Choosing a school is usually the biggest decision an expat family makes about moving to Spain — bigger, honestly, than the visa or the house. This guide explains how the Spanish school system is actually structured, the real differences between state, concertado, private and international schools, the co-official language question that catches so many families out, how enrolment works, and what all of it means for your family's health cover.
Spain's system is national in its overall shape — the stages, ages and qualifications are set by state law — but the day-to-day running of schools is devolved to the seventeen autonomous communities. That combination explains almost every confusing thing about Spanish education: the framework is the same everywhere, but the detail is regional. The stages break down like this.
Infant education covers children up to six, split into two cycles: 0 to 3, and 3 to 6. Neither is compulsory. The practical point for parents is that the second cycle (3 to 6) is free of charge in state-funded schools, and the overwhelming majority of Spanish families take it up. In effect most children in Spain start school at three, not six — so arriving with a four-year-old means their peers have already had a year in a classroom.
The first cycle (0 to 3) is different: provision is patchier, usually through nursery schools known as escuelas infantiles or guarderías, and availability, subsidies and fees differ significantly between regions and even between towns.
Source: Ministerio de Educación, Formación Profesional y Deportes — Educación Infantil.
Primary education runs for six academic years, ordinarily between six and twelve, and is both compulsory and free in state-funded schools.
Source: Ministerio de Educación — Educación Primaria.
ESO is compulsory secondary education: four academic years, normally twelve to sixteen. With primary, it makes up the ten years of free, compulsory schooling every child in Spain is entitled to and required to complete. Those who finish successfully receive the título de Graduado en Educación Secundaria Obligatoria.
ESO is usually taught in a separate institution from primary, typically an instituto (IES), so most Spanish children change school at twelve. If you are arriving with a child of about that age, that transition is happening anyway — which can work in your favour.
Source: Ministerio de Educación — Educación Secundaria.
Compulsory education ends at sixteen, and students then choose between two main routes. Bachillerato is the two-year academic track, normally sixteen to eighteen, organised into branches or modalidades (sciences, humanities and social sciences, or arts) and aimed principally at university entry. Formación Profesional (FP) is the vocational route, structured into intermediate and higher-level cycles. It is well regarded in Spain — not the consolation prize some British and American parents assume — and higher-level FP can also lead to university.
Sources: Ministerio de Educación — Bachillerato and the ministry's official vocational portal, TodoFP.
Students completing Bachillerato who want a Spanish university place normally sit the entrance exam — the Prueba de Acceso a la Universidad (PAU), still widely called Selectividad and known in some regions as the EBAU or EvAU. Access requirements and the exam's basic characteristics are set nationally by royal decree; universities and regions handle admission procedures.
Spanish schools fall into three legal categories — pública, concertada and privada — but expat families in practice weigh up four options, because international schools are a distinct sub-group of the private sector with their own curricula and culture.
Fully funded by the state and free to attend, state schools follow the Spanish national curriculum as adapted by your community. Places are allocated through a regional admissions process weighted heavily towards catchment area and siblings already at the school. Teaching is in Spanish and, where applicable, the region's co-official language. You will still pay for books, materials, trips and often the comedor (school lunch service), but the education itself costs nothing.
The concertada is Spain's middle option and often the least understood by newcomers: a privately run school operating under a funding agreement (concierto) with the state, which covers much of the cost of the compulsory stages. Many — though not all — have a Catholic foundation. They follow the Spanish curriculum, are subject to the public admissions process for the subsidised stages, and families typically contribute through voluntary payments, activity fees, uniform and services. Cheaper than fully private, but not free.
A fully private school charges fees, sets its own admissions and has more freedom over its programme, though schools delivering official Spanish qualifications must still teach the official curriculum and be authorised. Many are bilingual to a degree.
International schools are private schools delivering a foreign curriculum — most commonly British, American or the International Baccalaureate, though French, German, Scandinavian, Swiss and other national curricula also exist in Spain. They are concentrated in the big cities and coastal areas with large foreign populations. Teaching is largely in English (or the school's own national language), the calendar and assessment follow the home system, and the student body is usually a mix of foreign and Spanish families.
British schools in Spain can belong to the National Association of British Schools in Spain, a membership association founded in 1978 that runs its own inspection service and maintains standards across member schools — a useful, non-commercial starting point if the British curriculum is what you want.
