International school of San Patricio, Toledo, Spain

What I like about San Patricio school

During a recent conference on secondary schools abroad in Frankfurt, I met some very interesting participants. Among them, my attention was drawn to an IB school from Toledo San Patricio. I wanted to meet a representative of this school for two reasons.

Firstly, the school San Patricio is one of the top schools in Spain according to El Mundo newspaper: San Patricio Madrid occupies second place. And even though we are talking about the campus in Madrid – schools usually value their reputation, so the quality of education will be same high.

Secondly, the IB school in Spain with its residence is a rarity, and there are always a lot of those wishing to enter English-speaking boarding school in Spain. So I asked for an unscheduled meeting with the coordinator of international programs of San Patricio and was very happy to meet her even unplanned and short.

The first thing I want to emphasize about San Patricio school is that only recently they received accreditation to run IB program. On one hand, the school has a little history in the IB program - next summer first students will graduate with IB Diploma. On the other hand, the campus in Toledo, which started to offer the IB program has worked for many years as a Spanish school and in last year's El Mundo rankings the school was listed as San Patricio Madrid-Toledo and took 2-3 place.

Also, it is also very attractive in this school that before the opening of IB programme the school has invested a lot of money in infrastructure: built a new multi-functional gym, a swimming pool and, finally, from September 2016 to attract foreign students a new residence for 60 people was opened on the campus.

Of course, according to requests of our customers, schools around Barcelona are in great demand. But there are only a few schools around Barcelona. Boarding schools in Spain were never popular before and only recently the trend of opening and attracting international students started to grow. In addition, schools on the Costa Brava are much more expensive and the fee they ask often stops all the work with potential students immediately after calculating the cost of secondary education with accommodation in Spain. San Patricio school compares favourably with its price from all other boarding schools in Spain. Furthermore, it is located in the region of Castile, where they speak the purest Spanish language (Castilian).

Immediately upon return from the conference where I met the representative of the school, I proposed it to several potential customers and, in the process of admission have learned even more about the school. And the more I communicated with directors of International department and IB program, with international students who I accidentally met on Skype in the director's office and quickly questioned them about their experience in San Patricio, - the more I want to work with them and suggest this school to my future clients.

Other important things to consider when choosing this school.

- Like everywhere else in the boarding schools of Spain, there are only a few places in school residence - only 60. While at the beginning it's not yet a problem to get a place though in the future the place will be confirmed only to successful students and early applicants.

- Before the last 2 years of IB program the school offers not an international option of the British IGCSE, as some schools do, but a full Pre-IB Middle Years Programme (MYP), which means that at the age of 15 we don't need to enrol a student on 2-year IGCSE programme but with the necessary level of English it takes only 1 year to finish MYP and prepare for more advanced studies in IB.

- Programme MYP is designed for 4 years and it is bilingual, while preparing for the last two years of study in the English-language IB program. Most of the subjects of MYP at this school is taught in Spanish. At the same time, it's the best way to master Spanish, the teachers are bilingual and if they see that the student doesn't understand the meaning in Spanish they try to explain in English. For those who just started to learn Spanish, some of the lessons (e.g., Spanish literature) are replaced by individual tuition of Spanish. Also, after lessons, a personal tutor works with each foreign students and explains to them everything they could not understand in the classroom. This bilingual structure of MYP allows quickly learn Spanish, which in the future will be a great advantage for a possible entry into public universities of Spain, which, although recognize IB, but prefer to see that most of the subjects in the school curriculum were taught in Spanish.

I'd like to end this review on a very positive note. I really like everything in this school, the large area of the campus, the new infrastructure, the rating of the school and the attitude of the staff.