Schooling and childcare in Madrid

How admission works

Público and concertado places are allocated through a single annual proceso de admisión, usually opening in spring for the following September. Applications are scored on a baremo — a points scale covering siblings at the school, proximity of home or workplace, and other criteria — and the highest scores get the places. Madrid operates a single-district model that widens choice on paper, which in practice makes the sibling and proximity points decisive.

• The admission window generally runs in the spring; missing it means applying for leftover places.
• Proof of address comes from the padrón, so register before you apply.
• Arriving mid-year is handled by the Comisión de Escolarización, which places children where there is room.

Language, and the bilingual programme

State schools teach in Spanish, and the Comunidad de Madrid runs an extensive bilingual programme where a substantial share of the timetable is delivered in English by qualified teachers. Younger children absorb the language within a year or so; a teenager arriving in the middle of secondary faces a much harder adjustment, particularly in the run-up to the Bachillerato and the university entrance exam.

• Compulsory education runs to sixteen, then Bachillerato or vocational training.
• Bilingual schools are designated separately and are heavily subscribed.
• Ask what support exists for a child arriving with no Spanish — provision varies by school.

The international sector

Madrid has British, American, French, German and IB-curriculum schools, most of them ringed around the northern and western suburbs rather than in the centre. That geography drives where international families live, because the school run defines the day. Places at the established schools fill early and the sector is used both by expatriates on posting and by Spanish families.

• Apply the winter before the September you are targeting.
• Expect an assessment, an interview and reports from the previous two years.
• Registration fees, and sometimes a capital levy, sit on top of tuition.

Nursery and younger children

Escuelas infantiles cover nought to three, split between public, subsidised and fully private places, with public places allocated on an income-scaled fee scale and heavily oversubscribed. From three to six, segundo ciclo de infantil is widely available and free in the public sector, and almost every child attends. Waiting lists for the good public escuelas infantiles are long enough that people apply well before the child is born.