Moving to Madrid with Kids: Schools First, Then the House

Most families do this in the wrong order. They pick a neighbourhood they like the look of, sign a lease, and then start ringing schools. In Madrid that is backwards, because where you live can decide whether your child gets a place. This is the order I would follow instead, and the things about family housing here that nobody mentions until you have already signed.

1. There are three kinds of school, and the difference matters

This is the first thing to get straight, because the words do not map onto what you are used to.

• Público. State schools, free, taught in Spanish. Places are allocated by a points system, and your address is a big part of it.
• Concertado. Privately run but state subsidised, so fees are modest rather than absent, often with a religious foundation behind them. Extremely common in Spain and frequently misunderstood by foreigners as simply private. They use the same points system.
• Privado and international. Full fees, and this is where you find the British, American, French, German and IB curricula. No catchment area: you apply directly to the school.

If you are staying a couple of years and your children will go home to sit exams there, the international route usually makes sense. If you are staying for the long run, think hard before you assume it is the only option.

2. The calendar is unforgiving

Applications for the following September open once a year, in spring, and the window is short. Miss it and you are into the leftover places, which in a popular school means no places at all.

The exact dates shift each year, so check them with the Comunidad de Madrid or directly with the school rather than trusting a blog post, this one included. What does not change is the shape of it: you are applying months before you move, often before you have an address here, which is exactly why families end up making housing decisions in a rush.

Mid year places do exist, but they depend entirely on somebody having left. Do not build a move around the assumption.

3. The international schools cluster in two places

This is the single most useful map in this article, because it explains why foreign families in Madrid all seem to live in the same handful of places.

The northwest corridor. Pozuelo de Alarcón, Majadahonda, Las Rozas, Boadilla del Monte and Aravaca. Houses with gardens, quiet residential streets, a lot of families in exactly your situation, and a school run measured in minutes rather than a trek.

The north. La Moraleja, Alcobendas, and the newer areas of Montecarmelo and Sanchinarro. Same idea, newer buildings, and closer to the airport and the northern business parks.

What that means in practice: you will need a car, probably two. These are not walkable neighbourhoods in the way central Madrid is, the supermarket is a drive, and so is almost everything your teenager wants to do. In exchange you get space, quiet and a garden, which with small children is not nothing.

On fees, I am not going to publish numbers, because they vary enormously between schools and go out of date fast. What I will tell you is to ask each school for the total annual cost, not the tuition: enrolment, bus, lunch, uniform, materials and trips add up to a great deal more than the headline figure.

4. If you do not need an international school

Worth considering seriously, because it changes where you can live and what you pay.

Madrid has a large bilingual programme in its state schools, with a substantial part of the timetable taught in English. Quality varies from school to school, so this is a case for visiting rather than reading rankings.

And the honest version on language: children under about eight tend to absorb Spanish disturbingly fast, and within a year you will be asking them how to say things. With a fourteen year old arriving into a Spanish curriculum in a language they do not speak, it is a different and much harder conversation, and I would not pretend otherwise.

If the international school is not the constraint, the city itself opens up. Chamberí is the one I suggest most to families who want to stay central: residential, everything on foot, parks, and far less dependent on a car. Where to live in Madrid has the full breakdown by area.

5. What a family home here needs, and what surprises people

6. Rent for a year, and line it up with the school year

I say rent first to almost everyone, but with children there is an extra reason: match the end of your lease to the end of the school year. That way, if the school turns out to be wrong or the area does not suit you, you can move in July without pulling anyone out mid term.

A year of renting also tells you things no amount of research will. Whether the school run works in February rain. Whether the commute is survivable. Whether your children have made friends within walking distance or you have become a full time taxi driver.

7. The order I would follow

1. Decide what kind of school you want, and be honest about how long you are staying.
2. Shortlist actual schools and check their admissions rules and catchment areas.
3. Apply, in the right window, months ahead.
4. Choose the area from the school, not the other way round.
5. Rent for a year inside it, with the lease ending in summer.
6. Register at the town hall straight away.
7. Live there for a year. Then decide whether to buy, and where.

Questions I get asked a lot

Is Madrid a good city for children? Yes, and noticeably so if you are coming from northern Europe or the US. Children are welcome in restaurants at ten at night, the parks are full until late, and the city is easy to move around with a family.

Do we need to speak Spanish for a state school? The children will not need to for long. You will, for the parents’ WhatsApp group, the paperwork and the school meetings, and nobody warns you about that part.

How much are international schools? It varies far too much for a useful average, and the tuition figure is not the real figure. Ask each school for the total annual cost including everything, and ask what it rose by last year.

Can you help if we have not chosen a school yet? Yes, and it is a good moment to talk. If you tell me the schools you are considering I can tell you what the housing looks like around each one and what it will realistically cost, which sometimes changes which school you choose.

General practical information from a property adviser, not legal or immigration advice, and not educational guidance. Admission rules, catchment areas and application dates are set by the Comunidad de Madrid and by each school, and they change: confirm them directly before you plan a move around them.