← Back to homeInstitut L'Alzina
Barcelona, Spain · State
Illustration · Barcelona
Institut L'Alzina is a state secondary school in the Sant Andreu district of Barcelona, on Passatge Salvador Riera. The school says of itself that it has forty-two years of history and that from the start it has held to two things at once - academic level and social cohesion, that is, it tries not to lose students along the way and not to let anyone leave school early. It has run the IB Diploma Programme since the 2021-2022 school year, its first cohort of that kind. The arrangement is simple and typical of state schools in Catalonia: the Diploma Programme does not replace the national bachillerato but sits on top of it, so a leaver gets two documents at once - the Catalan-Spanish LOMLOE certificate and the IB diploma - and still sits the PAU university entrance exams, because recognition through the UNED costs money and arrives later than university enrolment begins. The school lists its Diploma Programme subjects by name: Catalan literature as language A, English as language B, biology, physics, chemistry, history, business management, physical education, mathematics in two versions - "Applications and interpretation" and "Analysis and approaches" - plus the core of theory of knowledge and the extended essay, and the subject environmental systems and societies. Places are few: the school announced 25 for 2026-2027. The school's language is Catalan: lessons and the whole website are in it, and the school says directly that its IB bachillerato is not taken in English, although English carries great weight in it and part of the materials are in English.
Key facts
Programmes
IB · DP · National programme
Languages of instruction
Catalan
Admissions Selection for the Diploma Programme is separate and runs to a calendar: an open day in February, registration for the entrance test from 23 February to 5 March, the test itself on 7 March 2026, publication of the list of those going to interview on 13 March, a contingency test on 18 March, interviews in the second half of March and the list of admitted students around 30 March. There are 25 places. The school warns that a candidate may apply to only one state centre: the test dates are the same everywhere. Opting out of the national curriculum is not possible - a state centre must take a student to the Spanish certificate, so the Diploma Programme runs alongside it. For ESO and the ordinary bachillerato the school admits through the general pre-registration of the Barcelona Education Consortium and the Department of Education; for 2026 pre-registration for the bachillerato ran from 9 to 16 April. For selection to the Diploma Programme a photograph, the DNI identity card, a certificate of the average mark for the first three years of ESO and, if the pupil has one, an English certificate are needed; there are two tests, in mathematics and in Catalan, at the level of the basic competences assessment of the fourth year of ESO, and the school advises an average mark of 8 or above. The school names no separate conditions for children from abroad.
Stages and year groups Grades 1º ESO - 2º Batxillerat, the IB Diploma Programme in the two senior years. The school runs compulsory secondary education (ESO) and bachillerato; the IB Diploma Programme occupies the two bachillerato years and runs in parallel with the national curriculum, with a double qualification at the end. The programme is designed for students aged 16 to 19.
Address Passatge Salvador Riera, 2, 08027 Barcelona
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 hall
✓Laboratories
·Theatre or assembly hallnot stated on the website
✓Library
✓Catering
·School transportnot stated on the website
·Boardingnot stated on the website
Also on site: Sports ground or field · Art studio
Campus: Its own library and a separate Diploma Programme room, rooms for drawing, computing, music and technology, laboratories for physics, chemistry and natural sciences, a projector, an interactive board and sound in every classroom, a sports court and a gym, plus the right to use the municipal Manigua sports centre. A school canteen operates.
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%)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 data80 Clubs and activities (8%) scored on disclosed data55 Value for money (6%) scored at the median61 "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