Choosing a school in your own country can mean long research and difficult decisions. Finding the right school for your child in a foreign country doubles the challenge, on top of everything else. That’s why we put together this guide to the school systems in Valencia, to help you shop around feeling a bit less lost.
Public schools
Spanish schools follow a national curriculum set by the state under the current education law (LOMLOE), with each region adapting part of it. Children start Infantil at 3 and move to Primaria at 6. At 12 they start the ESO, secondary school, which is compulsory until 16. After that, students choose between the two-year Bachillerato, the academic route to university, taken in tracks such as Sciences or Humanities, and Formación Profesional (FP), Spain’s well-regarded vocational training. Unlike the British system, students keep a broad spread of subjects right to the end, and English is taught from the early years.
Spanish schools follow a national curriculum set by the state under the current education law (LOMLOE), with each region adapting part of it; for example, other regions of Spain won’t have the Valencian language added to their curriculum.
Children start Infantil at 3 and move to Primaria at 6. At 12, they start the ESO, secondary school, which is compulsory until 16. After that, students choose between the two-year Bachillerato, the academic route to university, taken in tracks such as Sciences or Humanities, and Formación Profesional (FP),
It’s important to know how places are allocated. Admission to every publicly funded school, public or concertado, runs through a points system based on things like a sibling already at the school, living in the school’s area, or family income. The entire process is online, through the Conselleria’s Adminova platform.
So at least that part is hassle-free.
And do they teach in the local language? Yes, but. Families choose Valencian or Spanish as their child’s primary language when they apply, and Valencian is taught either way. However, for families arriving from abroad, the law allows an exemption from Valencian assessment in two cases:
- If it is the child’s first time in the Valencian system, they can be exempt in their first year and the following year.
- Or, if the family can prove temporary residence, they can be exempt for up to three consecutive school years.
An exempt student still attends Valencian class; they’re just not graded on it.
What’s free, and what isn’t. Tuition is free. Textbooks are lent free through the Banco de Libros programme, still widely called Xarxa Llibres, in both public and concertado schools. School lunch (comedor), extracurriculars and materials beyond textbooks are paid.
Concertado schools
A concertado is a privately owned school that receives public funding in exchange for following the Spanish curriculum and joining the public admissions system. Many have a religious ethos, since Spanish law lets private schools define their own carácter propio.
The fee question. By law, concertados cannot charge for the education they provide for free, cannot require donations to foundations, and cannot make paid services compulsory (LOE, article 88). In practice, many ask for a monthly “voluntary” contribution.
For the curious mind: In 2025, the Comunitat’s ombudsman, the Síndic de Greuges, asked the Conselleria to inspect these charges. He found fee-charging to be widespread and said it created an access barrier for families without the money.
Private schools with the Spanish curriculum
These schools are fully fee-paying but follow the same Spanish curriculum and lead to the same Bachillerato and PAU as public schools. Families usually choose them for a particular approach: bilingual English-Spanish programmes, longer school days, smaller classes, or a specific philosophy such as Montessori.
If you are unsure about student outcomes in private or public schools, check out our piece on the latest PISA report.
British-curriculum schools
These schools follow the National Curriculum of England, adapted for a school in Spain. It’s organised into age-based stages that run from Early Years to Sixth Form. At 16, at the end of Year 11, students sit GCSEs (or the international version, IGCSEs) in a broad range of subjects.
Then comes the big difference from the Spanish system: in Years 12 and 13, students narrow down to just three or four A-levels, studied in depth. The exams are set and marked by UK exam boards, so results carry the same weight as they would in the UK.
A tip: if you’re comparing British schools, ask whether the school is a member of NABSS, the National Association of British Schools in Spain. It is the only association in Spain recognised by the British Council to inspect British schools. You can also ask for its most recent inspection report. Good schools publish them.
International Baccalaureate (IB)
The IB isn’t a national curriculum. It’s run by the International Baccalaureate Organization, a Geneva-based non-profit, and its programmes are taught and assessed the same way worldwide. That makes it popular with families who may move again. Its programmes run from primary school to age 19, but in Spain the one that matters is the two-year Diploma, taken alongside the Bachillerato years. Students take six subjects across languages, sciences, maths, humanities and the arts, plus a research essay, a critical-thinking course and a service component.
Other international schools
Lycée Français International de Valencia. This is a French state school abroad, run directly by France’s agency for French education abroad (AEFE). It follows the French national curriculum from maternelle to the baccalauréat, so a child can move to or from France without missing a beat. If you’d like a French flavour without leaving the Spanish system, a handful of public institutes offer the Bachibac, a double Spanish-French Bachillerato.
Deutsche Schule Valencia. This is an official German school abroad, teaching mainly in German, with Spanish, Valencian and English alongside. It runs from kindergarten to the Abitur, Germany’s university-entrance qualification, which Spain recognises as equivalent to the Bachillerato.
American School of Valencia. It follows a US-style curriculum taught in English, organised in grades up to Grade 12. Students graduate with an American high-school diploma, and most also take the IB Diploma in the final two years, which is what opens the door to Spanish universities.
Getting to university: the two routes
The Spanish route. Students finish the Bachillerato, then sit the PAU, the university entrance exam. The access grade combines 60% of the Bachillerato average with 40% of the exam, and a student passes with 5 or above.
The international route. If your child comes through another system (A-levels, the IB Diploma, the French baccalauréat or the Abitur), they’ll usually apply through UNEDasiss. It’s a service run by UNED, Spain’s national distance-learning university, that assesses international qualifications and converts the final result into a Spanish grade out of 10.
Students can then sit UNED’s own subject exams, the PCE, to push that grade higher, just as Spanish students do in the PAU. Most public universities accept UNEDasiss, but private universities set their own rules, so check the admissions page of the one your child is aiming for.
