← Back to homeIES Santa Clara
Santander, Spain · est. 1838 · State
Illustration · Santander
IES Santa Clara is one of the few institutes in Spain created under the educational project of the liberal governments of the nineteenth century, and the school tells that story itself: in December 1837 the provincial council handed over for teaching use the deconsecrated convent of the Poor Clares in the centre of Santander, on 15 May 1838 it was resolved to establish the "Instituto Cantábrico" as the successor to the royal Cantabrian seminary closed under Joseph Bonaparte, and the institute was opened with a formal ceremony on 3 November 1838. The school's address has been the name of that convent ever since - Calle Santa Clara. Today it is an ordinary state institute with an unusually wide offer: compulsory secondary education, a bachillerato in three forms - daytime, evening and international, that is the IB Diploma Programme - vocational cycles at intermediate and higher level, and free-standing examinations. It takes on plenty of languages: separate departments of German, French and English, plus Latin. Of its own facilities the institute has a library and a historical collection - a holding of old books and documents which the school presents in a section of its own - and a bank of teaching resources.
Key facts
Programmes
IB · DP · National programme
Languages of instruction
Spanish
Languages taught
English, French, German
Admissions Places in ESO and the bachillerato are allocated under the general procedure of Cantabria through the Educantabria portal: the school posts information on applying for the 2026-2027 academic year and the ordinary application form. Admitted pupils enrol at the school from 29 June to 10 July, including the evening bachillerato; the school posts enrolment forms by year and track, among them separate forms for the international bachillerato in years 1 and 2. Vocational courses enrol from 22 to 30 July. The school names no separate selection for the Diploma Programme and no marks or language requirements on its enrolment page; it writes nothing separately about children from other countries. The school teaches ESO from year 1, with three groups in each year.
Stages and year groups Grades 1º ESO - 2º Bachillerato, vocational cycles at intermediate and higher level. Compulsory secondary education; a bachillerato in three forms - daytime, evening and international; vocational cycles at intermediate and higher level; and free-standing examinations. The international bachillerato is the IB Diploma Programme: it runs for two years together with the Spanish bachillerato.
Address Calle Santa Clara, 13, 39001 Santander, Cantabria
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 →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
Campus: A building in the centre of Santander at Calle Santa Clara 13, on the site of the deconsecrated convent of the Poor Clares handed over for teaching use in December 1837. The school has its own library with a section of its own on the site and a historical collection of old books and documents. The site does not list the full set of rooms.
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
The staff is published by department: German, biology and geology, drawing, physical education, economics, philosophy, physics and chemistry, FOL, French, geography and history, English, language and literature, Latin, mathematics, music, careers guidance, community services, technology and religion. The school publishes no qualifications, no pupil-teacher ratio and no class sizes.
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 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