Source: NABSS — National Association of British Schools in Spain. Spain's official statistics on schools and pupils are published by the Ministerio de Educación — non-university statistics.
| School type | Language of instruction | Curriculum | Cost | Who it tends to suit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pública (state) | Spanish, plus the co-official language where a region has one; English as a subject, with bilingual programmes in some schools | Spanish national curriculum, as adapted regionally | Free tuition; families pay for books, materials, lunch and extras | Families settling long-term, especially with younger children; anyone wanting genuine immersion and local friendships |
| Concertada (state-subsidised) | Same as state schools; often with an additional emphasis on English | Spanish national curriculum; many have a religious, usually Catholic, ethos | Part-funded by the state; families typically make voluntary contributions and pay for services | Families wanting a Spanish education with a particular ethos, without full private fees |
| Privada (fully private, Spanish) | Spanish and any co-official language; frequently bilingual with substantial English | Spanish national curriculum, sometimes with added programmes | Fee-paying; fees vary widely by school and region | Families wanting a Spanish qualification and local integration, with smaller-scale provision |
| International (private) | Mainly English, or the school's own national language; Spanish taught as a subject | British, American, IB or another national curriculum | Fee-paying; typically the most expensive route | Families on a defined posting, mid-teens arrivals, children returning home or applying to universities abroad |
Fees are deliberately absent from that table, and that is not an oversight: private and international school costs vary enormously by city, curriculum and school, and quoting a range would give false confidence. Ask the schools directly, and ask what sits outside the headline tuition figure — registration, materials, transport, lunch, trips and exam entry can add up to a meaningful second bill.
If one issue blindsides expat families, it is this one. Many people arrive assuming a Spanish state school teaches in Spanish. In several regions that is only partly true. Spain has a number of autonomous communities with a co-official language alongside Castilian Spanish: Catalan in Catalonia and the Balearic Islands, Valencian in the Valencian Community, Basque in the Basque Country and part of Navarre, and Galician in Galicia. Because education is devolved, each of those communities sets its own language-in-education policy — and those policies determine how much of the school day your child spends in a language that is not Spanish.
The models differ and are the subject of live debate within Spain itself. What matters for your family is simply this: find out, before you commit to an area, what language the local state schools actually teach in.
Check the current position with the regional education department directly: Departament d'Educació, Generalitat de Catalunya, Departamento de Educación, Gobierno Vasco, Consellería de Educación, Xunta de Galicia, Conselleria d'Educació, Generalitat Valenciana, Comunidad de Madrid — Educación or Junta de Andalucía — Educación.
Honestly? It depends on your child's age and your family's timeframe. For a child starting at three, four or five, learning in Catalan, Basque, Galician or Valencian is simply how school is — they absorb it, pick up Spanish alongside it, and within a couple of years do both without thinking. Plenty of expat families in Catalonia and the Basque Country end up with genuinely trilingual children and would not swap it.
For a child arriving at twelve or fourteen who speaks neither Spanish nor the co-official language, studying history and science in a third new language is a much heavier lift. Many teenagers manage it, but it is an argument for going in with your eyes open: ask the school what language support (aula de acogida or equivalent) it provides for newly arrived students, and consider whether an international or Castilian-medium option makes more sense for that particular child. If language policy is likely to be a deciding factor, fold it into your choice of area from the start — our guide to the best places to live in Spain is a sensible place to begin.
This is the question every expat parent asks, usually late at night and more than once. There is no universally right answer — but there is a reasonably reliable set of factors that tip the balance.
Age is the biggest one: the younger the child, the stronger the case for immersion; the older, the stronger the case for continuity. The balance starts shifting around eleven or twelve and has usually shifted decisively by sixteen. How long you are staying is the second — immersion is a long-term investment, and if you leave before it matures the calculation changes. Where you live is the third: in a small inland town the state school may simply be the school, while in Madrid, Barcelona or on the Costa del Sol you have a genuine choice. And your individual child is the fourth, the one parents most often skip — a confident nine-year-old and an anxious one will have very different experiences of being dropped into a Spanish classroom.
Getting a place is a process with a name: escolarización. It runs to an annual calendar set by each autonomous community — usually a main admission window in spring for places starting the following September, plus arrangements for families arriving outside it. Because the calendar and criteria are regional, start at your community's education department page and its admisión or escolarización section.
This is the step families most often get out of order. State school places are allocated largely by catchment area, and catchment is established through the municipal register — so being empadronado at your address is normally a prerequisite for enrolling locally. Read our guide to empadronamiento and the padrón and get it done early: appointments in busy areas can take weeks.
The main application period is typically in spring, months before the September start. Miss it and you are into the out-of-cycle process, where you take what is available rather than choosing. If you are moving mid-year, contact the regional education department as soon as you have an address — children of compulsory school age must be placed, but choice narrows considerably outside the main round.
Where demand exceeds supply, applications are ranked against published criteria: commonly proximity of home or workplace, siblings already enrolled, family circumstances such as large-family or disability status, and income. The exact weighting is set regionally, which is why two families in different communities can have very different experiences.
