← Back to homeGándara International School
Gondomar, Spain · Private
Illustration · Gondomar
Gándara International School is a small private school in Gondomar outside Vigo, in Galicia: it will not take more than eighty children as a matter of principle, and there are ten to twelve children to a teacher. The pedagogy is active, resting on Montessori: a prepared environment, hands-on materials and respect for each child's own pace; the school calls its assessment "kind" and builds it on observation and pedagogical documentation rather than on marks. The curriculum is authorised by the Xunta de Galicia, that is, it is the Spanish national one, and it carries three languages at once: Spanish and Galician run at every stage, while the share of English grows with age - 40 per cent in the early years, 45 in the first cycle of primary and 50 in the second, with the non-language subjects, science and arts, taught in English. The grounds cover more than 5000 square metres with a vegetable garden and green areas, and the school treats its bond with nature as its defining quality - "the school in nature". It names its NEASC accreditation in a section of its own and explains to the reader that this is an external independent check and that it makes moving on to another accredited school in Spain or abroad easier. The school is run by the company Noguera y Valdes, S.L. It takes children from three to twelve, and promises to open a nursery for ages one to three in the autumn. It works from 8:15 to 17:00, and runs clubs, camps at Easter and in summer, and birthday parties on its own grounds; the school does not publish its tuition fees.
Key facts
Programmes
Montessori · National programme
Admits from
3 years · Pre-School
Languages of instruction
Spanish, English, Galician
Students per teacher
10-12 children per teacher
Admissions Admission starts with a visit: the doors, as the school writes, are open every day, and a visit can be booked from any page. Beyond that it has an admissions process of its own, which it names as a section but whose steps and requirements it does not list on its home page. For the new stage from one to three years old it has opened advance registration and warns that places are very few. The school says nothing about foreign pupils or special conditions for them.
Stages and year groups Grades ages 3-12; a nursery from age 1 is opening. The stages follow the Spanish ladder: early years for ages 3-6, the first cycle of primary for 6-9 and the second cycle for 9-12. Each stage has its own share of English: 40, 45 and 50 per cent respectively. The school has announced a stage for ages one to three opening in the autumn and is taking registrations for it in advance. The day runs from 8:15 to 17:00.
Address Rúa Moreira 1, Gondomar, Pontevedra
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 →Montessori
The pedagogy of Maria Montessori: a child chooses the activity, works at their own pace with special materials, and mixed-age groups are arranged so that older children teach the younger ones. It is used most often in the nursery and primary stages.
What this means for this school. The name Montessori belongs to nobody: any school may call itself a Montessori school, and there is no single body that checks this. There are associations that train teachers and recognise schools, but membership of them is voluntary, and our entry means exactly that the school describes itself this way. This pedagogy has no leaving certificate, so what to look at is what the school finishes 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.
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
·Cateringnot stated on the website
·School transportnot stated on the website
·Boardingnot stated on the website
Also on site: Playground
Campus: More than 5000 square metres at Gondomar: a vegetable garden, green areas and, as the school puts it, a constant connection with the natural surroundings. The rooms are laid out as a prepared Montessori environment - for independence, concentration and hands-on work.
Summer camp: the school runs its own camp; whether it takes children from outside is not stated on the website
The school runs two camps of its own - at Easter and in summer, each a separate menu item. There are no dates, ages or prices on the home page; under the school's contract terms the price is stated on the page of each camp and includes taxes, and on cancellation more than two weeks ahead 100 per cent of the payment is refunded, between two weeks and 72 hours ahead 50 per cent, later or in case of non-attendance nothing.
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 states the ratio itself on its first screen and repeats it as 1:12 in its section on principles. It publishes no number of teachers and no 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%)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 data60 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.
The full methodology → Similar schools in the country