← Back to homeSt. Dominic's International School
São Domingos de Rana, Portugal · Private
Illustration · São Domingos de Rana
St. Dominic's is an international school in São Domingos de Rana outside Lisbon, teaching children from 3 to 18 and running all three International Baccalaureate programmes: the Primary Years Programme from nursery to grade 5, the Middle Years Programme in grades 6 to 10, and the Diploma in grades 11 and 12. The school says of itself that it has been nurturing and educating international mindedness for 50 years, and describes its community as drawn from over fifty nationalities and built on inclusivity: "all people bring value to a community". It belongs to the International Schools Partnership group - 112 schools, around 110000 students and around 14000 educators in 25 countries - and works to its Learning.First approach. The language of lessons is English: every page for parents and pupils, the policies, the programme descriptions and the admission requirements are written in English, and the International Baccalaureate programmes are taught in English, which is where the conclusion comes from. Admission is open, and pupils of varied ability and with special educational needs are taken. School buses carry pupils, there is a canteen, sport is run in volleyball, basketball, football and badminton, arts programmes and CAS operate, and in summer there is a Summer School. Leavers go mostly to British universities - Imperial College London, King's College London, University of Edinburgh, Durham University, University of Bath - and in recent years increasingly to other European ones, including Universiteit van Amsterdam, Universidade de Coimbra and Blanquerna. The highest Diploma awarded in the school is 45 points. The school posts its fee amounts as an image, and those figures are not set as text anywhere on the site.
Key facts
Programmes
IB · PYP, MYP, DP
Admits from
3 years · Pre-School
Languages of instruction
English
Admissions The school keeps an open admission policy and takes pupils with a broad range of academic ability and with special educational needs, assessing whether it has the resources to support such a pupil. Places are offered according to space availability and the date of application. From grade 6 a pupil may be asked to take placement testing of level and learning style; those for whom English is not a first language are referred to Learning Support professionals for assessment. Once a place is offered, the family completes registration details, a health questionnaire, consent forms and an acknowledgement of the rules, and provides copies of relevant health and learning documents. The school sets no conditions of citizenship or residence and describes its community as drawn from over fifty nationalities.
Stages and year groups Grades from nursery to grade 12. The stages run as a continuum: the Primary Years Programme from nursery to grade 5, the Middle Years Programme in grades 6 to 10, and the International Baccalaureate Diploma in grades 11 and 12.
Address Rua Maria Brown, Outeiro de Polima, 2785-816 São Domingos de Rana
Accreditations and programmes verified against official registries
IB · PYP, MYP, DP · authorised programmeNEASC · accreditationInternational Schools Partnership · 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
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), DP (ages 16-19). 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. DP is the final stage, ages 16 to 19: six subjects plus a compulsory core of theory of knowledge, an extended essay and CAS. The diploma is accepted by universities all over the world, and in a number of countries it counts for admission on the same footing as the local leaving certificate.
Register to check for yourself, and the full guide →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 →International Schools Partnershipschool network
A group of private international schools, founded in 2013 by five leaders from international education. The numbers diverge: the home page gives 121 schools in 26 countries and "132,000+" pupils, the "About us" page - 106 schools in 25 countries, the "Who and where we are" page - 121 schools in more than 26 markets and 118,000 pupils. The site writes that schools keep their own character, brand and curriculum when they join ISP, but does not say whether ISP buys the schools, manages them under contract or brings them together by membership.
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
Exam results The highest Diploma total awarded to a pupil of the school is 45 out of 45, and the number of pupils registered for the Diploma has more than doubled in four years. The school publishes no average score and no pass rate in figures: its results page shows zeros in place of numbers. The school notes separately that even leavers with 30 points and below have won places at strong universities.
Where leavers go: Aberdeen University · Blanquerna, Universitat Ramon Llull · Brunel University London · City, University of London · Durham University · University of Edinburgh · University of Glasgow · Hult International Business School London · IADE · Instituto Superior de Agronomia · Imperial College London · Instituto Superior de Psicologia Aplicada and others, 27 universities in the school's list in all
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
Campus: A school canteen and buses that carry pupils; sport is run in volleyball, basketball, football and badminton.
Clubs and activities: Volleyball · Basketball · Football · Badminton · CAS
Teaching staff
The school publishes neither the number of its teachers nor their qualifications.
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%)95 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 data73 Value for money (6%) scored at the median70 "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