Scholarships at Madrid International Schools | 2026

Comparison table

Route	Typical award	Who it is for	School / body
Sixth-form academic scholarship	25 to 50% of tuition, two years	Year 12 entry, top-decile academic	King's, Runnymede, Hastings, BCS, ICS
Music or sport scholarship	Partial, two years	Talent-route Year 12 entry	Runnymede, Hastings
Continuity bursary	Case by case	Existing families in hardship	Most premium schools, unpublished
Sibling discount	5 to 15% from child 2	All enrolled siblings	Almost every private and international school
Concertado place	Fees of EUR 0 to 3,000 per year	Spanish-curriculum families, catchment-resident	Comunidad de Madrid concertado schools
Cheque guardería	Part-cover of infant fees	Resident families, income-tested	Comunidad de Madrid, ages 0 to 3
Beca Bachillerato	Modest stipend	Resident families, sixth form	Comunidad de Madrid

Indicative ranges for 2026 entry. Programmes and award values change year to year; each school's admissions office and the Comunidad de Madrid education portal are the live sources.

The brief

Madrid has no large endowed-scholarship culture. Most international schools fund themselves entirely from fees and offer few or no published awards.
Five schools publish concrete merit programmes: ICS, King's College, Hastings, The British Council School and Runnymede. The rest run case-by-case discretion.
Sibling discounts are the most accessible reduction, typically 5 to 15% off tuition from the second child, available at almost every private and international school in the city.
The concertado route is not a scholarship, it is a semi-state-funded model producing fees of EUR 0 to 3,000 per year at hundreds of Madrid schools, in Spanish, on the national curriculum.
The Comunidad de Madrid Becas part-cover infant fees and Bachillerato study for Spanish-national or NIE-resident families on income tests.
Application windows are tight. Scholarship cycles open October to January for the following September.
Aloha College is in Marbella, not Madrid. It surfaces in Spain-wide scholarship searches but is not part of the Madrid market.

Scholarships at Madrid's international schools are real but narrow. Published programmes sit at five or six schools, awards are merit-based, and full-fee scholarships of the JIS or NLCS Dubai variety are absent. The broader landscape pulls in two routes most expat families miss: the concertado semi-state-funded sector and the Comunidad de Madrid Becas for Spanish-national or NIE-resident families.

Figures below are mid-2026; each school's admissions office is the live source.

Schools with published programmes

Five schools carry externally visible programmes. Everything else is admissions-desk discretion.

International College Spain (ICS, La Moraleja) runs an occasional merit award at IB Diploma entry. Not annual, small cohort, academic selection with a portfolio element for arts and music. The pattern is one to three awards per cohort at a 25 to 50% tuition rebate.

King's College Madrid (Soto de Viñuelas and Chamartín) runs academic scholarships at Year 12 entry into the A-Level pathway. Selection by entrance examination (English, maths, a curriculum-relevant subject) plus interview. Awards 25 to 50% of tuition, held for the two-year Sixth Form on academic conditions. Soto de Viñuelas runs the larger cohort.

Hastings School (Chamartín) publishes a merit-and-talent scholarship from secondary entry. Selection blends academic testing with a sport, arts or community criterion. Awards are partial.

The British Council School (Pozuelo de Alarcón) runs a small academic award for Year 12 entry into IB Diploma, weighted toward Spanish-national candidates with strong IGCSE or ESO grades.

Runnymede College (La Moraleja) carries the longest-running programme in the British Spanish market. Sixth-form academic scholarships are awarded by examination at Year 12 entry, alongside occasional music and sport scholarships. Awards are partial, expressed as a percentage of tuition.

St. George's School, St. Anne's School and Mirabal International School do not publish open programmes; all three consider hardship and continuity cases at admissions-desk discretion.

Academic scholarships

Sixth-form entry (Year 12 into A-Levels or IB Diploma) is the dominant award point. Earlier-stage and primary scholarships are absent.

Selection at King's, Runnymede and Hastings runs through the school's own entrance exam plus interview. The British Council School leans on prior-school academic record (predicted IGCSE or ESO grades) and a written assessment. ICS runs a portfolio-style review for its occasional awards.

Awards sit in the 25 to 50% of tuition band for the schools that publish numbers, held over the two-year Sixth Form. None offers a routine 100% scholarship.

Music and sport

Sport and arts scholarships exist at the margins. Runnymede and Hastings are the visible runners. Awards are partial; the recipient is expected to contribute to the school's competitive teams, ensembles or performance programmes. Football and tennis are the common sport routes; music awards skew toward classical performance and orchestra placement.

Bursaries

Means-tested bursaries are rare in the Madrid international market. Schools are funded almost entirely from fees, endowments are small, and the dominant subsidy in the wider Spanish system is the state itself.

Continuity bursaries, where a school discounts fees for an existing family hitting financial hardship, exist informally at most premium schools. Unpublished, case by case, handled by the head and admissions. A long-enrolled family running into a redundancy or relocation issue gets a meeting; an outside hardship application does not.

