American School of Barcelona vs Oak House School
🇪🇸 Barcelona · Side-by-side comparison on verifiable public data.
Both carry a public inspection verdict: American School of Barcelona is Spanish Ministry of Education / Generalitat de Catalunya (foreign-school authorization) "Authorized as a foreign school (Centro Extranjero); Spain issues no graded inspection band" and Oak House School is NABSS (National Association of British Schools in Spain) "Accredited member" — a rare pairing where an official quality rating can be compared head-to-head. Curriculum is the core differentiator: American School of Barcelona offers American, IB while Oak House School offers British, IB, National — the choice should follow the family's target qualification system. On cost, Oak House School has the noticeably lower entry fee — a material difference for budget-conscious families. See the table below for the figures, and verify against each school's own published fees.
Key Facts
| American School of Barcelona | Oak House School | |
|---|---|---|
| Curriculum | American / IB | British / IB / National |
| Ages | 3-18 | 3-18 |
| Languages of instruction | English, Spanish, Catalan | English, Spanish, Catalan |
| Annual fees | EUR 9,404-27,062/year (2026-27, family rate; PK3 half-day to High School). One-time fees apply: EUR 250 application, EUR 975 annual matriculation, EUR 3,000-6,000 capital levy. | Admission process fee 3,500 EUR (one-time, non-refundable); annual tuition published separately by the school (not stated as a fixed figure on the public fees page) |
| Enrollment | 970 | 1,100 |
| Boarding | Day only | Day only |
| Inspection rating | Spanish Ministry of Education / Generalitat de Catalunya (foreign-school authorization): Authorized as a foreign school (Centro Extranjero); Spain issues no graded inspection band | NABSS (National Association of British Schools in Spain): Accredited member |
| Accreditations | Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools (MSA/MSCHE), International Baccalaureate Organization, Spanish Ministry of Education (Centro Extranjero), Generalitat de Catalunya, U.S. Department of State Office of Overseas Schools | NABSS, IB World School, Cambridge, Pearson Edexcel, Departament d'Educacio (Generalitat de Catalunya), CICAE, ACADE |
Strengths
- ✓Long-established (1962) and reputable, the first and largest trilingual school in the region.
- ✓Dual American diploma plus IB pathway, with a 2025 average IB score of 35, above the world average.
- ✓Strong accreditation stack: Middle States, IBO, Spanish Ministry, Generalitat, and U.S. State Department support.
- ✓Genuinely multilingual: English-medium core with structured Spanish and Catalan programmes.
- ✓Diverse, international community of around 970 students from roughly 60 nationalities.
- ✓Genuinely trilingual outcome in English, Spanish and Catalan, not just English-medium teaching with a foreign-language class
- ✓Exceptional IB Diploma results, with a 36-point average for 2025 well above the 30.6 world average and a 97% pass rate
- ✓Dual British and Spanish curricula plus a choice of IB Diploma or Spanish Bachillerato at sixth-form level
- ✓Confirmed NABSS membership and IB World School status, with Cambridge and Pearson Edexcel as exam partners
- ✓Strong, well-equipped urban campus including pool, multiple gyms, science labs and dedicated music rooms
Trade-offs
- !High and steeply tiered fees, with High School tuition above EUR 27,000 plus a capital levy of up to EUR 6,000.
- !No published graded inspection rating, since Spain's regime does not produce one.
- !Dedicated English-as-an-additional-language support is not clearly documented publicly.
- !Day-only school, so no option for boarding families.
- !Annual tuition is not published as a clear figure on the public fees page, reducing cost transparency for prospective families
- !No explicit published EAL programme detail, which matters for families arriving with little English or Spanish
- !Single urban campus means more limited outdoor grounds than suburban international schools
- !Spain's lack of a graded inspection band makes independent quality benchmarking harder than for UK-inspected schools
- !Day-only provision rules out relocating families who need boarding
Best Fit For
- • Families seeking a U.S. diploma plus IB on a single campus.
- • Internationally mobile families wanting U.S.-aligned, English-medium schooling.
- • Students who would benefit from a trilingual English-Spanish-Catalan environment.
- • Families targeting both U.S. and Spanish (Selectividad co-validation) university routes.
- • Families wanting their child to leave genuinely fluent in English, Spanish and Catalan
- • Academically ambitious students targeting a high-scoring IB Diploma pathway
- • Local and relocating families already settling in Barcelona who want a British-international option
- • Parents wanting a choice between the IB Diploma and the Spanish Bachillerato at sixth form
University Placement
School-reported · not independently verified
School-reported, unverified: ASB states a 2025 graduating class of around 90 students and a 2025 average IB score of 35, said to be above the IB world average.
School-reported, unverified: Oak House describes its class of 2025 as the highest-scoring IB cohort among all IB schools in Spain that year, with a university-entrance exam average of 7.11 against a Catalan average of 5.21 and a position among the top 20 schools in Catalonia.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Should I choose American School of Barcelona or Oak House School?
American School of Barcelona is best for: Families seeking a U.S. diploma plus IB on a single campus.. Oak House School is best for: Families wanting their child to leave genuinely fluent in English, Spanish and Catalan. The right choice depends on target curriculum, budget, and family priorities — the two are not linearly comparable.
How do fees compare between American School of Barcelona and Oak House School?
American School of Barcelona: EUR 9,404-27,062/year (2026-27, family rate; PK3 half-day to High School). One-time fees apply: EUR 250 application, EUR 975 annual matriculation, EUR 3,000-6,000 capital levy.. Oak House School: Admission process fee 3,500 EUR (one-time, non-refundable); annual tuition published separately by the school (not stated as a fixed figure on the public fees page). Verify against each school's own published fees; some figures are sourced from third-party aggregators.
What curricula do American School of Barcelona and Oak House School offer?
American School of Barcelona: American, IB. Oak House School: British, IB, National. American School of Barcelona inspection: Spanish Ministry of Education / Generalitat de Catalunya (foreign-school authorization) "Authorized as a foreign school (Centro Extranjero); Spain issues no graded inspection band". Oak House School inspection: NABSS (National Association of British Schools in Spain) "Accredited member".
Do American School of Barcelona or Oak House School offer boarding?
American School of Barcelona: day school only. Oak House School: day school only.
Questions parents ask
This comparison is BrightKey's independent assessment using verifiable public data only. University-placement figures are school-reported and not independently verified. BrightKey takes no payments from schools. Our method →