Gradual further expansion included an extension comprising four new classrooms and a multi-purpose room is envisaged. Present facilities include, amongst the nineteen classrooms, two science laboratories, a computing suite, a library and an art studio. An all-weather sports pitch is provided for physical education, and the extra- curricular programme currently includes football, , basketball, chess, drama, yoga, skiing, aerobics, and many cultural activities. The School has a very active exchange link with students in Sweden.
Why choose to pay for an international school? Why not just send your children to the local school so that they can integrate? If they are young enough and flexible enough this is often an excellent option. Provided they continue to gain Pass grades throughout, thye will be able to go right through the system and even into Spanish university. Older arrivals, however, find it more difficult because their language does not catch up with the material they are learning and according to recent statistics many end up with no qualifications at all.
So what are the advantages of going private?
Having come, as have most of the secondary staff have, from a large state school in the UK, the size of AIS and the possibilities for education by knowing every individual and teaching in small groups is a fantastic bonus.
They do not select pupils by ability, but by whether they are going to settle well. Most pupils have a ‘Listening Day’, where they spend a day getting to know everyone. Unfortunately, they have no provision for Special Needs teaching and would discourage the enrolment of pupils with extreme Special Needs, but a number of pupils with specific learning difficulties have done well there. The emphasis is on effort and pupils are encouraged to do their best, leading to examination results of which they are very proud. Pupils qualify at 16 in both the British and the Spanish system, so are able to continue here or in other countries. Pupils at AIS are very welcoming to others, most people remember what it was like to be new.
Pupils are therefore constantly monitored and encouraged. In Spanish their progress depends on age and motivation. Those who join in Primary nearly always leave effectively bilingual. Those who arrive in their teens, sometimes unhappy to have been uprooted, take longer. If students are motivated and don’t live in a British ‘bubble’ in certain urbanizations, they find it possible to join the first language Spanish groups very quickly.
Like everything else, education is about the individual and the right solution is different for each of us.
For more information please call 958 635 911