Sibling discounts are the closest thing to a routine bursary. 5 to 15% off tuition from the second child, the third often discounted further, applied automatically once the second sibling enrols. Over a two-child, twelve-year education at a premium school this compounds to EUR 30,000 to EUR 80,000 of cumulative relief.

Concertado: a state-subsidy model, not a scholarship

The largest source of fee relief in the Spanish system is not a scholarship. It is the concertado sector: privately run schools holding a concierto agreement with the state, under which the Comunidad de Madrid pays teacher salaries and core operating costs and families pay only a small monthly "voluntary contribution" plus extras (lunch, transport, materials, extracurriculars).

The sector dominates suburban Madrid schooling: roughly 480 concertado schools in the Comunidad de Madrid against around 800 fully private and 800 fully public. Many run bilingual Spanish-English programmes under the Comunidad de Madrid's Bilingual Schools framework.

Friction for expat families is real: schools operate primarily in Spanish, the curriculum is the Spanish national one (ESO and Bachillerato, not IGCSE or IB), admissions favour catchment-area residents and Spanish-national priority categories, and demand for higher-rated places outstrips supply. Practical fees run EUR 1,200 to EUR 3,500 per year all-in, against EUR 13,000 to EUR 30,000 at the international schools above.

A family committed to a Spanish-led bilingual education, accepting the curriculum and resident in a relevant catchment, can reduce schooling costs by an order of magnitude. Concertado is the default for the Spanish middle class; nobody locally treats it as financial aid.

Regional Madrid Becas

The Comunidad de Madrid runs grant programmes ("Becas") aimed primarily at Spanish-national and resident families.

Cheque guardería / Beca Infantil part-covers infant-stage fees (ages 0 to 3) at participating private and concertado nurseries. Income-tested, capped per child per month. Many Madrid private bilingual schools with an infant section participate.

Beca Bachillerato offers an income-tested stipend for sixth-form study, paid to the family. The amount is modest and covers materials and transport rather than tuition.

Eligibility requires Spanish residency (NIE), tax residency in the Comunidad, and household income below the published threshold (broadly aligned with median Madrid income). For internationally relocated families on corporate packages, the income threshold sits below typical household income. For long-stay families on local contracts or Spanish-national returnees, the Becas are accessible.

Application timelines

The calendar runs October to February at most international schools for the following September intake.

October to December: scholarship registration opens at King's, Runnymede, Hastings and The British Council School. Entrance exam dates published.
January to February: entrance examinations and interviews. ICS runs its occasional merit window in this period.
March to April: decisions communicated; sibling discounts applied automatically at enrolment.
April to June: Comunidad de Madrid Becas application window opens.
July: concertado allocation publishes; appeals and second-round allocations through August.

Late applications happen for full-fee admissions but rarely for scholarships. A family targeting September 2027 entry should be on the scholarship calendar by October 2026.

FAQs

Which Madrid international schools offer scholarships? Five publish concrete merit programmes: ICS, King's College Madrid, Hastings, The British Council School and Runnymede. Most run at sixth-form entry, with awards in the 25 to 50% of tuition range. St. George's, St. Anne's and Mirabal do not run published programmes.

Are there full-fee scholarships in Madrid? Effectively no. Awards are partial, typically 25 to 50% of tuition over the two-year Sixth Form. Full-fee awards when they occur are case-specific and unadvertised.

Do Madrid schools offer sibling discounts? Yes. The standard pattern is 5 to 15% off tuition from the second child, with the third often discounted further. It applies at almost every private and international school in the city.

What is the concertado route? Concertado schools are privately operated but receive state funding for teacher salaries and core costs; families pay small monthly contributions and extras only. Fees run EUR 1,200 to EUR 3,500 per year. Schools operate primarily in Spanish and follow the Spanish national curriculum. Catchment-resident families, including expat families with Spanish residency, can apply.

Do the Madrid regional Becas apply to expat families? The Comunidad de Madrid runs income-tested grants including the Cheque guardería and Beca Bachillerato. The income threshold sits below typical corporate-package expat household income; the Becas mainly reach long-stay families on local contracts or Spanish-national returnees.

Is Aloha College in Madrid? No. Aloha College is in Marbella on the Costa del Sol, around 550 km south of Madrid. It surfaces in Spain-wide scholarship searches but is not part of the Madrid market.

When should a family apply? The window for September entry runs October to February of the preceding academic year. Scholarship exams sit in January or February, with decisions March to April.

Sources

ICS, King's College Madrid, Hastings School, The British Council School and Runnymede College admissions publications, mid-2026.
Comunidad de Madrid education portal (comunidad.madrid) Becas calendar and concertado school directory.
NABSS member school listings, 2026.
ISG fee data for Madrid international schools.
Ministerio de Educación y Formación Profesional concertado framework documentation.

Scholarships and Bursaries at Madrid International Schools