← Back to homeSEK International School Catalunya
La Garriga, Spain · Private
Illustration · La Garriga
SEK-Catalunya is a private international school in La Garriga, thirty minutes from Barcelona, teaching every stage from four months to eighteen years. The school was Catalonia's pioneer in the three International Baccalaureate programmes and remains the only school in Catalonia accredited to run them as a full continuum. Boarding here is real: students of different nationalities live in its international residence, and the school describes it as an environment of cultural exchange with enrichment programmes, sport and high academic demands. Teaching runs with full immersion in English and bilingually, English with Spanish; there are more than forty nationalities in the school. Beyond lessons the school names the SEK International Sports Academy for high-performance sport, the Duke of Edinburgh's International Award, and its own music school - an affiliate of Trinity College London that runs a primary music programme. The school belongs to the SEK Education Group; a group in itself confers no external recognition on a school.
Key facts
Programmes
IB · PYP, MYP, DP
Languages of instruction
English, Spanish
Admissions Admission runs in four steps: a request for information through the website, email or phone, a visit with the admissions team, an interview and entrance test booked through the MY SEK Admissions platform, and submission of documents through the same platform: identity documents for the parents and the child, the birth certificate and marks for the previous school year. For applicants from far away the school holds the interview online. Places, in its words, are limited. The school admits foreign pupils: its pupils come from more than forty nationalities, and pupils from different countries live in its international residence.
Stages and year groups Grades from 4 months to 18 years. The school teaches every stage from four months to eighteen years; its Escuela Infantil starts at four months. The three International Baccalaureate programmes run as a full continuum, and the school is the only one in Catalonia accredited for that.
Address Urb. Els Tremolencs, Avda. Els Tremolencs, 24-26, La Garriga, 08530 Barcelona
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
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
✓Boarding
Campus: A campus in the Els Tremolencs development in La Garriga, thirty minutes from Barcelona. An international residence for boarders. The school houses a music school - an affiliate of Trinity College London - and the SEK International Sports Academy.
Summer camp: the school runs its own camp; whether it takes children from outside is not stated on the website
In summer the school runs Summer SEK - the Mini Explorers and Junior Explorers programmes for different ages: architecture-themed building projects, sensory workshops, outdoor games, water activities, an introduction to golf at the Club de Golf Vallromanes and weekly outings. The SEK group, in its words, has run summer courses for more than 65 years and takes registrations through a separate summer courses portal. The school gives no dates, ages or prices on the page.
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 data55 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 data65 Clubs and activities (8%) scored on disclosed data55 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