← Back to homeShackleton International School
Burjassot, Spain · Private
Illustration · Burjassot
Shackleton International School is a private British school in Burjassot, just outside Valencia. Its founders have more than forty years behind them in nurseries and language academies; in 2012 they opened Superfriends International School for children from four months old, and then grew the project into a full school for ages 3 to 18. Teaching follows the National Curriculum for England and Wales: Foundation Stage, Primary, Secondary with IGCSE examinations in Year 11, and the IB Diploma Programme in Years 12 and 13. The school was authorised for the Diploma in July 2025 and is adding it one year group at a time: the 2026/2027 intake runs from Nursery to Year 12, Year 13 will follow, and the school has no IB leavers of its own yet. Lessons are in English, and on top of that every pupil studies German, Spanish and Valencian, with French added from the fifth year. The Diploma stage has its own short timetable, 9:00 to 14:30, and wears no uniform; everyone else may arrive from 8:00 for the free Early Birds session with board games and books. The building has laboratories, a STEAM area, a multipurpose room, a refurbished ICT room, an auditorium, a gym with a climbing wall, a library with a mural painted by Year 6, and its own kitchen running since October 2023; breaks are spent in a covered courtyard and on the roof, where pupils play football and basketball. The school has its own psychologists, and in summer it runs an English summer school for ages 3 to 13 with themed weeks, excursions, water games and daily mindfulness.
Key facts
Tuition
≈ $9 433–11 286 a year
8 350–9 990 EUR
Programmes
IB · DP · Cambridge · IGCSE
Languages of instruction
English
Languages taught
Spanish, German, French
Registration fee
≈ $1 147
1 015 EUR
About the fees The annual tuition fee depends on the stage: 8350 EUR for Nursery and Reception, 8700 for Years 1 to 6, 9295 for Years 7 and 8, 9650 for Years 9 to 11 and 9990 for Year 12 in 2026/2027. The fee covers school insurance, the educational psychology service, the compulsory lunch, shared consumable materials and Early Birds from eight in the morning. It does not cover the Chromebook chosen by the school (about 500 EUR, from Year 3), textbooks, apps and personal materials, uniforms, extracurricular activities, the bus, or examination fees - about 1000 EUR a year for IGCSE in Year 11 and the same for the IB in Year 13. Payment can be made in ten instalments by SEPA direct debit on the second of each month from September to June, annually, or termly in advance. Paying in full before 1 September earns a 2 per cent discount, and there is 20 per cent off tuition from the third child. The school updates the fee every year by the consumer price index plus 2 per cent.
Admissions Admission runs in four steps: an application and an information visit, a placement test, a trial day in class, and notification of the result with enrolment. Every applicant sits a written test for their age without exception - including children from another British school and native English speakers - and brings their previous school's grades on the same day. The leadership team decides on suitability and also determines whether the child needs special support measures during the transition. Some applicants are admitted on condition that they work with a personal tutor for a few months. From the age of five upwards the school states plainly that applicants must show a minimum body of knowledge for its curriculum. There is also an online information interview with the admissions team by appointment.
Stages and year groups Grades Nursery from age 3 - Year 12, rising to Year 13 by 2027/2028. The stages are British: Foundation Stage from 3 to 5, Primary from 5 to 11, Secondary from 11 to 16 with IGCSE examinations in Year 11, and the IB Diploma Programme in Years 12 and 13, that is from 16 to 18. For 2026/2027 the school admits from Nursery to Year 12 and adds a year group annually until the cycle closes with Year 13. The Diploma stage runs from 9:00 to 14:30 and has no uniform of its own; for younger pupils the day can start at 8:00 if parents take Early Birds.
Address Benieu 9, Burjassot, Valencia
Accreditations and programmes verified against official registries
IB · DP · authorised programmeCambridge · IGCSE · 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: DP (ages 16-19). 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 →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). IGCSE means exams at around Year 10 or 11, the British counterpart of a lower secondary leaving certificate.
Register to check for yourself, and the full guide →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 hall
✓Laboratories
✓Theatre or assembly hall
✓Library
✓Catering
✓School transport
·Boardingnot stated on the website
Campus: A building with sliding doors and a bright reception connected to the administration, the admissions office and the library. Each class has its own room, plus specialist rooms: laboratories, a multipurpose hall, a STEAM area and a newly refitted ICT room for Secondary subjects. There is an auditorium for performances and assemblies, a gym with a climbing wall, a covered courtyard, and a roof where pupils play football and basketball at break. The library has a mural made by Year 6 pupils with the artist Vicente Marzal. The school's own kitchen has been running since October 2023, with menus designed by paediatric nutritionists and catering by Colevisa; halal, pork-free, vegetarian and vegan options are offered, along with separate diets for allergies. School buses run on routes replanned every year, with supervisors on board, and parents can follow the vehicle in real time through a WhatsApp community.
Clubs and activities (14): Basketball · Football · Karate · Roller skating · Acrobatics · Dance · Zumba for parents · Music · Theatre · Piano · Chess · Robotics · Cookery · Origami
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 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
The school has its own educational psychology service with in-house school psychologists, and it is included in the tuition fee. The psychologists work with pupils who have academic, social, emotional or behavioural difficulties, counselling and mentoring them. The school names no security staff, no CCTV, no access control, no medical room and no child protection policy.
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%)84 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%)90 Teaching staff (10%) scored on disclosed data55 Facilities (10%) scored on disclosed data90 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