Private Early Years school (ages 0–6) in Madrid

In Highlands Early Years we offer genuine language immersion from the first year of life, based on play, routines and children’s active participation. Up to the age of 2, each class has two teachers working together, one in Spanish and one in English, guaranteeing continuous exposure to both languages throughout the day.

From age 3, pupils spend alternate full days with an English-speaking or a Spanish-speaking teacher, so that everything they receive (instructions, songs, interactions and projects) comes entirely in one language or the other, reinforcing natural, contextualised and meaningful learning.

100% of our Early Years teaching staff hold a degree in Early Childhood Education, including bilingual and native-speaking teachers. This ensures not only language proficiency but also specialized pedagogical training for the 0–6 age group, with a deep understanding of children’s developmental stages.

The team also follows a continuous professional development plan throughout the school year, focused on methodological innovation, bilingualism, neuroeducation and emotional support. This combination of vocation, qualifications and constant updating is one of the keys to the quality of education at our school.

We are part of the only educational group with all its private centres accredited as Cambridge International School in Spain.

From the age of 5, our pupils follow the international curriculum delivered worldwide and endorsed by Cambridge Assessment International Education.

We are committed to a curriculum that guarantees a competence-based education for our pupils, fostering critical thinking and experiential learning.

The Speaking Corner is a space designed to personally support the development of oral English skills. Each week, students attend in small groups of 2 or 3 children with a native-speaking teacher, where they engage in games, dramatizations, role plays, and spontaneous communication activities.

This individual support improves pronunciation, comprehension and oral expression, while building children’s confidence and self-assurance when communicating in English.

At Highlands Los Fresnos Early Years, we implement our own educational project, tailored to each stage of child development. It combines active methodologies, sensory stimulation, and experiential learning. We believe that children learn more deeply and meaningfully when they experience learning firsthand—through play, hands-on activities, and exploration.

That is why we work through themed, immersive projects in which the classroom becomes a setting for discovery: a laboratory, a space station or an enchanted forest. This way of learning nurtures curiosity, critical thinking, creativity and oral expression from an early age, always respecting each child’s individual pace and needs.

Our Early Years provision includes programmes that foster our pupils’ all-round development:

• RC Schools’ own early stimulation programme
• Cognitive development programmes covering general and specific intellectual aptitudes
• Our own programme to stimulate executive functions, “Cerebro en acción” (Brain in Action)
• Physical development programmes such as the “Early Basic Program” neuromotor programme
• Virtues and emotional education programme

Across all our programmes we use a wide range of innovative teaching strategies to encourage active, personalised learning, preparing our pupils for the challenges of the 21st century.

Motor development is essential in the early years. That’s why our school offers weekly psychomotor sessions starting at age 3, through structured activities that promote coordination, balance, body awareness, and postural control.

In addition, we have an on-site swimming pool, which allows us to offer a weekly aquatic psychomotor session, endorsed by the Royal Spanish Swimming Federation. This activity, designed by specialists, stimulates neuromotor development and strengthens safety, autonomy, and self-confidence.

L’Atelier is a space for artistic creation and open thinking that transforms the traditional art classroom into a true children’s art studio. Inspired by the most innovative methodologies, it encourages personal expression, aesthetic sensitivity, and creativity.

Children freely explore materials, techniques, and formats without fixed instructions or templates, adapting to their own pace and style. Each student finds their own way of communicating, which fosters autonomy, self-expression, and socialization, while developing a personal perspective on the world around them and on themselves.

At Highlands School Los Fresnos, our nursery school in Boadilla del Monte, pupils experience at school what it means to be beloved children of God.

Alongside religious education lessons, we teach our pupils to pray and to live out virtues and values. In this way, we want them to feel part of a community that expresses God’s love through participation and generosity.

The Responsible Education programme helps pupils to know and trust themselves, understand others, recognise and express emotions and ideas, develop self-control, learn to make responsible decisions, value and look after their health, improve their social skills and develop their creativity.

Through campaigns and activities adapted to each age, we encourage our pupils to develop key virtues such as orderliness, friendship and respect, creating an environment where relationships are genuine and meaningful and fostering their personal and spiritual growth.

We encourage the creative use of digital skills and the development of computational thinking through challenging activities that invite pupils to solve complex problems and devise innovative solutions, preparing them for the challenges of the future.

Highlands School Los Fresnos is one of the 16 schools in Spain recognised as a Microsoft Showcase School and success story in 2024.

Through hands-on activities with BeeBots, LEGO Education and Coding Express, our students develop programming and computational thinking skills, exploring concepts that help them solve challenges and create innovative projects.