 9 biology, chemistry and physics separately), Spanish and French or German with a five-day residential language trip, humanities, Ciencias Sociales y Ciencias de la Naturaleza, art, drama, music, computing and physical education. The Sixth Form offers the International Project Qualification. Classes in Early Years have no more than 17 children.
Address Urbanización Ricmar, Ctra. de Cádiz-Málaga Km 1035,5 (A7), 29604 Marbella, Málaga
Accreditations and programmes verified against official registries
COBIS · membershipCambridge · IGCSE, A-Level · authorised programmeNABSS · 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
COBISCouncil of British International Schools
An association of British schools abroad with a quality inspection of its own. It has nine membership categories, and the word "accredited" appears in seven of them, although COBIS does its own inspection in one: in the rest it recognises an accreditation granted by somebody else.
What the badge means for this school. The school belongs to this organisation but has not been through its accreditation. The difference matters: membership is usually paid for and has no external inspection behind it. The entry is confirmed in the organisation's open directory.
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), 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 →NABSSschool network
NABSS (National Association of British Schools in Spain) is not an owner of schools but an association of British schools in Spain, founded in 1978 by a group of leading British schools in the country. According to the association, it has more than 80 member schools, which educate more than 49,000 children and employ more than 5,000 teachers. Only schools officially authorised by the Spanish authorities as foreign schools teaching the British education system and certified by the British Council after inspections can be members; new schools that are still developing are not admitted straight away. The association represents the schools' common interests, encourages collaboration between them and holds an annual conference; its school finder places member schools in Madrid, Catalonia, the Valencian Community, Andalusia, the Balearic and Canary Islands, Murcia and other regions. The association's site is nabss.org.
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 A Level: in 2026, 69 per cent of all grades were A* or A (UK average 28.5), and twelve pupils achieved straight A grades in all subjects; in 2025, 61 per cent of grades were A* and A. IGCSE: the share of grades 9-7 was 59 per cent in 2025 (UK 21.9), 49 per cent in 2024 (UK 30.4), 83 in 2023, 62 in 2022, 47 in 2021 and 63 in 2020.
Where leavers go: University of Oxford · University of Cambridge · University College London · King's College London · University of Bath · University of Edinburgh · University of Manchester · University of Warwick · University College Dublin · Trinity College Dublin · IE University · Les Roches Marbella
and others, 16 universities in the school's list in allOver the six cohorts from 2021 to 2026 leavers went to more than 70 universities in the UK, the Netherlands, Spain, Ireland, the USA, Canada, Switzerland and Italy. By country of past destinations: the UK 68 per cent, the Netherlands 13, Spain 10, Ireland 10. 43 per cent went to the top 10 UK universities, 71 per cent to the top 20, 48 per cent to the Russell Group, 23 per cent to the world top 100. By field: business 34 per cent, sciences 34, humanities and languages 25, art 6.
Facilities from the school's official website
✓Swimming pool
·Sports hallnot stated on the website
·Laboratoriesnot stated on the website
·Theatre or assembly hallnot stated on the website
✓Library
✓Catering
·School transportnot stated on the website
·Boardingnot stated on the website
Campus: A campus in Urbanización Ricmar by the A7 near Marbella. There is a training pool, where swimming starts in Early Years, an own kitchen (a daily lunch of a starter, main course and dessert), a cafeteria for families open until 16:30, a library, a Sixth Form centre with individual workspaces for independent study, a mud kitchen and a reading nook for the youngest. After lessons there is supervised after-school care.
Clubs and activities: Football · Logischool (STEM, coding and robotics) · LAMDA (speech, drama, stagecraft) · Swimming · Drawing and handicrafts · Dance · Recorder · Duke of Edinburgh Award · Higher Project Qualification · Horizons (debating and public speaking) · Model United Nations · Key Stage 3 Star Awards · Key Stage 4 Council · Sports clubs
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
The school does not publish its number of teachers. It writes of experienced and loyal teachers, many of whom have worked at the school for years, of specialist teachers in the Sixth Form and of small classes; in Early Years there are no more than 17 children in a class. Swimming is taught by specially qualified instructors. Individual specialists are named: the coordinator and a teacher of the Stepping Stones programme, the learning support coordinator in primary, the school counsellor and the educational psychologist. In secondary each class has a form tutor.
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 policy
·Staff trainingnot stated on the website
✓Anti-bullying policy
The school publishes its policies: first aid, health and safety, emergency closure and evacuation, anti-bullying, student codes of conduct including on trips, child collection, complaints, inclusion, pastoral care and school trips. At the last admission step standard safeguarding information is requested. There is a school counsellor (one-to-one sessions and workshops for year groups, parents and staff) and an educational psychologist; the school has declared itself smartphone-free. The school does not name security staff, CCTV or a nurse on its site.
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 data70 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 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.
The full methodology → Similar schools in the country