Pan American Christian Academy

A small American Christian school in São Paulo, around 350 students, serving missionary families, Korean Christian families, and a Brazilian community that wants an English-language Christian education.

PACA opened in 1960 and runs an American college-preparatory programme from pre-K to grade twelve, with an optional concurrent Brazilian diploma. Accreditation through MSA-CESS and ACSI. The student body sits at roughly 30 percent American, 30 percent Brazilian, 25 percent Korean, and 15 percent other nationalities, depending on the year.

Christian values run through the whole programme, not just chapel and Bible classes. Families who want that framing tend to be the warmest about the school. Reviewers consistently flag the wooded campus, sports culture alongside academics, and small class sizes. Fees are well below Graded or Chapel. The fit is narrower than secular peers, and families who do not want a faith-based environment will read the same culture as a constraint rather than a strength.

• forum threads about São Paulo international schools consistently rank PACA in the second tier, behind Graded, Chapel, St. Paul's and Avenues, with one commenter putting PACA in the "mid international schools" group running an AP rather than IB programme.
• One ex-student in r/Brazil said they were "severely bullied at PACA" and accused administrators of protecting bullies, which is the strongest negative signal in any thread.
• Other commenters frame PACA neutrally as the standard American-curriculum option for evangelical or Christian families and for the city's Korean expat community, with a balanced nationality mix on campus.
• Directory reviews on International Schools Database are small in number but uniformly positive about facilities, teacher continuity and the buddy system for new arrivals.