Requirements vary by region and school, but you will typically be asked for some combination of the following:
Younger children moving into primary or the early years of ESO are generally placed by age and previous school reports, without formal paperwork. For older students — particularly anyone bringing a completed secondary qualification they want recognised in Spain — there is a formal process of homologación or convalidación handled by the Ministry of Education. Start it early; it is not a same-week procedure.
Source: Ministerio de Educación — homologación and convalidación of non-university foreign qualifications. General EU-level guidance on schooling and mobility is available from Your Europe — Education and youth.
Private and international schools run their own admissions and are not bound by the public catchment system. That usually means applying directly to the school, often much earlier, and frequently with an assessment or interview. Popular schools can fill up well before the state calendar even opens, so start the conversation as soon as you know your dates — ideally before you finalise where you will live, since the school may end up determining the neighbourhood rather than the other way round.
The rhythm of school life in Spain differs enough from the UK, Ireland, the US, Canada and Australia to be worth understanding before you arrive — particularly if you work, because the school day and the working day do not always align.
The academic year typically runs from September to June, with exact start and end dates set by each autonomous community in its annual school calendar. There is no single national date, so term may have started in one region and not the next. Your regional education department publishes the calendar each year — check that, not a general assumption.
The summer holiday is long, generally spanning the whole of July and August and often part of June — a genuine logistical adjustment for families used to a six-week break. Summer camps (campamentos de verano) and municipal activity schemes exist in most towns, and they book up, so plan ahead. There is a Christmas break running into early January, timed around Three Kings on 6 January rather than New Year, and Semana Santa, the week before Easter, is the spring break. On top of that, national, regional and local public holidays and town fiestas scatter more days off through the year than newcomers expect.
Schools generally use one of two timetable models. Jornada continua is a continuous morning session finishing in the early afternoon; jornada partida is a split day with a long lunch break and an afternoon session. Which one applies varies by region, by stage and sometimes by the school's own decision, and it has a real effect on working parents. Ask the specific school.
Most schools offer a lunch service, the comedor, usually at a cost, and many run early drop-off (aula matinal) and after-school activities (extraescolares). Between them, these are how most working Spanish families bridge the gap between the school day and the working day — and they are a reliable hidden cost of "free" state education, alongside books and materials. Our guide to the cost of living in Spain puts these extras in context.
The academic side of the move usually resolves itself faster than parents fear; the emotional side takes longer.
Expect a period — often a few months — where your child is quiet, tired and possibly unhappy. Absorbing a new language all day is exhausting, and children frequently go through a silent phase where they understand far more than they will produce. That is normal language acquisition, not a sign the decision was wrong — but it is a good reason to lower the bar on homework battles for the first term.
Many Spanish schools, particularly in areas with significant foreign populations, have arrangements for newly arrived students who do not yet speak the language of instruction — reception classes, language support sessions or in-class assistance, under different names in different regions. Ask specifically at enrolment: what happens in week one for a child who does not speak Spanish? A good answer tells you a lot about the school.
Almost every school has a parents' association — the AMPA (Asociación de Madres y Padres de Alumnos) — and joining is one of the fastest routes into the community. Immersion also works faster with scaffolding: a local sports club, a friend in the street, television in Spanish, a few private lessons for an older child. Children who make one local friend early accelerate dramatically, so engineer that. Be patient with yourself too — most expat parents describe the same arc: an awful first term, a wobbly second, and by the second year wondering what the fuss was about.
This deserves its own section, because it is where families most often get caught out — and where the advice that works beautifully for a six-year-old stops working.
A teenager arriving mid-ESO or, worse, part-way through Bachillerato faces a difficult combination: a new language, a new curriculum, high-stakes assessment approaching, and — the bit adults underplay — an established peer group they must break into at exactly the age when that is hardest. Meanwhile the qualification they were working towards at home does not simply transfer.
Whichever route you choose, if your teenager brings partially or fully completed secondary studies from abroad, get the recognition process moving well ahead of enrolment — it is administrative rather than academic, but it can hold everything up if left late.
This is where we can help most directly, so it is worth being clear about what is genuinely connected to schooling and what is not.
Some private and international schools ask families to show that a child has health or accident cover as part of enrolment — sometimes formally, sometimes as an expectation for trips, sports programmes or boarding. This is not a national rule and it is not universal: requirements vary from school to school, and state schools generally do not ask in the same way. Ask the specific school what it requires, in writing, before assuming anything either way.
Most expat families do not take out separate cover for a child. Children are normally added to the family policy alongside the parents, which is simpler to manage and keeps everyone on the same plan and network. For the detail, see our pages on family health insurance in Spain and health insurance for families with children.
This is the one that genuinely matters for enrolment planning. Non-EU families applying for a Spanish residence visa generally need suitable private health insurance in place for every family member — children included — as part of the application, not just for the working or retired parent. Getting it wrong holds up the visa, which holds up the padrón, which holds up the school place. The sequence matters.
