← Back to homeThe International School of Catalunya (ISCAT)
La Garriga, Spain · est. 2007 · Private
Illustration · La Garriga
The International School of Catalunya (ISCAT) is a private British school in La Garriga, half an hour's drive from Barcelona. It was founded in 2007 by Noreen Loughman, the current director, and Alan Roberts. The school takes children from three to eighteen, from Nursery to Year 13, on the National Curriculum of England and Wales: at the end of Year 11 pupils sit IGCSE and GCSE, and in Year 13 A-Level. Lessons are in English, the teachers, the school says, are native speakers, and there is one class in each year group. Spanish and Catalan are compulsory for three hours a week each in secondary school, together with the history and geography of Spain and Catalonia: this is needed for the British exams to count as the Spanish ESO certificate. The school is registered with the Generalitat de Catalunya as a private foreign centre, is a member of NABSS, and its inspections are carried out by the British Council. Distinctive features: Forest School since 2012, in the school's words the first in Spain, with weekly sessions in the nearby forest; Gold status as a UNICEF Rights Respecting School; the Duke of Edinburgh Award at Bronze level in Year 10; emotional education from primary to secondary. The school adapts its timetable for pupils who are athletes and dancers. The school publishes its fees itself, in euros per year.
Key facts
Tuition
≈ $9 530–17 697 a year
8 436–15 665 EUR
Programmes
Pearson Edexcel
Admits from
3 years · Pre-School
Languages of instruction
English
Languages taught
Spanish, Catalan
About the fees The school publishes its 2026-2027 fees itself, in euros per year: Early Years (Nursery and Reception) - 8436, primary school - 9039, Key Stage 3 (Years 7-9) - 10393, Key Stage 4 (Years 10-11) - 12803, A-Level (Years 12-13) - 15665 euros. The fees include tuition, materials, insurance and the re-enrolment fee; up to Year 6 also books, in secondary school PE activities. The third child and beyond get a 20 per cent discount when siblings are enrolled at the same time.
Admissions The school takes pupils all year round, including families moving from abroad and children from other education systems, and writes that it has pupils and staff from all over the world. The procedure: a call or an email, a meeting with the director and a visit, then the form and documents. No English is needed for Early Years and Key Stage 1; from Year 3 some English is needed, from Year 7 adequate spoken English. From primary upwards the candidate spends at least half a day in the future class instead of an entrance test, and the teachers assess English and disposition; for entry to secondary and A-Level the reports for the last two years are needed. The fee table nevertheless lists an entrance test for secondary and A-Level at 50 euros.
Stages and year groups Grades Nursery (age 3) - Year 13 (age 18). Stages: Early Years (Nursery and Reception, ages 3-5), Key Stages 1 and 2 (Years 1-6), Key Stage 3 (Years 7-9), Key Stage 4 (Years 10-11) with IGCSE and GCSE exams, and Key Stage 5 (Years 12-13) with A-Level. In KS4 English, mathematics, biology, Spanish, Catalan, PE, computing and a wellbeing course are compulsory, with up to three options from physics, chemistry, English literature, art, history, business and geography. The British exams count as the Spanish ESO certificate and as the Bachillerato. There is one class in each year group. The school day runs from 08:30 to 16:00.
Address Carrer Manuel Raspall 8, 08530 La Garriga, Barcelona
Accreditations and programmes verified against official registries
Pearson · authorised programmeNABSS · 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
PearsonPearson Edexcel, a British exam board
It gives a school approved centre status: that means Pearson exams can be sat in the school itself. What is checked is the premises, the equipment, the secure storage of papers and the presence of trained invigilators.
What the badge means for this school. The school can run Pearson exams on its own premises. The status says nothing about teaching, about results or about the school itself: any school able to run an exam securely holds it. The entry stands in the organisation's public register - anyone can check it. Which Pearson qualifications this school is approved for is not stated here.
Register to check for yourself, and the full guide →NABSSschool network
NABSS (National Association of British Schools in Spain) is not an owner of schools but an association of British schools in Spain, founded in 1978 by a group of leading British schools in the country. According to the association, it has more than 80 member schools, which educate more than 49,000 children and employ more than 5,000 teachers. Only schools officially authorised by the Spanish authorities as foreign schools teaching the British education system and certified by the British Council after inspections can be members; new schools that are still developing are not admitted straight away. The association represents the schools' common interests, encourages collaboration between them and holds an annual conference; its school finder places member schools in Madrid, Catalonia, the Valencian Community, Andalusia, the Balearic and Canary Islands, Murcia and other regions. The association's site is nabss.org.
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
Where leavers go: Seminole State College of Florida · ArtEZ University of the Arts
The school does not publish a list of destinations by year. It writes that leavers study at universities in the United Kingdom, Spain, the Netherlands, Ireland, the United States and Australia, public and private, in medicine, architecture, engineering, mathematics, law, business, education, art and design, international relations and the performing arts; alumni testimonials name Seminole State College of Florida and ArtEZ University of the Arts in the Netherlands.
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: Sports ground or field · Playground
Campus: The La Garriga campus is four buildings, Blancafort, Raspall, Calls and Caselles, around a sheltered infant playground; together they hold up to 270 pupils from Nursery to Year 13. The youngest have a safe play area, the older pupils a park with a football field and a basketball court. Food is cooked daily in the school's own kitchen, and there are two dining rooms: one for Early Years and Key Stage 1 and one for the rest. The Malhivern forest, a few minutes' walk away, serves as the Forest School site. The station with trains to Barcelona is two minutes on foot; the school bus runs from Mataró via Granollers and from Mollet via Parets.
Clubs and activities: Ballet · Chess · Cookery · Homework club · Football · Robotics · Little Explorers · Mathematics club · French · Duke of Edinburgh
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 does not publish the number of its teachers. Its English teachers, it says, are native speakers; for recruitment the school requires a British teaching qualification and at least two years of experience. The director, Noreen Loughman, has more than 30 years in international schools in Spain, the Netherlands and Switzerland and a British master's degree in primary education. Classes are small, with one class in each year group.
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 policynot stated on the website
The learning support department is run by special educational needs specialists: they follow each pupil from entry and run the emotional education programme across the school; a psychologist visits the school once a week, and outside specialists are brought in when needed. Lunch in the dining rooms is supervised by staff. The rights of the child under the UN convention, the school writes, underpin all its policies. The school names on its site no CCTV, no security guard, no nurse and no separate child protection policy.
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%)60 Community rating (16%)no dataparent reviews are needed: the criterion switches on at the fifth verified one Exams and destinations (12%) scored on disclosed data70 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 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.
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