British College of Andorra - Andorra la Vella

Mario Vargas

Sistema de educación excelente. Los niños están estimulados y muy bien acompañados en su aprendizaje. Las matemáticas son consideradas elemento clave en la educación y se imparten cada día. Mi hijo está muy contento y eso es lo principal.

Andrey Yusupov

The admission process at this school might be associated with corruption, discrimination, or favoritism. A school staff member openly admitted this. It seems you need to find some backdoor methods to get in.

In May 2023, I applied for my son to be admitted to this school for the 2024-2025 academic year. At that time, we were offered a spot for 2023, but my son wasn't ready, so I asked to put him on the waiting list for 2024. Since there were spots, my son should have been first or among the first in line.

After some time, in February 2024, I contacted the school to check on my son's spot and received a response that there were no available spots. Later, I found out that three of my son's classmates will be starting the new school year at this school. I started to investigate how it happened that, being first in line, my son was not admitted while other children were. During my inquiry, I received a response that "it is not only about the admissions department but also the principal and the managers, and they consider many factors." They have never seen my son, and they have no factors related to him. But there are factors related to other children. I understand the point about siblings, but not all the admitted children have siblings at this school. This leads to sad thoughts about potential corruption, discrimination, or favoritism.

Furthermore, it is frustrating that for a whole year they kept telling me there were no spots while admitting other children. I could have continued writing for another 10 years, and all my children's classmates would have transferred to this school, but there would still be no spots for my children.

This is my experience - if you want to get into this school, find connections with the principal or managers, or perhaps offer some bonus. The standard method of applying well in advance and periodically checking the status unfortunately does not work

PS. To my great regret, it seems that this school cultivates an environment of lies.
Lie #1. From their response to my review: "we provide a reasoned explanation to the unsuccessful applicant, as we have done in your case." I DID NOT RECEIVE any relevant "reasoned explanation" to our case. If that had happened, I would never have written this review. The whole point of this review is that I still don’t understand why this happened, and if I had a clear answer, I wouldn’t be making any assumptions.

About the criteria they mentioned:

1. Academic level - they did not conduct any assessment of this level. Moreover, they NEVER saw my son.
2. Siblings - I understand. But they admitted other children who applied much later and who do not have any siblings at this school.
3. "it is not only about the admissions department but also the principal and the managers, and they consider many factors" - this is the most interesting part. I cannot think of any objective factors for a 3-year-old boy whom they have never seen. Did they not like his name, surname, place of birth, date of birth? What could it be in this specific case? The only thing that comes to mind is "corruption, discrimination, or favoritism."
Again, if the school staff had given me a specific answer, I wouldn’t be making assumptions and writing my thoughts here.

Lie #2. In February, I received the response: "I am sorry but we have completed the class (4 y.o children) therefore, I can not offer you a place for next September. Our priority was to complete the class ASAP so we could not wait a year course for any student."
Then I found out that the class was still forming, with new children being admitted even after my inquiry in February.

Draw your own conclusions. The responsible people at this school openly lie, twist the facts, and come up with factors that do not exist. I wrote to them calmly and tried to find out the reasons, but instead of a normal conversation, I received this approach to communication.

Very sad!

T-Londoner

Nice, friendly, safe school with a seemingly sensible level of discipline. Just completed the first year and we're very pleased with how things have gone. Our child loves it. There aren't many kids in some of the upper years, as the school is still fairly new, so it will be interesting to see the iGSCE and IBDP grades/results as more pupils pass through. Some of the younger years are oversubscribed so could be difficult to get into some age groups. I can recommend BCA.

Rosario K

I recommend the British College of Andorra to anybody who is seriously looking for a centre of academic excellence for their children. All teachers are native English speakers and highly qualified. Our experience has been phenomenal: my child is highly motivated and enjoys her days in a values driven environment which readily shows on the pisitive relationships she is developing with teachers and peers alike. A joyful space where a real love for learning is constantly fostered. We are happy and proud to be part of this excellent educational project.

Petr V

I rarely leave reviews about anything, but seeing a strongly negative, almost certainly fake review of this hard trying, high quality school is completely unjust to this institution. Our children go to the BCA since September 2018, they are very happy there and so are we the parents. It's not our first private school, we know how to appreciate quality education and sincere effort. We live in era of fake news and fake reviews, make sure you use common sense when you read "reviews" of other people. At least our name can be tracked to real people and children actually attending this school.

nacho kass

The British College of Andorra is a stimulating educational alternative characterized by enthusiasm and professional ambition with a sense of responsibility.

Benjamin Holdorf

Teachers and staff are really nice I feel like I have learnt a lot here

Joni Satchel

The worst treatment my kid ever got, and all of us as a family. Insanely expensive, and that would even be OK if their services were decent. But they are not. I wouldn't recommend this place to anyone.