For non-EU visa routes such as the Non-Lucrative Visa or the Digital Nomad Visa, the plans normally used are Sanitas Residents and Sanitas Residents Platinum, which are designed for visa and residency applications. These are the visa-focused products.
EU citizens registering residence in Spain, and families who simply want private cover for general healthcare, are usually looking at a different product. Sanitas Más Salud Familias Sin Copay is the family no-copayment plan for general healthcare and EU-residency cover. It is not the non-EU visa product, and the two should not be blurred — the route you are on determines which plan is appropriate.
We are English-speaking Sanitas specialists, so while we can point you in the right direction on schools and admin, where we genuinely add value is the insurance side of a family move — making sure every family member is covered correctly for the route you are actually on. Get in touch and we will talk it through in plain English.
Whether you need visa-compliant cover for the whole family or private healthcare that gets your children seen quickly, our English-speaking Sanitas advisers make it simple. Get a personalised quote in minutes.
Get a Quote →Yes. Primary education and compulsory secondary education (ESO) make up ten years of free, compulsory schooling, and that applies to children resident in Spain regardless of nationality. The second cycle of Educación Infantil, ages three to six, is also free in state-funded schools. Tuition costs nothing — but families still pay for books, materials, trips, after-school activities and the lunch service (comedor), so "free" does not mean cost-free. You will normally need to be registered on the municipal padrón at your address to enrol locally.
Education runs in stages: Educación Infantil for ages 0 to 6 (two cycles, 0–3 and 3–6, the second free and near-universal); Educación Primaria, 6 to 12; ESO, compulsory secondary education, 12 to 16; then a choice between Bachillerato, the two-year academic track to university, or Formación Profesional, the vocational route. Schooling is compulsory from six to sixteen. The framework is set by national education law, but the seventeen autonomous communities run the schools, set the admission calendar and decide language policy — which is why the detail varies so much by region.
Generally no — international schools teach mainly in English (or their own national language) and usually accept children with no Spanish at all, which is much of their appeal for arriving families. Spanish is normally taught as a subject, and schools in Spain typically include some Spanish language and culture. Entry requirements differ by school and some run an assessment or interview, so ask directly. What varies most is how much Spanish a child actually acquires: in an English-medium environment with mostly international friends, fluency does not happen automatically the way it does through immersion.
It depends most on your child's age and how long you are staying. For younger children, and families settling long-term, a state school is often the better choice: free, genuinely fluency-producing, and it integrates the whole family into local life. For teenagers arriving mid-qualification, or families on a defined posting, an international school protects academic continuity and reduces the risk of derailing exams. Also weigh the language of instruction where you live, the support the school offers new arrivals, and the temperament of the individual child. There is no single right answer.
In most of Spain, state schools teach in Castilian Spanish. But several autonomous communities have a co-official language that plays a major classroom role: Catalan in Catalonia and the Balearics, Valencian in the Valencian Community, Basque in the Basque Country and part of Navarre, and Galician in Galicia. Each region sets its own language-in-education policy, so the balance between the co-official language, Castilian and English differs. Check this before choosing an area — contact the regional education department or the school directly, as policies evolve.
A concertado is a privately run school operating under a funding agreement with the state, which covers much of the cost of the compulsory stages. Many, though not all, have a Catholic foundation. They follow the Spanish national curriculum and take part in the public admissions process for the subsidised stages, but families usually contribute through voluntary payments, activity fees, uniform and services such as the comedor. They sit between fully state and fully private schooling in cost and character, and are a very common choice among Spanish families.
The main admission period — escolarización — is set by each autonomous community and typically falls in spring for places starting the following September. Arrive outside that window and there is an out-of-cycle process: children of compulsory school age must be placed, but your choice narrows considerably. Private and international schools run their own admissions, often earlier and sometimes with an assessment, and popular schools can fill well before the state calendar opens. Check your regional education department's admission page for this year's dates.
There is no national rule requiring private health insurance simply to attend school, and state schools generally do not ask for it. Some private and international schools do ask families to show health or accident cover at enrolment, or for trips and sports programmes — requirements vary, so check with the school directly. Separately, non-EU families applying for a Spanish residence visa normally need suitable private health insurance for every family member, children included, as part of the visa application. Children are usually added to the family policy rather than insured separately.
It depends on the route you are on. For non-EU visa and residency applications, such as the Non-Lucrative Visa or the Digital Nomad Visa, the visa-focused plans are Sanitas Residents and Sanitas Residents Platinum. For general healthcare and for EU citizens registering residence, the family no-copayment option is Sanitas Más Salud Familias Sin Copay. These are different products for different situations and are not interchangeable. Acceptance and exact terms depend on the insurer's rules — our English-speaking advisers can confirm which plan fits your family before you apply.