Col.legi Montserrat

A long-established Catholic school on Avinguda Vallvidrera in Sarrià, run by the Missionary Daughters of the Holy Family of Nazareth and now part of the Nazaret Global Education group. Spanish national curriculum alongside the full IB continuum, taught in Catalan, Spanish and English.

Montserrat is best known internationally for being one of the early Spanish schools to build its pedagogy explicitly around Howard Gardner's multiple-intelligences theory and project-based learning. The campus has been redesigned by Fielding International around that approach, and the school is regularly cited on the European education-conference circuit as an innovation case study.

It is a Catalan-medium school first and foremost, partly state-subsidised, with a culturally rooted identity. Parent voice praises the academic level, the human scale, and the values formation. The recurring critical thread is concern that the strong external profile and the highly visual project-based environment do not always translate into deep, sustained academic work for every student. Right fit for Spanish or Catalan-speaking families wanting the IB inside a local-school identity, less natural for short-stay expats wanting an English-medium immersion.

• Reviews are polarised. The school is small on one Spanish review site and on another, depending on the listing.
• Positive voices highlight strong facilities, a family atmosphere and personalised support. One parent said "the teaching staff is very good and the facilities are almost unbeatable. Being a very family-oriented school, they will always be on top of your child but without stressing". Another credited the school for handling a child's personality disorder with appropriate curriculum adjustments.
• Critical voices push back on the methodology. Some parents describe it as "too extreme" and report that most 4th ESO students rely on private maths tutors. Others say the school markets itself as innovative but in their experience does not let students respectfully express dissent.
• A small group of parents who switched in from other schools say they expected a top-tier experience and were significantly disappointed; they advise speaking with current families before enrolling.
• The school is run by a religious congregation, and at least one critical reviewer argues that congregation priorities can supersede student interests.