Spain · Tres Cantos
This is the Soto campus, not a smaller city satellite. It is day and boarding, English in the classroom, and part of the Inspired group. The newest complete fee tables we could read as text are for 2024–25. Ask for this year’s numbers before you budget.
Dieses Porträt steht noch auf Englisch. Die anderen Sprachen kommen Schule für Schule.
Curriculum laut Schule:National Curriculum of England and Wales · IGCSE · A-Level or IB Diploma in Sixth Form · Spanish Validation Studies for Spanish nationals
Unterrichtssprachen:English
King’s College Soto de Viñuelas is the large British campus north of Madrid, in Tres Cantos, on the edge of the Sierra Guadarrama. The school’s own about page says it was founded in 1969 by Sir Roger Fry, sat in Chamartín while numbers rose toward 500, and moved in 1978 to a purpose-built site in Soto de Viñuelas. In 2019 it joined Inspired, which the homepage currently calls a group of 121 schools. The current headmaster named on the about page is Chris Ramsey, who arrived from Whitgift in South London.
It is a co-educational day and boarding school. Day children can start in the Baby Unit from 16 weeks. Boarding starts at 11, in Tenbury House. The about page claims capacity for more than 1,600 students. The boarding page uses the same “more than 1,600” line for day and boarding together. Treat that as the school’s own capacity claim, not a census we counted.
The useful questions are ordinary. Can this child work in English? Will they learn Spanish, or only hear it on the bus? A-levels or IB — and do Spanish nationals understand Validation Studies? Can you pay termly, extras included? If you need a bed, is Tenbury House right for this eleven-year-old?
Soto is the flagship King’s College campus in Madrid, not the Chamartín or La Moraleja conversation. Families who already live in Tres Cantos, Soto de Viñuelas, or the northern corridor treat it as a day school with a long bus list. Families who are posted to Madrid without a flat yet, or who want a British sixth form without living in the city, treat it as a boarding school that happens to sit thirty minutes from the centre.
It is authorised in the Comunidad de Madrid. British curricula are accredited, the about page says, by BSO and Penta. New students need no prior Spanish. From Key Stage 1, children with little Spanish get Spanish as a Second Language support. Children with little English, from Key Stage 1 up, join the English as an Additional Language programme, and parents pay for it. The school decides how long that lasts.
Spanish nationals are enrolled in Validation Studies — Spanish Language and Humanities — because the Spanish Ministry requires it. That is not a club. If you hold a Spanish passport and you want a British timetable, ask what those hours look like in Year 7 and in Year 12. They are not the same week.
The school currently offers the Sir Roger Fry Scholarship. The fees page says the scholarship information is only in English and points questions to kc.admissions@kingscollegeschools.org. We are not printing eligibility rules the public page does not print.
There is a nursery wrinkle worth a coffee. Once parents have confirmed a place in Baby Education through Pre-Nursery, the admissions page says they can apply for the means-tested Beca Guardería from the Comunidad de Madrid. That is a regional nursery grant, not a school discount on Year 7.
The address on the fee PDFs is Paseo de los Andes 35, 28760 Soto de Viñuelas. The Spanish boarding page also prints 28761. Ask the office which postcode they put on letters.
The homepage calls the site 12 hectares. The about page calls it a 12-acre site. Those are not the same size. We are not picking a winner. Walk the grounds and ask which figure they stand behind.
What the boarding page does name, in ordinary nouns: an AstroTurf field, an indoor heated swimming pool, a sports centre with a gym, horse-riding facilities, an auditorium, outdoor sports areas. The history timeline adds a dedicated sports centre and a 15-lab science block in 2017, and Tenbury House in 2011.
Ask to see an ordinary Year 5 classroom and the dining room, not only the pool. Barajas is about 20 minutes by car on the boarding page. The 2024–25 day PDF prints bus-route prices and then warns those figures may still be the previous year’s. Confirm the live list.
Think in the British bands the school itself uses.
Baby Unit, Pre-Pre-Nursery, Pre-Nursery, Nursery, Reception. Babies may join from 16 weeks. To enter Pre-Nursery, the child should have had their second birthday before 31 December of the year of entry. The 2024–25 Spanish fee PDF prices Baby Unit and Pre-Nursery by the month, 09:00–17:00, with a separate lunch line. Nursery and Reception then sit on the termly table with the rest of the school.
Primary, Years 1–6. England and Wales national curriculum, taught in English by the school’s own account of “native English” and “British-qualified” teachers. Years 1–3 sit a literacy and numeracy meeting with the Head of Primary. From Year 4 the gate is a CAT4 and a written English paper.
