← Back to homeColegio Internacional Sueco
Alcobendas, Spain · est. 1944 · Private
Illustration · Alcobendas
Colegio Internacional Sueco - formerly Colegio Internacional Escandinavo - is a private international school in Alcobendas outside Madrid, founded in 1944 and owned by a non-profit parents' association. It takes children from eighteen months to eighteen years and is built from two sections sharing one building. The Scandinavian section follows the Swedish curriculum and every lesson there is in Swedish: early years from eighteen months, förskoleklass at five or six, primary and lower secondary through to Year 9, and then a bachillerato in three lines - natural sciences, social sciences and economics - preparing pupils for university in Sweden as well as in Spain. The International section is a British school: it follows the Cambridge curriculum and teaches in English, from Early Years at four, through Year 1 to Year 6 with the Cambridge Primary Checkpoints at the end of Year 6, to Key Stage Three, Key Stage Four and the Sixth Form. The school is small, about 400 pupils, and means to stay so: small mixed-age groups, a high density of teachers, teaching matched to the pupil. Since 2011 it has had a music profile: music twice a week for the youngest, optional extra instrumental, singing and band lessons inside the school day from the secondary stage, a school choir and concerts through the year. A feature of its bachillerato is guest pupils from Swedish upper secondary schools, who come for a term or a year to improve their Spanish without losing a year. The school calls its playground a green oasis in the middle of Madrid and moves lessons outdoors when the weather allows.
Key facts
Tuition
≈ $7 533–13 682 a year
6 668–12 111 EUR
Programmes
Cambridge · Early Years, Primary, Lower Secondary
Languages of instruction
English
About the fees The school publishes its fees itself, in two tables for the 2026-2027 school year, by section, in euros a year. Scandinavian section: förskolan 6668, förskoleklass and years 1-3: 8079, years 4-6: 8185, years 7-9: 8641, gymnasium 9033. International section: Preschool 7614, Year 1-3: 9257, Year 4-6: 9429, Year 7-9: 9951, Year 10-11: 10850, Year 12-13: 12111. Lunch is charged separately: from 1068 euros a year for preschool to 1237 in secondary, and 175 euros with own food. The school bus in Madrid costs 2055 euros a year both ways and 1335 one way; in La Moraleja 1424 and 926.
Admissions Admission is open all year, and the school takes new pupils during the school year when places are free. The procedure: fill in the registration form and send it scanned by email with the other documents, then pay the application fee - and the pupil joins the waiting list. Where there is a list, siblings of pupils already admitted and children of Nordic origin have priority; pupils and staff, in the school's words, come from many different countries. No English is required for the youngest in the International section, from Year 1 the requirement rises, and from Year 4 a very high level is needed; applicants from age five may be called for a level check. In February the school confirms places for the next year to families whose children already attend, from March it offers freed places in list order, and by mid-March it answers everyone on the list - with a place or a refusal. To secure a place, the enrolment fee and a deposit are paid. The school itself sees that groups have equal numbers of boys and girls and an even spread of ages and language levels.
Stages and year groups Grades early years from 18 months - bachillerato, to age 18. The two sections run in parallel. The Scandinavian one: early years from eighteen months, förskoleklass at five or six, primary and lower secondary to Year 9 with a flexible start at six or seven, and a bachillerato in three lines. The International one: Early Years from four, Year 1 to Year 6 for ages five to eleven, and a Secondary School for eleven to sixteen split into Key Stage Three (Years 7-9), Key Stage Four (Years 10-11) and Key Stage Five (the Sixth Form). The academic year runs in two terms from September to June, with wraparound care before and after lessons for the early years and primary children.
Address Camino Ancho 14, 28109 Alcobendas, Madrid
Accreditations and programmes verified against official registries
NEASC · accreditationCIS · membershipCambridge · Early Years, Primary, Lower Secondary · 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
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 →CISCouncil of International Schools
It accredits international schools and is a paying association at the same time. It examines governance and ownership, the curriculum, teaching, student wellbeing, staff and premises; a team of volunteers from other CIS accredited schools visits the school. Membership and accreditation are different things here, and schools confuse them more often than anything else.
What the badge means for this school. The school belongs to this organisation but has not been through its accreditation. The difference matters: membership is usually paid for and has no external inspection behind it. The entry is confirmed in the organisation's open directory.
Register to check for yourself, and the full guide →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: Early Years (ages 3-6), Primary (ages 5-11), Lower Secondary (ages 11-14). Early Years is the nursery stage, ages 3 to 6. There are no exams at the end: the stage describes what the youngest children are taught and how, and it follows the Cambridge frame rather than a national nursery programme. Primary is the primary stage, ages 5 to 11: English, mathematics and science to Cambridge syllabuses. At the end of the stage a school may run the optional Checkpoint test, which is marked in Cambridge. Lower Secondary is the middle stage, ages 11 to 14, with the same optional Checkpoint test at the end.
Register to check for yourself, and the full guide →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
✓Catering
✓School transport
·Boardingnot stated on the website
Also on site: Playground
Campus: A building in one of the greenest parts of the Madrid area, at Alcobendas. The school calls its playground a green oasis in the middle of the city: it is laid out for play and activity at every age, the children are outdoors every day, and in good weather lessons are held there too. There is a school canteen and a school bus - both stand as sections of their own in the school's account of school life.
Clubs and activities: Singing · Group playing · Instruments · School choir · Football · Dance · Gymnastics · Art · Summer school
Summer camp: the school runs its own camp; whether it takes children from outside is not stated on the website
A summer school stands as an item of its own in the school life section under the name "Cole de verano"; on the pages read the school names neither dates nor ages nor terms.
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 school publishes no staff list or teacher numbers. On staffing it says that many people apply to work there, so it can hire well-trained staff with a high level of expertise; teacher density is high and groups are small; both pupils and staff come from many different countries.
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%)72 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%)90 Teaching staff (10%) scored on disclosed data55 Facilities (10%) scored on disclosed data70 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