Institució La Farga

Boys-only school in Mira-Sol, Sant Cugat, founded in 1969 and run by Institució Familiar d'Educació, an Opus Dei-linked group of thirteen schools across Catalonia and the Balearics. Sister school to La Vall, which takes the girls in the same family network from primary onwards.

Single-sex from primary, Christian identity, and a tutor-led model where each pupil meets a personal tutor twice a month and the family meets the tutor once a term. La Farga teaches the Spanish national curriculum with English support in primary, and offers IB Diploma alongside Spanish Bachillerato in the senior years. Around 1,000 to 1,200 pupils.

The Institució has just stepped back from public concertado funding, alongside La Vall and Les Alzines, to preserve the single-sex model that public funding rules increasingly squeeze. Fees will rise as a result. Families come for the explicit Christian formation, the close family-school partnership, and the academic record into Spanish university. Those uncomfortable with single-sex schooling or Opus Dei will rule it out on principle.

• La Farga is a chartered school in Sant Cugat del Vallès run by Institució Familiar d'Educació, the Catalan school network linked to Opus Dei. Single-sex from primary, with boys at La Farga and girls at sister school La Vall in Bellaterra.
• The school sits in the middle of an active public controversy. After a 2022 attempt to comply with co-education rules to keep state subsidies, La Farga and La Vall announced a return to single-sex teaching from 2026-27 and a switch to fully private status.
• Catalan press coverage reports a 10 per cent fall in pre-enrolment at La Farga and around 160 already-enrolled students seeking transfers across the two schools. About 70 families have signed a manifesto asking the boards to reverse course.
• Parent reviews on Micole sit at 4.2 across 112 ratings, with strong endorsement of academic rigour, tutorial support and Christian humanist values. Critics describe the school as functioning "como una especie de secta" and oppose differentiated education.
• The Diploma Dual partnership with Academica adds a US-recognised qualification track on top of Spanish bachillerato, treated by reviewers as a value-add.
• Families considering La Farga are buying into a single-sex, religiously formed model. Reviews are polarised along that axis, not on day-to-day teaching quality.