← Back to homeLauaxeta Ikastola
Amorebieta-Etxano, Spain · est. 1977 · Private
Illustration · Amorebieta-Etxano
Lauaxeta Ikastola is a Basque cooperative ikastola on a hill between Amorebieta and Durango, with the Urkiola natural park on one side and Urdaibai on the other. The school was constituted in 1977 and in its first ten years grew from 150 pupils to 1450 and from 9 teachers to 75. It is named after the poet Esteban Urkiaga, who wrote under the pen name Lauaxeta. The stages run right through: nursery and Infantil from nought months to six years, then Primaria, Secundaria and the baccalaureate. The school runs two IB programmes - the PEP (that is, the PYP) from the age of three through the whole of Infantil and the first years of Primaria, and the PAI (that is, the MYP) across the whole of Secundaria; the upper stage is the national baccalaureate in three modalities, each with its own «orientation itineraries». The school's language is Basque, and that is its point: «Los alumnos-as de Lauaxeta son euskaldunes y plurilingües». Beyond Basque the school brings pupils to competence in Castilian and English and adds a fourth language. The main thing a parent needs to know: there is no IB Diploma here, the upper stage is national, and the main language of instruction is Basque, for which our language dictionary has no code yet.
Key facts
Programmes
IB · PYP, MYP · National programme
Languages of instruction
Spanish, English
Admissions The school describes admission to kindergarten from the age of two, to primary and to secondary school on a separate enrolment page. Around November registration for open days opens on the site, and the school announces the official application period later. The application is accompanied by copies of the pages of the family record book for the child and for the parent or a guardianship document, a copy of the Spanish identity card or the foreign national identity card (TIE) of the parent or guardian, a certificate of residence from the town council issued within the last three months, for separated parents the consent of the other parent or a court ruling, and a questionnaire on special educational needs. Foreign families thus apply on the same footing as Spanish ones, with the foreign national identity card. The school names no entrance examinations and no requirement to know Basque or Spanish on entry. The school office is open from Monday to Friday from 9:15 to 16:30, on Fridays until 15:00.
Stages and year groups Grades nursery (from 0 months) - baccalaureate. The school runs Educación Infantil from nought months to six years and says plainly that this stage is followed by the first two years of Primaria with the same pedagogical approach and a shared logic. It embeds the PEP (PYP) from the age of three and the PAI (MYP) across the whole of Secundaria. The baccalaureate is the national one, in three modalities (science and technology, humanities and social sciences, arts), and inside each the school has laid out «orientation itineraries» towards a future specialism.
Address Barrio San Miguel de Dudea (San Migel Auzoa), 2
Accreditations and programmes verified against official registries
IB · PYP, MYP · 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: PYP (ages 3-12), MYP (ages 11-16). PYP is the primary stage, ages 3 to 12. It is not a set of subjects but a frame for the whole school: learning is built around lines of inquiry, and there are no exams at the end. MYP is the middle stage, ages 11 to 16. There are no exams here either; at the end an optional electronic assessment of pupils' work is possible.
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 site on high ground between Amorebieta and Durango, with large open spaces, green areas and views over the surroundings; reachable both by the N-634 road and the A-8 motorway. The school's own «Equipamientos e instalaciones» page is divided into indoor and outdoor facilities but gives no list in text - only a photo gallery - so the school names no specific facilities.
Clubs and activities (8): Basketball · Football · Ice hockey · Multi-sports · English · French · Basque C1 level preparation · Cambridge language exam preparation
Summer programme away from campus: . The school runs no camp of its own on campus
In summer the school runs open day camps, udalekuak, with a week-by-week leisure programme tailored to each age: for children from 2 years old up to the bachillerato, both its own pupils and children from other schools. The groups: 2 years, 3-5 years, primary years 1-2, 3-4 and 5-6, secondary years 1-2 and 3-4, and the bachillerato. Separately the school takes pupils for 2 weeks to residential camps out of town: to Lizarra, primary years 3-4, nature, adventure and sport, and to Eguino, climbing, sports tournaments and nature. The school names no prices and no exact dates on the page.
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 its staff by name. The guidance department is staffed by specialists in psychology and psycho-pedagogy, with whom form tutors at every stage coordinate.
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
A guidance department with a team of specialists in psychology and psycho-pedagogy; a coordinated tutorial programme runs from Infantil to the baccalaureate and answers both the academic and the emotional needs of a pupil.
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 data60 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 data78 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