Location – Urbanización Nueva Alcántara, Av. de le Coruña, 2, 29670 San Pedro Alcántara, Málaga, Spain
Website – https://www.laudesanpedro.com/
Contact – +34 952 79 99 00
About the school – Diverse & Inclusive Environment
Laude San Pedro International College is an inclusive school with a programme focused on academic excellence, teaching the British National Curriculum – from age 3 to 18 – and, from age 12, offering the possibility of studying the Spanish ESO and Bachillerato curricula (with up to 65% of classes in English). We have a strong focus on academic standards – our GCSE and A Level results, as well as the Spanish Selectividad, are well above national averages in both countries. It is a highly international environment with students of over 50 nationalities enjoying a unique learning environment designed to meet their needs.
Andy’s quote: “I think one of the aspects is we’re one of the few schools that has an international section and teaches the Spanish national curriculum. We’re an international school of great diversity, but having the Spanish system roots us in Spain because our ESO & Bachillerato staff remind us that we’re in Andalusia and in Spain. And I think having the two systems together is unique and forces us to think nationally as well as internationally.”
A vision from a new principal
Since September 2022, Laude San Pedro International College has a new Principal, Andrew Atkinson. He has been involved in international education for over thirty years. Born and raised in England, his international experience has taken him all over the world.
Andy (as everybody knows him) has graduated with a BA in Humanities from Exeter University and went on to teach Geography and Theatre in secondary schools. He studied his Masters at Trinity College, Dublin, achieving a distinction in his M.Ed. in Leadership and Management. He is known for his passionate beliefs in international education and has experience with many international programmes of all ages from 3 to 18 years. His last formal headship was as Director of the International School of London and he has also been a Governor of the International School of Dublin, the first ever IB primary school in Ireland. In the last three years, however, Andy carried out international consultancy work leading a variety of projects in Spain, Russia and most recently a highly innovative international school start-up in Punta del Este, Uruguay.
Andy’s quote “The first thing a Principal should do in his first year is see how the school runs for an entire year. So I’ve been very conscious and I spent a lot of my first time running focus groups, listening and finding out what people are already doing. I’ve been teaching for over 30 years and leading schools for maybe nearly 20 years now and there is a danger that you keep repeating the things you’ve done before, there’s so much out there in terms of research and ideas, etcetera. To understand trends in education, we need to go deeper. So to do that, I want all my teachers to feel passionate about keeping up to date. We started something called Research Wednesdays, where we stay after school on a Wednesday, voluntarily, the school buys cake and coffee, and every week for 1 hour, we discuss an article or some of the latest research.”
Safe Happy Learning
“What I most like about Laude is our school community. Friendly staff is one of the most dominant things at Laude. Our children are physically safe from a safeguarding perspective and well looked after for their well being. We really encourage students to be vocal and speak their mind, which also leads to a sort of personal safety of mind. We’re just beginning some work on something called global life competencies. They’re the sort of broader cross subject skills that children learn how to do, like the ability to think critically or the ability to communicate effectively or the ability to self manage and self organise yourself.
ISP School
We are part of the global education group ISP (‘International Schools Partnerships’) one of the largest education groups in the world. As a global group of schools, our students benefit from being part of a wider international community which offers many additional learning and cultural opportunities.
Andy’s quote “Being part of ISP, a group of over 70 schools, means that there are always great opportunities for staff such as online courses provided to our teachers and staff to register for. We also get great opportunities for students and we are excited about 30 of our kids playing chess online with over 60 schools around the globe.”
Amazing Campus
Our excellent facilities include a football pitch, two multi-sports courts and a gymnasium with changing rooms for over 400 people. We also have four computer rooms, a multimedia lab, a graphic design room, innovative science labs, dedicated rooms for drama, food technology labs and a new radio studio, as well as the latest technological devices (iPads, Chromebooks and interactive whiteboards). We have a large dining hall with its own kitchen where school meals are prepared and an extensive library to encourage our pupils to develop an interest in reading and research.
Innovative learning & International Mindset
We offer a unique and incredible educational experience to each one of our students, which we call “Amazing Learning”: having the ability to improve day by day, and be amazed at everything learned, whatever the starting point was. We work so that the student feels happy and motivated in an environment that generates confidence.
Andy’s quote “So there are five key areas that they’re working strategically on to make us the school of choice. One of those that we’re doing super well is English as an additional language and multilingualism. We’ve got an amazing language programme; we do French, German and Chinese, not just in the Secondary school, but also in Primary School from Year 2 upwards. Even the students who are in the Spanish national system of ESO and Bachillerato are all bilingual and they have an amazing level of English by the time they leave.”
Getting better is what drives us
“At a personal level, I’ve tried to model to my staff by running some student led projects. it’s about students not expecting things to be done for them. Do you want to do something? Get on and organise it. How do you want to organise it? Do it. We’ve got areas where students are leading at the moment, like quiz night, a dog show, school radio station and much more.”
Sports, Arts, Drama & Beyond
“What delights me about our school is certain things like our sports department that is full of enthusiasm for different types of sports, for getting involved in tournaments and making sure he has a genuine belief with his team to make our kids physically fit. And the other area that I’m working on in a little way is our arts group, because we have a great visual arts teacher, we have an amazing dance-drama teacher, we have a new music teacher who’s got great potential to take music forward. A lot of people just think it’s a department in a school, but it’s actually a way of life and learning across the whole school. If you have sports, music, art, drama and dance, it brings joy to a school that radiates every bit of a school. Our recent Key Stage 2 talent show absolutely showcased that. And I’m a strong believer that children don’t just learn art or sports, they learn through these experiences about other things.