Secondary, Years 7–11. Broad British secondary: languages, PE, drama, public speaking, art. Year 9 still follows a National Curriculum-style framework. Years 10 and 11 are IGCSE. Students who arrive from another system into Year 10 or 11 may be offered a one-year reduced IGCSE. Year 11 applicants are expected to have completed Year 10 of the British curriculum.
Sixth Form, Years 12 and 13. Two two-year routes: A-levels or the IB Diploma. The Sixth Form accepts new students. Boarders and Sixth Form applicants interview with the headmaster or a senior academic. Careers staff, the boarding page says, work one-to-one on which route to take.
The homepage publishes exam snapshots the school wants you to see. IB Diploma 2026: highest score 44, average 36.5, 34% at 38 or above. A-levels 2025: 20% A*, 45% A*–A. IGCSE 2026: 51% A*, 66% A*–A, 82% A*–B. That is the school talking about itself. We are not treating a homepage tile as your child’s forecast.
Instruction is in English. Spanish is the host-country language, not the classroom language, except in Spanish lessons and in Validation Studies.
If English is new, budget for EAL. The 2024–25 day PDF prices Induction English per term: Infants €1,395, Juniors €1,575, Seniors €2,115. Those are extras on top of tuition. The admissions page says the school decides the length.
If Spanish is new, SSL support starts from Key Stage 1. New students are not required to arrive with Spanish. Living in Tres Cantos without Spanish is still a different Tuesday from living inside the M-30.
Ask, on the tour, how many hours of Spanish a Year 4 newcomer actually gets, and whether a child who arrived in January is in the same Spanish set by June. Ask the same question about English support in Year 8. The brochure will say “support.” You want a timetable.
Tenbury House opened in September 2011. The about-page timeline says it accommodates up to 70 boarders. The current boarding page says up to 60, and later “60 pupils aged 11 to 18.” Both figures are official. Ask which number is live this term.
Rooms are en-suite, with heating, air conditioning and wireless internet. Boys on one floor, girls on the other. Most students share with others of a similar age. Staff families live on each floor. There is a dining room, common room, cinema room, kitchen and laundry. Two or more boarding staff are on duty; another is on call. Prep is supervised. Weekend trips go into Tres Cantos or Madrid. Independent weekend travel needs a parent email to the Head of Boarding in advance.
Parents arrange visas, Type D and Student Passes, and travel at the start and end of term. Senior house staff meet students at Madrid Airport. At the end of term they get them back to the airport or station.
This is a purpose-built house on a large day-school campus, not a UK boarding village. Ask who is in the house this year, how many weekend exeats, and how many children go home to Madrid on Friday.
Enquiry form first. Then a visit, or an online interview if you are not in Spain. Then the application.
What to upload, from the admissions-process page:
Assessments:
Overseas families may sit the tests at the current school.
An offer comes by letter or email. You confirm with a non-refundable enrolment fee. Boarders also pay a returnable security deposit. Only then does admissions formally confirm.
Applications are welcome through the year, including the Baby Unit. Year 11 and Sixth Form have extra academic gates. Do not treat a January Year 12 move as casual.
The English fees page points to day and boarding documents. The Spanish fees page now also names Tarifas Residencia Estudiantil 2026–2027, but that link did not give us a readable number table. The newest complete tables we could read as text are the 2024–25 English PDFs. The PDFs themselves say prices are normally revised in February. Ask admissions for the current year before you resign a flat.
Fees are termly, three terms a year. The 2024–25 day PDF says receipts go out in the first ten days of September, January and April, by direct debit. Boarding receipts are earlier: before 10 August, 10 December and 10 March. Miss a term and the next term’s fees are not returned for absence, illness or cancellation.
One-time costs named in the 2024–25 PDFs
| Fee | 2024–25 |
|---|---|
| Enrolment / matriculation (non-refundable, on acceptance) | €1,700 |
| Assessment from Year 4 (CAT4 + written English) | €30 |
An annual re-enrolment fee is included each year and deducted from the first term of the next year, the boarding PDF says. Boarding also names €610 a year for immigration-document support for non-EU and non-Spanish-EU boarders without a current NIE/TIE/residency permit.
