← Back to homeEscuela Suiza de Barcelona - Schweizerschule Barcelona
Barcelona, Spain · est. 1919 · Private
Illustration · Barcelona
Escuela Suiza de Barcelona (ESB) is a private Swiss school in Barcelona, running since 1919. It takes children from three and runs to eighteen, and a leaver receives two certificates at once - the Swiss Matura and the Spanish Selectividad; the Matura opens all Swiss universities except the medical faculty and most foreign ones. There are five languages: German is the school's language of instruction, alongside Spanish, Catalan, English and French. The school calls its way of working family-like and stresses that Swiss, Spanish and Catalan cultures live side by side in it. The day is long and the same for everyone: from P3 to grade 4 it runs 9:20 to 16:35, and from grade 5 to grade 12 from 8:35 to 16:35; on top of that there is a free morning group from 8:00 to 9:20 and an afternoon one from 16:35 to 18:00, charged at 6 EUR after 17:00. After-school activities run in three languages - German, Spanish and Catalan - in small groups, and the school divides them into sport, music, art and new technologies. Pupils with a Swiss passport registered at the Swiss Consulate General pay a reduced fee.
Key facts
Tuition
≈ $8 243–11 962 a year
7 296–10 588 EUR
Programmes
Swiss programme
Languages of instruction
German, Spanish
Languages taught
English, French
About the fees The 2025-2026 fee is annual and rises by year group: Parvulario 3, 4 and 5 is 7296 EUR; grades 1 to 6, 7783; grades 7 and 8, 8271; grades 9, 10 and 11, 10047; grade 12, 10588 EUR for the school year. One-off charges: entry to the school from Parvulario to grade 6 is 2390 EUR, to grade 7 or 8, 1500; entry to the Gymnasium is 1100 for the school's own pupils, 1300 for new ones and 150 EUR for those staying one semester. Meals and midday supervision are charged separately and by the number of lunches a week: from 399 EUR for one a week to 1999 EUR for five (for grades 9-12, from 384 to 1923 EUR); a single ticket is 11.80 EUR for P3-grade 8 and 11.20 for grades 9-12. Voluntary life or professional disability insurance for a parent or guardian is 330 EUR a year. Pupils with a Swiss passport registered at the Swiss Consulate General pay a reduced fee; children of former pupils who are senior members of esbalumni receive a discount on the entrance fee.
Admissions Admission to P3 opens in October: the school invites families to information sessions, a tour of the building and a personal interview with the management. For P4 and above the application goes through a form, and the school contacts the family itself. From the 1st class onwards prospective pupils sit an entrance examination in German, Spanish and mathematics; the examination costs 200 euros. The school takes foreign pupils: for families moving to Barcelona from Switzerland or another country it arranges a separate examination date if necessary, and for the Gymnasium it specifically invites German-speaking young people. German is needed for entry from the 1st class onwards, since it is part of the examination.
Stages and year groups Grades Parvulario P3 from age 3 - grade 12, Matura and Selectividad. The stages run right through from Parvulario P3 to grade 12, that is from three to eighteen: pre-school, primary, secondary and the Gymnasium. A leaver receives both the Swiss Matura and the Spanish Selectividad. The day runs from 9:20 to 16:35 for P3 to grade 4 and from 8:35 to 16:35 for grades 5 to 12; the morning group from 8:00 to 9:20 is free, and the afternoon one runs from 16:35 to 18:00.
Address C/ Alfonso XII, 95-105, 08006 Barcelona
Accreditations and programmes verified against official registries
educationsuisse · 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
educationsuisseSwiss school abroad recognised by the Confederation
State recognition by Switzerland: the school follows the Swiss curriculum and takes pupils to the Swiss Matura, usually bilingual, alongside the certificate of the host country. Each school has a patron canton answerable for the content of the programme. Sixteen schools are recognised worldwide, so this is a narrow list rather than an industry association: far more schools call themselves Swiss.
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 →Swiss programme
The school programme of Switzerland. Schools abroad recognised by the Confederation take pupils through to the Swiss maturity certificate, the Matura, used for entry to Swiss universities. There are sixteen recognised schools in the whole world, and each has a sponsoring canton answering for the content of the programme.
What this means for this school. In a school abroad the Swiss maturity is usually bilingual and runs alongside the certificate of the host country, so a leaver ends up with two documents. Recognition is granted to the school as a whole rather than to separate stages, unlike French homologation, which covers now one set of year groups, now another.
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
✓Library
✓Catering
·School transportnot stated on the website
·Boardingnot stated on the website
Campus: The school occupies a building on Carrer Alfonso XII in Barcelona. Among its services it names a library, a dining hall with midday supervision, after-school activities and student exchanges.
Clubs and activities: Sports activities · Music lessons · Art classes · New technologies
Summer camp: the school runs its own camp; whether it takes children from outside is not stated on the website
The Casal de verano is a summer camp the school runs together with Dinocrocs; in 2026 it runs from Thursday 25 June to Friday 10 July. Details and the registration form are published as a separate document.
Teaching staff
The school publishes neither the number of its teachers nor their qualifications.
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%)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 data55 Accreditation and verifiability (10%)85 Teaching staff (10%) scored on disclosed data55 Facilities (10%) scored on disclosed data70 Clubs and activities (8%) scored on disclosed data70 "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