Schooling and childcare in Malaga

The window is March, and only March

Applications for public and state-funded concertado schools run from 1 to 31 March inclusive, every year, for the following September. The window covers second-cycle infantil for ages three to five, primaria, educación especial, ESO and bachillerato. Miss it and you are left with whatever places remain after the main allocation, so anyone arriving now is aiming at the March 2027 window for September 2027. The rest of the calendar runs through the spring, with 2026 as the template: scored applicant lists on 17 to 20 April, ten school days to object from 21 April, the public tie-break draw on 13 May and the final admission list on 14 May.

• Enrolment, matriculación, is a separate step later in the spring. Read each year's dates off the Junta's escolarización portal rather than assuming last year's.
• A free information line runs on 900 848 000, from 08:00 to 19:00.

How the points work

The baremo only decides anything when a school is oversubscribed. Two criteria carry 14 points each: one or more siblings already enrolled at the school, and the family home address inside the school's zona de influencia. A work address inside the zone is worth 10 instead, and only one address may be claimed, so for most families the lease is what scores. Siblings are a flat 14 points rather than a running total, so two or three score exactly the same as one. Smaller amounts come from household income, disability, large-family or single-parent status, guardians in paid work, prior enrolment in first-cycle infantil and the bachillerato record, and ties are broken by the public draw.

• The autobaremo calculator and the zona de influencia lookup are both on the Junta's escolarización portal and its Secretaría Virtual. Score your shortlist there before you sign the lease, not after.

The bilingual state route

Andalucía runs a large network of bilingual state centres teaching part of the non-language curriculum in English, French or German under the CLIL method, well over a thousand across the region, and Málaga has one of the bigger provincial shares. A further set of bilingual and plurilingual authorisations for the 2026/27 year was made by an Orden of 16 February 2026, so the list moves every year: check which of your shortlist is bilingual on the Junta's own register rather than on a school's marketing. Bilingual status changes nothing about how you apply: the same March window, the same baremo, and the address still decides.

International schools

These sit outside the March process entirely, with their own rolling admissions, entrance assessments and deadlines, so they can be approached at any point in the year although they fill by term. Published 2026/27 tuition runs from about €5,660 to €7,385 at the Deutsche Schule Málaga, about €6,910 to €8,262 at Novaschool Sunland International and about €9,880 to €13,150 at The British School of Málaga, while the Lycée Français International publishes its own fees under AEFE rules. Across the province, early years sit around €7,000 to €11,000 a year and the IB or A-level years around €12,500 to €20,000. Headline tuition is never the whole cost, so ask each school in writing for the full fee schedule for your year, what the figure excludes, and what it actually has free mid-year.

Nursery is a different process

The first cycle of infantil, nought to three, runs on its own procedure with its own calendar and its own autobaremo, handled through the Junta's escolarización de cero a tres años. Do not assume the March window covers it. A family with one child under three and one over three is dealing with two applications on two timetables.