← Back to homeSEK International School Atlántico
Poio, Spain · est. 1989 · Private
Illustration · Poio
SEK International School Atlantico is a private, non-denominational and independent school in Poio near Pontevedra, running since 1989. It was the first in Galicia to be authorised for all three International Baccalaureate programmes: the PYP from three to twelve, the MYP from twelve to sixteen and the Diploma from sixteen to eighteen, built into the Spanish curriculum. Children are taken from four months: the school's own Escuela Infantil with English immersion stands in a building of its own. Teaching is bilingual, Spanish with English, and the additional language is French; pupils are prepared for Cambridge examinations from the second grade of primary school and, in French, for DELF. The school publishes its results in figures: in 2024: 39 pupils sat the IB Diploma, the average score was 32.48 and four scored more than 40; over the last two years two pupils scored 45 out of 45, and five leavers of the Spanish bachillerato ranked among the best in Galicia. The school admits children of all nationalities and places children from other school systems in a class by date of birth. In summer the school runs Summer SEK, open to pupils of other schools too. The day runs from 9:30 to 17:30, there are 12 bus routes with a tracking app, an on-site kitchen, a doctor and a nurse. The school does not publish its tuition fees.
Key facts
Programmes
IB · PYP, MYP, DP
Admits from
4 months · Pre-School
Languages of instruction
Spanish, English
Summer camp
Yes, open to all
Admissions Places are limited, and admission runs throughout the year. The steps: a request for information through the site, by email or by telephone; if desired, a visit to the school with the admissions team; an interview and an entrance test. Before the interview the family uploads to the MY SEK Admisiones platform the identity documents of the parents and the child, the birth certificate, marks or reports for the previous year and other documents depending on the stage; those who cannot come for the test are interviewed online. Under the admissions policy of the SEK network, to which the school refers, children of all nationalities and religions are admitted; a child from another school system is placed in a class by date of birth, and if that is not pedagogically possible, one class lower, especially if Spanish is not the child's main language. To match the stages the school publishes a table of equivalences between the Spanish, British and American systems. After the admission decision the enrolment fee must be paid within 7 calendar days, otherwise the place is lost.
Stages and year groups Grades Escuela Infantil from 4 months - bachillerato to age 18. The stages run right through: the Escuela Infantil from four months to three years, the pre-school stage from three to six and primary from six to twelve under the PYP, secondary from twelve to sixteen under the MYP and the bachillerato from sixteen to eighteen under the Diploma Programme - in humanities or sciences. The school day runs from 9:30 to 17:30.
Address Urb. A Caeira, Illa de Arousa, 4, Boa Vista, Poio, 36005 Pontevedra
Accreditations and programmes verified against official registries
NEASC · accreditationIB · PYP, MYP, DP · authorised programmeSEK · 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
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 →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 →SEKschool network
A Spanish organisation, founded in 1892; the site calls it Institución Internacional SEK, and signs the network of schools and universities "SEK-IES", International Education Systems. The numbers diverge: the home page names 26 schools, 2 universities, 17 countries and more than 25,000 pupils, while the "Red educativa internacional" page lists the same 26 schools - 14 "Colegios SEK" and 12 "Colegios IES" - and three universities. The Portuguese school stands among the "Colegios IES"; the history page puts its purchase in 2022. Whether the organisation owns the schools or manages them is not said. Not to be confused with SEK Education Group: that one has its own site, sek.es, and Portugal is not in its list of countries.
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
Average IB score
32.48 (world average 30.88)
Exam results In 2024: 39 pupils sat the IB Diploma: the average score was 32.48, more than 2 points above the world average, and four scored more than 40; converted to the Spanish scale the average was 8.30, and the average university entrance score 11.674. Over the last two years two pupils scored 45 out of 45. In the Spanish bachillerato five pupils ranked among the best in Galicia, and one received the Premio Extraordinario de Bachillerato.
Facilities from the school's official website
·Swimming poolnot stated on the website
✓Sports hall
✓Laboratories
·Theatre or assembly hallnot stated on the website
✓Library
✓Catering
✓School transport
·Boardingnot stated on the website
Also on site: Sports ground or field · Makerspace
Campus: 6000 square metres of buildings and 7000 square metres of open recreation and sports areas, a covered multi-sport pavilion. The Escuela Infantil covers 2000 square metres. The school names a Maker Space, a psychomotor room, a bright canteen with 200 permanent seats and its own kitchen, a laboratory, a music room and a painting room and a library; all classrooms have SMART boards and there is fast wifi across the campus. The bus has 12 routes.
Clubs and activities (18): Sensory workshops · Music · Robotics · Sentir y Pensar (emotional intelligence) · Sway-Microsoft projects · Dance · Art and drama · Yoga · Mind Lab · Gifted programme · ECOSEK · Debate and public speaking · Creative writing · Communication and press club · SEKMUN · Erasmus+ · SEK International Sports Academy · Ski week
Summer camp: the school runs its own camp and takes children from outside as well
In summer the school runs Summer SEK courses - for its own pupils and for pupils of other schools, with an emphasis on teamwork, leadership, creativity and technology; there are also summer courses abroad. Dates, ages and prices are given on the network's separate summer courses portal.
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 room
✓Counsellor
·Child protection policynot stated on the website
·Staff trainingnot stated on the website
·Anti-bullying policynot stated on the website
The school's own School Nurses service works in the school building from 10:00 to 14:00; beyond it the school holds an accident insurance policy with the Quirón Salud hospital group in Pontevedra and clinics in the other towns where its pupils live. The psychopedagogical and guidance department is organised by stage, prepares reports on pupils' development for teachers and families, and carries out the identification and diagnosis of learning difficulties.
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 data65 Accreditation and verifiability (10%)90 Teaching staff (10%) scored on disclosed data55 Facilities (10%) scored on disclosed data85 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