← Back to homeIPS Cascais British International School
Cascais, Portugal · est. 1982 · Private
Illustration · Cascais
A British school near Cascais, founded in 1982 and running for more than forty years. In September 2025 it had 440 pupils of more than 40 nationalities, the largest group British and the second Portuguese. Lessons are in English: the school names English as its language of instruction and teaches the National Curriculum for England from Nursery, with IGCSEs in Year 11. A Sixth Form with A Levels in Years 12 and 13 is opening, and in the 2026-27 fee schedule the top year group is Year 11. The school runs a separate Dutch programme for native speakers. It belongs to the Globeducate group. The campus is in Bicesse, 25 kilometres from central Lisbon; a 1200 square metre hall for sport and productions is being built on the Secondary site. After-school activities and summer sessions run under the VivaHUB programme.
Key facts
Tuition
≈ $12 836–20 691 a year
11 049–17 811 EUR
Programmes
Cambridge · IGCSE, A-Level
Admits from
3 years · Pre-School
Languages of instruction
English
Admissions The school says it warmly welcomes children from all over the world and sets no nationality or residency restrictions. Places are given in order of application, but priority goes to siblings of current pupils, children whose first language is not Portuguese or who were educated mainly in English, first-language English speakers, and families covered by organisational protocols. Admission runs in five steps: an expression of interest, a visit and meeting, submitting forms with previous school reports, an entry task for the child, and securing the place by payment. Children are taken from an early age, from Nursery at 3.
Stages and year groups Grades Nursery, Reception, Year 1 - Year 11. Nursery from age 3, Reception at 4, Primary in Years 1-6, Secondary in Years 7-11 with IGCSEs in Year 11. A Sixth Form in Years 12-13 with A Levels is opening: the 2026-27 fee schedule ends at Year 11, while the school's own description names year groups from Nursery to Year 13.
Address Rua da Lagoa 171, Bicesse, 2645-344 Alcabideche
Accreditations and programmes verified against official registries
COBIS · membershipCambridge · IGCSE, A-Level · authorised programmeGlobeducate · 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
COBISCouncil of British International Schools
An association of British schools abroad with a quality inspection of its own. It has nine membership categories, and the word "accredited" appears in seven of them, although COBIS does its own inspection in one: in the rest it recognises an accreditation granted by somebody 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: 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 →Globeducateschool network
A K12 education group bringing together bilingual and international schools as well as online programmes. The site names "65+" schools in 11 countries and 40,000 pupils, and on all the pages read these numbers agree. Whether the group owns the schools, manages them or passes on its methodology under licence is not said on the site; the year of foundation and the country of registration are not named.
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
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
✓Library
✓Catering
✓School transport
·Boardingnot stated on the website
Also on site: Sports ground or field · Art studio · Playground
Campus: The campus is in Bicesse near Cascais, 25 kilometres from central Lisbon: a library with its own librarian, a dining room with a kitchen cooking on site, a multipurpose field and a hard court for basketball, tennis and handball, separate playgrounds by age group, a pond, a mud kitchen and vegetable patches for outdoor work, rooms for music, languages and art, and rooms for learning support and English as an additional language. A 1200 square metre multipurpose hall acoustically designed for sport and productions is being built on the Secondary site. There is a school bus. A library with books for every age and its own librarian, a dining room with a kitchen cooking on site, a multipurpose field and a hard court for basketball, tennis and handball, playgrounds by age group, a pond, a mud kitchen and vegetable patches, rooms for music, languages and art, rooms for learning support and for English as an additional language. The 1200 square metre hall for sport and productions on the Secondary site is still being built.
Teaching staff
The school publishes neither the number of its teachers nor their qualifications.
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
·Counsellornot stated on the website
✓Child protection policy
·Staff trainingnot stated on the website
·Anti-bullying policynot stated on the website
The school gives safeguarding its own section within the information about itself, alongside its institutional documents and policies.
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%)85 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 data60 Accreditation and verifiability (10%)85 Teaching staff (10%) scored on disclosed data55 Facilities (10%) scored on disclosed data75 Clubs and activities (8%) scored on disclosed data55 "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