Runnymede College

Madrid's oldest British school and the academic name on the circuit. Strong IGCSE and A Level results, a steady Oxbridge pipeline, and a head whose family has run the school for decades.

Founded in 1967 by Arthur Powell as the first British school in Spain, now led by his son Frank Powell. The campus sits in La Moraleja, the expat heartland north of Madrid, with around 750 pupils across roughly 37 nationalities. About half the families are Spanish, which families looking for full British immersion sometimes underestimate.

The English National Curriculum runs through to A Levels with no IB option, a deliberate choice the school stands by. Recent cohorts have placed multiple students at Oxford and Cambridge each year, and IGCSE A* rates sit in the high 30s. Parents describe the academic pressure as real, the pastoral side as warmer than the reputation suggests, and the smartphone parent pact as a sign the school is willing to lean on community norms.

• Long-running praise from expat parents who attended in the 1990s and 2010s, repeatedly described as the best British school in Madrid; one US parent who put three children through said it was an "excellent school" after switching from American-style schooling.
• Strong sixth-form record cited by parents and directories, with consistent Oxbridge offers each year and high A* to A rates at iGCSE and A Level.
• Ownership and continuity are unusual for the sector: family-founded in 1967, still run by the founders' family, and explicitly contrasted by parents with rival Madrid schools that were acquired by groups and saw teaching quality drop.
• Reputation as a school for wealthy families in La Moraleja and surrounding northern suburbs comes up often; one Madrid commenter called it "very elitist" while still treating it as a top option.
• One Madrid teacher in 2025 questioned whether Runnymede had been swept up in the wider trend of Madrid international schools cutting salaries after private-equity buyouts; no parent or staff post confirms a sale, and search results still describe it as family-owned.
• Selective entry is flagged in directory write-ups: parents say places at higher year groups are hard to get and admissions assess whether a child can cope with the British curriculum.