← Back to homeThe Ark Christian School
Mijas, Spain · est. 2009 · Private
Illustration · Mijas
The Ark Christian School is a private British Christian school in Las Lagunas de Mijas, near Fuengirola, half an hour from Malaga. It was founded in 2009 by the Ark Christian Church, which meets in the school buildings on Sundays, but the school has its own statutes and is registered as an independent non-profit charitable organisation; it is governed by a board of four. It teaches children from two to eighteen on the British National Curriculum: Early Years, primary school, KS3, IGCSE in Years 10-11 (usually nine subjects) and A-Level in the Sixth Form (usually three or four subjects, including biblical studies). Lessons are in English, and the school recruits native-speaker teachers except for Spanish; Spanish language and literature are compulsory subjects. The school writes that its doors are open to all children, although its ethos is Christian, and that its fees are the lowest for a school of its kind on the coast. The Instituto Canzion music school works within the school, and its teachers give pupils music lessons and lead the choir. A-Levels give direct access to Spanish public universities through recognition of the certificate; the school helps with registration for additional UNEDasiss exams. The school day runs from 09:00 to 15:00 in primary and to 16:00 in secondary. The school publishes its fees itself.
Key facts
Tuition
≈ $5 289–10 174 a year
4 681.35–9 005.4 EUR
Programmes
Cambridge · IGCSE, A-Level
Admits from
2 years · Pre-School
Languages of instruction
English
About the fees The school publishes its 2026-2027 fees itself, in euros per year, paid in ten monthly instalments: Pre-reception and Reception - 4681.35, Years 1-2 - 4974.08, Years 3-4 - 5610.10, Years 5-6 - 5994.60, Years 7-9 - 7003, Year 10 - 7850, Year 11 - 8829 (in nine instalments), Year 12 - 8883.50, Year 13 - 9005.40 euros (in nine instalments). Textbooks and materials in KS3 and KS4 are included, in the Sixth Form textbooks are extra. Discounts: 5 per cent for the second child, 30 for the third and fourth; for paying the year in advance 7, 5 or 2 per cent depending on the date.
Admissions The school writes that its doors are open to all children, and takes families all year round; to those abroad it offers a virtual meeting instead of a visit. The procedure: get in touch and arrange a visit or video call, get to know the school, then the school reviews previous reports and may set placement tests; the child spends two free trial days at the school. After a successful assessment the family receives a written offer of a place and 5-10 days to secure it. The school names no English requirement.
Stages and year groups Grades Pre-reception (age 2) - Year 13 (age 18). Early Years Foundation Stage (Pre-reception and Reception) on the British EYFS standard; primary KS1-KS2 (Years 1-6): English, Spanish, mathematics, science, humanities, ICT, art, PE, PSHE, music. KS3 (Years 7-9); Years 10-11 - Cambridge IGCSE, compulsory English language and literature, Spanish language and literature, mathematics, science, PSHE, PE, with three options from ICT, travel and tourism, sociology, geography, history, art and business. Sixth Form: three or four A-Levels from English, Spanish, mathematics, biology, physics, chemistry, psychology, travel and tourism, history, ICT, business and biblical studies.
Address Calle Río Darro 1, 29651 Las Lagunas de Mijas, Málaga
Accreditations and programmes verified against official registries
Cambridge · IGCSE, A-Level · 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 →Exams and destinations from the school's official website
Where leavers go: Universidad de Granada
The school does not publish a list of destinations; it writes that A-Levels give access to universities in the United Kingdom, Spain and other countries, and an alumna's testimonial names the University of Granada.
Facilities
The school does not describe its premises on its website.
Teaching staff from the school's official website
·Teachers listed by namenot published
·Teacher qualificationsnot stated
·Number of teachersthe school does not say
·Students per teacher or class sizenot stated
The school does not give the total number of teachers; the staff page names about 25 people, from the head teacher Katie Bertrán de Lis Jones and the coordinators to class teachers, subject teachers, assistants and the music teacher. For recruitment the school requires suitable qualifications and experience, native English (except for Spanish teachers), a permit to work in the EU and willingness to uphold the school's Christian ethos. It calls staff turnover low. There is a special educational needs coordinator and a teacher of English as a second language.
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%)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 data70 Safety and wellbeing (12%) scored on disclosed data55 Accreditation and verifiability (10%)85 Teaching staff (10%) scored on disclosed data55 Facilities (10%) scored on disclosed data55 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