← Back to homeGRESOL International-American School
Terrassa, Spain · est. 2016 · Private
Illustration · Terrassa
GRESOL International-American School is a private American school in Terrassa, half an hour from Barcelona, on a site of about 3 hectares by a nature park next to the La Mola mountain. The present school appeared in the summer of 2016, when a Spanish education group bought the former Gresol college and moved it to the English language. Catalonia authorises it as a foreign private school; in 2019 it became an IB school with the Diploma Programme and received Cognia accreditation, and the first IB class graduated in 2021. Lessons are taught in English by teachers for whom it is a native language, the curriculum follows the American US Common Core standards, and by the tenth grade pupils also meet the requirements of the Spanish ESO: every year they have 4 lessons of Spanish and 3 lessons of Catalan a week, and French is added in secondary school. Children are taken from the age of one, and the last two grades are the IB Diploma Programme. There is one class in each year group, fewer than 20 pupils in a class and on average 9 pupils per teacher; there are more than 40 teachers from more than 15 countries. The school describes its pupils as 29 nationalities. Music starts at three, with an orchestra and individual piano, violin and viola lessons, and the youngest learn to swim at the Atlètic Terrassa Hockey club. Extracurricular activities run mostly in the lunch break, and the school volleyball team has won the Terrassa sports council championship five seasons in a row. For families moving from abroad the school helps with housing, paperwork and settling in.
Key facts
Programmes
IB · DP · American programme
Admits from
1 year · Pre-School
Languages of instruction
English
Languages taught
Spanish, Catalan, French
About the fees The school does not publish tuition fees on its site: the home page has a button to request the price, and the sums are given after an enquiry.
Admissions The school accepts children from other countries and says plainly that an international school is often chosen by the children of foreign professionals and embassy staff; for such families it has a welcome service that helps find housing, complete formalities and settle in. Enrolment is open all year, as long as there are places in the required grade; for the 2026-2027 and 2027-2028 school years the school announces a waiting list, and some classes are full. There is no entrance exam at present, and the school promises to introduce one soon. A child from an ordinary school with basic English is accepted, but the school warns that a lot of catching up will be needed: all subjects are taught in English. Parents do not need to know English: correspondence with families is in English and Spanish, and at meetings with a teacher a member of staff interprets when needed. The process starts with an enquiry, a visit or an online meeting.
Stages and year groups Grades PK2 - Grade 12. The school takes a child from the nursery group to the twelfth grade without a break: the Gresol Kids nursery, kindergarten PK3, PK4 and Kinder, primary school from Grade 1, middle school Grade 7-10, and the last two grades, Grade 11 and Grade 12, on the IB Diploma Programme. Under its Catalan authorisation the school runs grades from pre-kindergarten to the tenth (year 4 of ESO) with 345 places, and the authorisation has been extended to 2031. There is one class in each year group, with no more than 20 pupils. In middle school the subjects are English language arts, Catalan, Spanish, French, mathematics, natural science, biology with geology, physics with chemistry, social studies, physical education, visual arts, music and robotics.
Address Ctra. de Sabadell a Matadepera, km 6, 08227 Terrassa, Barcelona
Accreditations and programmes verified against official registries
Cognia · accreditationIB · 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
CogniaCognia, formerly AdvancED
The widest-reaching American accreditation: some forty thousand schools in over a hundred countries. It accredits both individual schools and whole school systems. It also sells a paid membership with no inspection behind it, and that membership is often passed off as accreditation.
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: 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 →American programme
The American school programme, with the High School Diploma at the end. It usually comes together with AP courses, which the College Board stands behind, and with an American accreditation - MSA, NEASC or Cognia.
What this means for this school. The diploma is written out by the school itself: the American programme has no common leaving exam, and the content of the senior years is set by the school. Outside checking therefore rests on two things here - the accreditation of the school, and the AP exams if the school runs them.
Exams and destinations from the school's official website
Where leavers go: ESADE · Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
The school publishes no list of universities. Its alumni programme names three graduates: the coordinator studies law and business administration at ESADE, and one of the assistants studies psychology at the Autonomous University of Barcelona. The school writes that the IB Diploma is recognised in Spain as equivalent to the Spanish school-leaving certificate and gives access to universities without the entrance exam, and that from the ninth grade pupils get help choosing a university.
Facilities from the school's official website
·Swimming poolnot stated on the website
✓Sports hall
·Laboratoriesnot stated on the website
·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
Campus: A site of about 3 hectares by a nature park next to the La Mola mountain, between Terrassa and Sabadell, with its own car park. Sport: 7-a-side and 5-a-side football pitches, a baseball field, 2 basketball courts, a gym, a pelota court and a table tennis area; there is no pool of its own, and the youngest learn to swim at the neighbouring Atlètic Terrassa Hockey club. Classrooms with daylight and movable desks, a small house for art, a television studio where pupils learn to speak in English on camera, the multipurpose Knowledge Area hall in the centre of the building, a covered yard for the youngest, and rest rooms for teachers. Its own kitchen, with menus from nutritionists that take allergies into account. The school bus runs from Sabadell, Terrassa, Matadepera, Manresa and nearby towns, with an escort on every route.
Clubs and activities (15): Volleyball · Football with Sabadell Atlètic · Pickleball · Fencing · Judo · Roller skating · Ballet · Chess · DivertiScience · Coding & Computational Thinking (Codelearn) · Investment programme (Hollymont) · Orchestra · Piano · Violin · Viola
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
There are more than 40 teachers from more than 15 countries, about 64 per cent of whom have worked in other countries; their English is native or native-level, and the school accepts CVs only in English. On average there are 9 pupils per teacher and no more than 20 in a class. The school publishes its staff by name: the principal Xavier Soler, the head of the junior school, the head of the senior school who is also IB and Cognia coordinator, homeroom teachers from PK3 to Grade 12, teachers of French, Spanish and Catalan, subject teachers, three orchestra musicians, PE and art teachers, and the student support service. The school warns that international teachers change often, so the programme of each subject is fixed by the school, not by the teacher.
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 training
✓Anti-bullying policy
The school calls itself a Bully Free Place: it has protocols for early detection and immediate intervention, teachers are trained to recognise bullying, and the student support and counselling service, together with homeroom teachers, runs sessions on respect and tolerance. The service is staffed by a coordinator and an IB psychology teacher; the nursery has its own psycho-pedagogical department. The school has a code of ethics with a compliance function and an anonymous complaints box. Every school bus carries an escort. The school names no security guards, no video surveillance and no medical room.
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%)84 Community rating (16%)no dataparent reviews are needed: the criterion switches on at the fifth verified one Exams and destinations (12%) scored on disclosed data70 Safety and wellbeing (12%) scored on disclosed data75 Accreditation and verifiability (10%)90 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 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.
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