← Back to homeOpen Learning International School
Benitachell, Spain · Private
Illustration · Benitachell
Open Learning is a small private full-time day school in Benitachell on the Costa Blanca, for children from 4 to 18, following the Cambridge programme with IGCSE and A Level exams. It grew out of a group of home-schooled children and pupils who had been told by other schools that there was no place for them, and it still builds itself around such children: groups of 10-12, lessons as conversation around a shared table in the Harkness method, project work, grouping by level rather than age, and exams one at a time, when the pupil is ready. The school is bilingual: English and Spanish from the youngest classes. The day is short, from 8:30 to 14:00, followed by an optional half hour of extra sessions; the afternoon is given to sport, the sea and clubs the school runs with partners: tennis at the Ferrer academy, the pool, the stables, cooking, marine biology. The school has no investors; its founder runs it herself. The school writes that its pupils receive Cambridge Outstanding Learner Awards as the best in Spain at IGCSE, and that all pass GCSE Spanish. It publishes its fees in full.
Key facts
Tuition
≈ $4 801–8 145 a year
4 250–7 210 EUR
Programmes
Cambridge · IGCSE, A-Level · Pearson Edexcel
Languages of instruction
English, Spanish
Class size
10-12 pupils per group
About the fees The school publishes its fees in full, for 2026-2027, in euros: primary school 4250 a year, Years 7-8: 4450, Year 9: 4770, Years 10-11 (5 subjects) 5305, the Sixth Form with up to three A Level subjects 7210. Payment can be once a year (by 20 August 2026), three times a year or in ten monthly payments; monthly this comes to 470 to 795 euros, and annual payment, the school says, is about 10 per cent cheaper than monthly, termly about 5. The fee includes medical insurance at school.
Admissions Places are few, and admission goes step by step: a short form or a letter about the child, a meeting with the director and a walk around the school where the child sits in on a lesson, then one or two trial days in the future group, after which both sides decide whether the school fits. In January current pupils confirm their places, and from February new families are called in waiting list order. Children who need more time, structure or support are explicitly welcome: the school was built for them and says honestly whether it can help.
Stages and year groups Grades Primary (4 years) - Year 13 (18 years). Primary school for ages 4-10 in two groups, 4-6 and 7-10: mathematics, language, science, English and art, two days in Spanish and two in English, with outdoor learning on Fridays. Years 7-9: mathematics, English and Spanish by level, projects, an introduction to GCSE subjects, and in Year 9 GCSEs in enterprise and foreign languages can be taken. Years 10-11: GCSE with a personal timetable, shared subjects in the morning and own options in the afternoon, exams at different times. Years 12-13: A Level with help in applying to universities. Separately there is the Pathfinders work preparation course and GCSE resit programmes.
Address Carrer de Les Capelletes 2, 03726 Benitachell, Alicante
Accreditations and programmes verified against official registries
Cambridge · IGCSE, A-Level · authorised programmePearson · 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
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 →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 →Exams and destinations from the school's official website
Exam results The school writes that all pupils passed GCSE Spanish and that its pupils receive Cambridge Outstanding Learner Awards as the best in Spain at IGCSE. There is no detailed results table on the site.
Facilities from the school's official website
✓Swimming poolNo pool of its own; swimming all year round at the Benitachell municipal pool two minutes from the school.
·Sports hallnot stated on the website
·Laboratoriesnot stated on the website
·Theatre or assembly hallnot stated on the website
✓LibraryA library, where the study hall runs after lessons.
·Cateringnot stated on the website
·School transportnot stated on the website
·Boardingnot stated on the website
Also on site: Sports ground or field · Art studio
Campus: A small building in Benitachell; the school says plainly that it is not its ideal space and that it is looking for a new one on the Costa Blanca. The sea is a 12-minute walk away.
Clubs and activities: Swimming · Art Club · Culture Club · Cooking Club · Multi-sports · Ball games · Tennis at the Ferrer Academy · Horse riding · Marine biology and diving
Teaching staff from the school's official website
·Teachers listed by namenot published
✓Teacher qualifications
·Number of teachersthe school does not say
✓Students per teacher or class sizein the key facts above
What the listings show: The special needs specialist has a master's degree in primary and special education; the specialist in English as a foreign language is a qualified teacher with twenty years of experience
The school names its team: the founder and director, an art lead with twenty years of industry experience, the head of the Spanish section, primary teachers for English and Spanish, a science and mathematics teacher with experience in international schools, an enterprise and innovation teacher who has lectured at MCI Innsbruck, specialists in English as a foreign language and in special educational needs, a pastoral lead, and a teacher of Spanish, English and German. The team is trilingual: they teach in English, Spanish and Valencian, and most stay year after year.
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 policynot stated on the website
·Staff trainingnot stated on the website
·Anti-bullying policynot stated on the website
Pupil wellbeing is the responsibility of a dedicated pastoral lead with seven years of experience in psychosocial support and child protection in humanitarian organisations. Each secondary pupil has a mentor who starts the day with them and keeps in touch with the family. Special needs specialists work with children with dyslexia, ADHD and autism. The fee includes medical insurance at school.
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 data80 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