← Back to homeHastings School
Madrid, Spain · est. 1971 · Private
Illustration · Madrid
Hastings School is a private British school in the centre of Madrid, running since 1971 and taking children from two to eighteen. Its shape is unusual: not one campus but six separate buildings under one school - three in the Chamartín district within five minutes' walk of each other and three in Arturo Soria and Conde Orgaz - each fitted to its own age group, from the early years centre to the Hastings Nexus sixth form. Teaching follows the National Curriculum for England, adapted to meet the minimum requirements of the Spanish one: about twenty per cent of the time is taught in Spanish, separately for native speakers and for those learning it as an additional language. IGCSEs are sat in Year 11, and in the sixth form the school offers a choice of two leaving routes - A levels or the IB Diploma - which is what sets it apart from its neighbours: both run in parallel and the family picks what suits the child. The teachers are mostly British subject specialists. A third language, French, starts in Year 7. No English at all is required for entry to Nursery and Reception; from Year 1 an age-appropriate level is expected. The school employs a full-time psychologist and runs its own learning support department for children with dyslexia and dyspraxia. Fees are paid in ten instalments from September to June, with lunch and the bus charged separately.
Key facts
Tuition
≈ $9 038–23 950 a year
800–2 120 EUR a month
The year is counted as ten payments a year - that is how many the school itself names.
Programmes
IB · DP · Cambridge · IGCSE, A-Level
Languages of instruction
English, Spanish
About the fees Fees are quoted monthly and paid in ten instalments from September to June. By stage: Pre-Nursery 800 EUR a month, Nursery and Reception 970, Year 1: 1130, Year 2: 1140, Years 3-4: 1180, Years 5-6: 1210, Years 7-9: 1440, Year 10: 1640, Year 11: 1680, Years 12-13 on A levels 1860, Years 12-13 on the IB Diploma 2120. That works out at 8000 EUR a year in the youngest group and 21200 EUR on the Diploma Programme. On top of the fee there is a one-off registration fee: 950 EUR for Pre-Nursery, 1250 for Nursery, 1500 for Reception and 1850 from Year 1 to Year 13, and it is not refundable. Lunch is 185 EUR a month for Pre-Nursery and 210 EUR from Nursery to Year 13; the bus is 188 EUR one way and 233 EUR for return journeys. The third and each subsequent child in a family gets a 20 per cent discount - on tuition, extracurricular activities, lunch and transport alike.
Admissions Admission runs in four steps: a request for information, a visit to the school either privately or on an open day, an assessment with an individual interview, and reserving the place. The school asks for the assessment and interview from every applicant from Year 1 to Year 13, that is from five to seventeen. For Pre-Nursery and Nursery a completed enrolment form with the documents is enough; for Reception a recent report from the child's current nursery is also requested. No prior English is required of applicants to Nursery and Reception. From Year 1 an age-appropriate level of English is expected, and from Year 2 age-appropriate written English and numeracy as well. Where English is short of the mark, the school offers additional lessons. International pupils with limited Spanish are given extra Spanish tuition too. The school takes foreigners and gives them a page of their own: the school has a high share of international families who have recently moved to Madrid, there is an online meeting for them before arrival, and pupils with limited Spanish receive extra lessons in the language.
Stages and year groups Grades Pre-Nursery (age 2) - Year 13 (age 18). The stages are split between buildings: an early years campus for ages 2-5 on the EYFS curriculum, primary for 5-11, secondary for 11-15 and the Hastings Nexus sixth form for 15-18. IGCSEs are sat at the end of Year 11, and in Years 12 and 13 the school runs both A levels and the IB Diploma as a choice. The secondary timetable holds two hours of PE a week and a long lunch break given over to clubs.
Address Paseo de la Habana 204, 28036 Madrid
Accreditations and programmes verified against official registries
Cambridge · IGCSE, A-Level · authorised programmeIB · DP · authorised programmeCognita · 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
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 →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 →Cognitaschool network
A group of schools launched in 2004; the legal entity in the footer of the site is Cognita Holdings Limited. The site names 90 schools in 21 countries, 14 curricula and more than 22,000 staff, and the numbers agree on all the pages read. The section on a school joining the group speaks of working with the owners of schools and of integrating the school, but does not say outright whether the school passes into ownership; the word "franchise" does not appear on the site. The majority owner of Cognita itself is named as Jacobs Holding AG.
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
Average IB score
35 (world average 30.88)
Exam results Results for 2026: an average IB Diploma score of 35 against a global average of 30, with 40 per cent of the cohort at 35 points or above and a top score of 43. At A level 46 per cent of grades were A*-A, and at IGCSE 67 per cent were A*-A. This is the school's second IB Diploma cohort.
Where leavers go: St Andrews · Imperial College London · Duke · Edinburgh · TU Delft · IE University · Cambridge · UCL · Complutense · Trinity College Dublin · Leiden · KU Leuven
The school names the first six universities for its 2026 leavers and the rest for 2023. It writes that in most years all of its leavers go on to university, but publishes no figures year by year.
Facilities from the school's official website
·Swimming poolnot stated on the website
·Sports hallnot stated on the website
✓Laboratories
✓Theatre or assembly hall
·Librarynot stated on the website
✓Catering
✓School transport
·Boardingnot stated on the website
Campus: Six separate buildings in the centre of Madrid: three in Chamartín within five minutes' walk of each other and three in Arturo Soria and Conde Orgaz, all with a bus stop and a metro station nearby. Each building is fitted to its own stage, and in the early years every class has its own enclosed outdoor space. The secondary school has specialist science laboratories, a theatre for drama, a music room and art studios. Each building has its own kitchen, the menus are drawn up to a nutritionist's guidelines, and there are kosher, halal, vegetarian and vegan options, with an individual monthly menu written for children with allergies. The school bus runs six routes across two catchment areas of the city, plus a shuttle between the sites.
Clubs and activities: Basketball · Volleyball · Karate and self-defence · Running · Table tennis · Roller skating · Dance · Ice hockey · Football · Ballet · Theatre · LAMDA
Summer camp: the school runs its own camp; whether it takes children from outside is not stated on the website
Summer programme away from campus: Two seven-day residential camps for children aged 10-15: at Valdelavilla near Soria and in the natural surroundings of La Vera, both with accommodation, full board and transport.
A summer school from 29 June to 23 July 2026 on the Paseo de la Habana and Bendición de Campos campuses, for children from Pre-Nursery to Year 6. Separately, a music camp over the same dates for children aged 5 to 11.
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 sizenot stated
Teachers, the school says, are mostly from Britain; in secondary and the upper stage lessons are taught by subject specialists. The school has a staff psychologist and its own learning support service for children with dyslexia and dyspraxia. It publishes no number of teachers, no qualifications and no class size.
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 policynot stated on the website
·Staff trainingnot stated on the website
✓Anti-bullying policy
The school employs a full-time psychologist and a large team of adults responsible for wellbeing; it declares zero tolerance of bullying and runs an annual wellbeing survey of every pupil from Year 3 to Year 13. A learning support department works alongside: help for children with dyslexia and dyspraxia and a boost in English or mathematics. The school publishes its policies in a section of its own and writes that, as a Cognita school, it undergoes an independent safeguarding review.
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%)89 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 data65 Accreditation and verifiability (10%)90 Teaching staff (10%) scored on disclosed data55 Facilities (10%) scored on disclosed data80 Clubs and activities (8%) scored on disclosed data78 "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