Day tuition, 2024–25, euros per term (tuition + charges; books and materials included)
| Year group | Per term |
|---|---|
| Nursery | €2,600 |
| Reception | €2,795 |
| Year 1 | €2,960 |
| Year 2 | €3,175 |
| Years 3–4 | €3,410 |
| Years 5–6 | €3,550 |
| Year 7 | €4,480 |
| Year 8 | €4,585 |
| Year 9 | €4,605 |
| Year 10 | €4,900 |
| Year 11 | €5,175 |
| Years 12–13 A-level | €5,405 |
| IB1 / IB2 | €6,630 |
Multiply by three for a year. A day Year 7 at those rates is €13,440 before lunch, bus, EAL or trips. The Spanish 2024–25 PDF prices lunch at €628 a term, compulsory on that table. Baby Unit and Pre-Nursery on the same PDF: €605 a month for 09:00–17:00, plus €95 for meals in Pre-Nursery.
Boarding, 2024–25, education plus residence
| Year group | Year total |
|---|---|
| Year 7 | €32,940 |
| Year 8 | €33,255 |
| Year 9 | €33,315 |
| Year 10 | €34,200 |
| Year 11 | €35,025 |
| Years 12–13 A-level | €35,715 |
| IB1 / IB2 | €39,390 |
Those boarding totals are the three-term sums on the official PDF. They are not 2026–27. The Spanish fees page is already pointing at a 2026–27 boarding document. Write to admissions and ask for that table in text, not a screenshot.
Two portable routes sit in the same Sixth Form.
A-levels are the British one. Universities in the UK know them in their sleep. Spanish public universities have their own recognition rules; ask the counsellor how an A-level package is presented to UNED or to a Spanish faculty, not how a friend did it in 2019.
The IB Diploma is the other. Six subjects, the core, the points score. The homepage’s 36.5 average is a school snapshot for 2026.
Spanish nationals still have Validation Studies. That is the local paper trail, not a third sixth-form course you pick for fun. If you might later need a Spanish Bachillerato-shaped document, ask in the room what Validation actually produces for this passport.
We are not ranking Soto against other British schools in Madrid. Newspaper “top 5” lines on the homepage are the school quoting newspapers. Ignore them for the kitchen-table decision.
The about page mentions personalised learning support. The application asks for academic or psychological evaluations if they exist. Bring them. Do not hide a report to “get in first.”
EAL is a priced programme, not a kindness. Lunch, buses, extra supervision hours, optional classes and visits are billed separately. The 2024–25 bus table is long — Alcobendas, Madrid, Colmenar, San Sebastián de los Reyes, Pozuelo, Las Rozas, Tres Cantos, Soto — and the PDF warns those route prices may still be the prior year.
Ask whether the live fee table is 2025–26 or 2026–27, and whether IB still costs more per term than A-level. Ask how many Sixth Formers are on each route this year. Ask how Validation Studies sits on a Spanish national’s timetable in Year 12. Ask what EAL would cost for this child, for how many terms. Ask whether Tenbury House is at 60 or 70, and who is actually in the house. Ask where a January arrival sits at lunch in week one. Ask what happens if the posting ends in March — the PDF is blunt about termly fees not coming back.
If you live in Madrid, sit the bus at 07:20 once before you sign. If you board, stay for an evening prep, not only a morning tour.
We are not saying Soto is the best British school in Madrid. We are not guessing a waitlist. We are not inventing 2026–27 day or boarding amounts. We are not treating homepage university names as a placement promise.
Read the current fees page, ask for this year’s PDFs, and write to admissions before you give notice in another country. This is a map. The school still has to be the right Tuesday.
Offizielle Seiten und Dokumente, die wir gelesen haben. Wenn eine Zahl für Budget oder Bewerbung zählt, öffnet den Link und prüft, ob er noch gilt.
Freundliche Orientierung, kein Antrag. Termine, Gebühren und Programme ändern sich. Alles bei der Schule prüfen.
Madrid is not one British campus. Two British doors on the north side, an American campus in Pozuelo, and a French AEFE lycée on two sites. Ask which paper, then time the M-40.
14 minManche Kinder blühen an einem Flur aus Koffern und Kakao. Manche brauchen das eigene Zimmer und den Hund. Beides ist erlaubt. Der Schulweg ist auch eine Art Internat.
16 minDie Buchstaben auf dem Abschlusszeugnis zählen. Sie sind nicht das ganze Kind. So unterscheidet ihr sie ohne Kopfschmerz — und ohne so zu tun, als bliebe jede Tür offen.
16 minIhr braucht keinen perfekten Algorithmus. Nur ein paar wahre Dinge über euer Kind, eine langweilige Liste am Kühlschrank — und den Mut, einen schönen Campus zu ignorieren, der nicht passt.