Schooling in the Costa Brava

For most families thinking about relocating, schooling is the decision that everything else gets built around. The Costa Brava has more options than people expect, from fully public schools to British international campuses, and each comes with its own trade-offs in cost, language, and day-to-day life. Here's how they actually compare.

Home Schooling

A small but growing number of families here choose to home school. It's fairly unregulated in Spain compared to countries like the UK or US, which gives you a lot of flexibility — but it also means less structure and no built-in support system. Because the home-schooling community is small, families tend to find each other and form informal networks, sharing resources, meeting up for group activities, and generally making sure no one's doing it entirely alone.

Concertadas (semi-private schools)

Concertadas sit in the middle ground between private and public: subsidised by the state but run independently, often with a religious founding. In practice, most aren't heavy on religious teaching day-to-day — it's more historical than instructional. You'll find a mix of local families and foreign families who like the balance concertadas strike.

Budget around €300 per child, per month in tuition, plus separate costs for lunch, uniforms, and materials (more on the real total cost below).

International schools

Options are more limited here than in bigger hubs like Barcelona, but they do exist. In Girona, families often look at St George's School (British curriculum, ages 1–18), with monthly fees currently ranging from roughly €899 to €1,118 depending on year group (paid over 10 instalments, plus a separate registration fee), and Montessori-based options are also available in the area. On the coast itself, International School Costa Brava in Platja d'Aro offers a British curriculum through A-Level, with monthly fees currently running from about €970 (Nursery–Year 6) up to €1,485 (A-Level).

Fees at both schools are reviewed annually, so always confirm current pricing directly with the school before budgeting — these figures are for the 2026/27 academic year as a guide.

Public schools

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Public schools are attended mostly by local families, and Catalan is the main language of instruction. There's no uniform requirement and no separate charge for materials, but lunch is always a paid separately. One thing to plan for: when kids reach secondary school, they'll often need to switch schools, and that new school may be in a different town — worth factoring in if you're choosing where to live based on school logistics.

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Does my child need to speak Spanish or Catalan before moving?

Ideally, yes — at least a base level, especially if they'll be attending a public or concertada school. Some children do move over with no Spanish or Catalan at all, but they tend to have a harder time settling in early on. The younger the child, the more adaptable they generally are, and teachers do their best to help recent arrivals settle in, often slowing down their speech or using the English vocab they have available. Still, a few classes before the move — for the whole family, ideally — makes the transition noticeably smoother.

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Is schooling on the Costa Brava expensive?

Compared to many regions — including Barcelona — schooling here is relatively affordable. A concertada, for example, tends to cost around €300 per month, per child in tuition, but that’s only part of the picture. On top of it, budget for:

• Uniforms: roughly €200 per year, per child (more if you have a younger child who goes through clothes quickly)
• Materials: a couple of hundred euros to start, rising each year as the curriculum advances
• Lunch: covers both food and supervised care between roughly 12:30 and 3pm. The cost is roughly €150 per child per month.

You can choose not to have your child stay for lunch, but you'll then need to collect them during that window instead. Worth knowing too: most schools don't allow packed lunches from home — food is provided by the school as part of the programme.

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The bottom line

Every family's right answer here depends on age, language, budget, and how long you're planning to stay. If you're still weighing up towns as well as schools, it's worth reading through our guide to choosing where to live on the Costa Brava, since the two decisions tend to shape each other. And if you'd rather see the schools, meet other parents, and get a feel for daily life before committing to anything, that's exactly the kind of thing we help with on a Discovery Tour.

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