International Schools in Marbella – What the Fees Actually Are

Marbella has five long-established international schools, mostly British curriculum with IB at some. What it does not have is a straight answer on what they cost. Swans International's fees were removed from public listing at the school's own request, and EIC publishes no fee schedule anywhere. Any guide showing you a neat range for those two has estimated it.

That matters more than it sounds, because school fees are usually the second-biggest line in a relocating family's budget after rent. Below, every figure is labelled by where it came from: the school, a third-party aggregator, or nowhere. Checked in August 2026, and fees rise annually – treat all of this as a planning framework and confirm directly before you commit to anything.

What each school actually publishes

Note what that table is really telling you: only one of the four has a fee structure detailed enough to plan against, and even that comes from an aggregator rather than the school's own published schedule. Budget accordingly, and get quotes in writing.

Aloha College

Nueva Andalucía, founded 1982, British curriculum through IGCSE and A-levels with an IB Diploma option. It is the school most often named first by expat families on the western side of Marbella, and it has the most transparent admissions process of the four.

Fees vary enormously by phase, which is why a single midpoint range misleads. Third-party data for 2026/27 runs from about €4,825 for half-day Nursery and €7,805 for full-day Nursery, through roughly €8,735 at Reception, and climbs to nearly €18,940 in the senior years. A family planning on "about €10,000" because a guide said so will be wrong in both directions depending on the child's age.

The one-off costs are more consistently reported:

• Application fee: €200, non-refundable
• Reservation fee: €2,500
• Inscription fee: €3,000 for a first child, €2,250 for a second, €1,800 for a third

If Aloha is the reason you are moving to Nueva Andalucía, confirm the year group before you sign anything on a house.

Swans International School

Sierra Blanca, close to the Golden Mile, British curriculum from Early Years through A-levels. The natural school for families in that corridor, well regarded for how it handles newly arrived children.

Swans does not publish its fees, and the listing that used to carry them now records that the information was removed at the request of the school's administrators. That is the school's prerogative, and it means nobody writing a guide has a defensible number.

For scale only: third-party estimates for the primary campus alone have run as high as €20,500, on a range starting around €8,750. That is a very wide band, it covers one campus rather than the school, and it is not a quote. Treat it as a reason to expect the upper end of the Marbella market and to ring admissions early, not as a budget line.

Swans also charges a non-refundable entrance fee tiered by year group, on top of tuition, plus a refundable deposit. We are not printing the tier figures, because the ones in circulation could not be confirmed against the school this year. Ask for the current schedule in writing.

EIC – English International College

Elviria, on the east side, British curriculum plus an IB Diploma, and a strong academic reputation with good university placement.

EIC publishes no fee schedule at all – not on its own site, not through the aggregators. Earlier versions of this guide carried a range of roughly €8,000–14,000. We have removed it, because we could not establish where that figure came from, and an invented number on a page families use to plan a move is worse than no number.

What you can plan around is the process and the geography. Applications are accepted year-round with the main push early in the calendar year, and the sequence involves school reports, a campus visit and assessment or interview before an offer. Contact admissions directly for fees, the registration deposit and current availability.

The location cuts both ways: an easy run for families in Elviria and East Marbella, and a 20 to 30 minute drive each way from Nueva Andalucía or the western side – considerably more in August or at term-time peak on the coastal road.

Laude San Pedro International College

San Pedro de Alcántara, and the only main Marbella school that runs a Spanish Bachillerato pathway properly alongside the British one. That makes it the obvious choice for families who intend to stay in Spain long-term and want the option of the Spanish university system.

Reported annual fees run €6,000–11,000, with the main year groups clustering nearer €6,500–9,500. That makes it the most affordable of the four established schools, and the fee data is more consistent than for Swans or EIC.

Laude also runs a school bus over a wide radius of the western Costa del Sol with a monitor on board, which genuinely widens where a family can live – San Pedro, Estepona and further west all become workable. Registration and deposit costs should be confirmed directly.

The other options

None of these were re-checked this year, so the detail below is carried from earlier reporting rather than freshly verified. Confirm everything directly.

• St. Anthony's College, Mijas Costa – smaller British-curriculum school with a Catholic ethos, in the wider Costa del Sol catchment rather than Marbella proper. Books, uniform and exam fees billed separately.
• Atlas American School, Estepona – the clearest American-curriculum option nearby, ages 3 to 18.
• Svenska Skolan Marbella – Swedish curriculum, relevant mainly to Scandinavian families.
• The International School Estepona – British curriculum on the New Golden Mile, about 20 minutes west.
• Spanish state schools – free, open to any child registered on the padrón, with ATAL language-support classrooms for pupils arriving without Spanish. Enrolment runs through the Junta's system with the main window in spring for a September start. Realistic for younger children, harder for teenagers mid-way through a British or IB curriculum. The moving to Marbella guide covers padrón registration.

Applying: the order that works

The single most expensive mistake here is choosing a house before a school place.

1. Enquire 10 to 12 months out. Year 1, Year 7 and Sixth Form are the pinch points across every school here.
2. Ask about your child's specific year group, not the school in general. Aloha's current position – open for three year groups and closed for the rest – is the normal shape of this market, not an anomaly.
3. Get the full cost in writing: tuition, application fee, reservation or entrance fee, deposit, plus uniform, trips, lunch and external exam fees, which are billed separately almost everywhere.
4. Then choose the neighbourhood, drawn around the school you actually got into.

Living on the wrong side of Marbella from your school adds a serious amount to the daily run in term-time traffic. The Marbella neighbourhoods guide covers what each area is like to live in, and the cost of living guide puts school fees against the rest of a household budget.