← Back to homeEscola da A.P.E.L.
Funchal, Portugal · est. 1978 · Private
Illustration · Funchal
The school was founded on 21 July 1978 and began work on 1 October of the same year: Madeira was then badly short of private secondary education. It is run by A.P.E.L., the Associação Promotora do Ensino Livre, a non-profit legal entity of recognised public utility with pedagogical accreditation; the school is Catholic. It has no stages of basic education: it teaches secondary education only, through scientific-humanistic courses, professional courses, education and training courses and the two-year IB Diploma Programme for ages 16 to 19, equivalent to the 11th and 12th years and run instead of the Portuguese curriculum rather than alongside it. The language of lessons is double: the site, the educational offer, the enrolment rules and the admission requirements are written in Portuguese, while for the IB programme the school names English and Portuguese as the main languages of instruction. The IB offers English and Portuguese as language and literature, English B and Portuguese B, Spanish and German ab initio, plus business management, environmental systems, history, biology, chemistry, physics, two mathematics courses and visual arts. Entry follows a completed 10th year of schooling or its equivalent. The school calls its classes small and its teaching staff experienced, and lessons run mostly in the morning shift. Nine out of ten leavers reach one of their first three course choices against a national average of 84.5 percent; 26 percent go into health fields, 10 percent into medicine, and more than half of leavers finish with a final mark of 17 or above. The school holds partnerships with Universidade da Madeira, Universidade do Porto and Universidade do Minho and works with Erasmus+ projects.
Key facts
Tuition
≈ $1 975–2 904 a year
1 700–2 500 EUR
Languages of instruction
Portuguese, English
Languages taught
Spanish, German
About the fees Annual fees for 2025-26: 170 EUR a month on the scientific-humanistic, professional and education and training courses, that is 1700 EUR a year, and 250 EUR a month on the IB Diploma Programme, that is 2500 EUR a year. Payment is either in one sum, with a negotiated discount, or in ten instalments from September to June, due by the 8th of each month.
Admissions Enrolment goes through the school's administrative service: pre-registration on the site is closed at present, and the school asks families to contact the service directly, by telephone or letter, to complete enrolment. The choice is between scientific-humanistic courses, professional courses, education and training courses and the IB Diploma Programme. The IB takes pupils after a completed 10th year of schooling or an equivalent qualification. The enrolment procedure, the documents required and the deadlines are set out in separate rules on enrolment and annual fees; enrolling after the set period costs 10 percent more. The school names no requirements of nationality or residence on its enrolment pages.
Stages and year groups The school has no pre-school or basic education stages. It teaches secondary education along four routes: scientific-humanistic courses, professional courses, education and training courses, and the two-year IB Diploma Programme for ages 16 to 19, equivalent to the 11th and 12th years. There is also an advanced programme in international business management.
Address Caminho dos Saltos, nº 6, 9050-219 Funchal, Ilha da Madeira
Accreditations and programmes verified against official registries
IB · DP · authorised programmeschool 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
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: DP (ages 16-19). 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 →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
·Librarynot stated on the website
·Cateringnot stated on the website
·School transportnot stated on the website
·Boardingnot stated on the website
Also on site: Art studio
Campus: Classrooms with projection and internet access, laboratories of university level, sports premises, drawing and sculpture workshops. Lessons run mostly in the morning shift and the school is open from 7:30 to 21:00. There are lockers for pupils, Chromebook laptops and digital textbooks, a Moodle platform and an employment centre attached to the school. Classrooms with projection and internet access, laboratories of university level, sports premises, drawing and sculpture workshops, lockers for pupils, Chromebook laptops and digital textbooks, a Moodle platform. The school is open from 7:30 to 21:00.
Teaching staff from the school's official website
·Teachers listed by namenot published
✓Teacher qualifications
·Number of teachersthe school does not say
·Students per teacher or class sizenot stated
What the listings show: The school holds pedagogical accreditation as a non-profit institution of recognised public utility.
The school keeps its classes small and calls its teaching staff experienced; lessons run mostly in the morning shift. The school works with Erasmus+ projects and keeps an employment centre on site.
Safety and wellbeing from the school's official website
The school says nothing on its website about security, medical care or pupil support.
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%)82 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 "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.
The full methodology → Similar schools in the country