What are the best international schools in the Algarve?

What are the best international schools in the Algarve?

While there are plenty of international schools to choose from in the Algarve region, you can always count on the quality of education in most of these institutions.

However, just to mention a few, here are our top 7 international schools in the Algarve region.

Nobel International School Algarve – Lagoa
Aljezur International School
Eden Montessori International School – Albufeira
Algarve International School
Vale Verde International School – Luz
Colégio Santiago Internacional – Tavira
Eupheus International School Algarve

The choice of your international school should be informed by the type of curriculum available in a particular school. It’s also important for you to consider the primary language of instruction used in the school. You’ll find plenty of extracurricular activities that your children will participate in and enjoy outside of the class as well.

When does the school year start in Portugal?

The schooling period and hours in Portugal are different from one region to another. The same can also be said when comparing public to private or even international schools. In fact, international schools often follow their own school calendars. Nonetheless, the common academic calendar for most schools in Portugal starts in September and runs mid to late June.

In between the school calendar are several breaks that are common to every school. Essentially there are four major breaks within one academic year in Portugal which are:

Christmas break in December
Carnival break between late February and early March
Easter break in April
Summer break taken between June and September
In addition to the aforementioned school holidays, there are other days within the academic calendars when school-going children get a day off. Such breaks might be because of national holidays or local holidays. Some institutions like Nobel International School Algarve publish such information on their website.

There are plenty of activities to do during such holidays in the Algarve. Depending on the season, families go down to the beautiful beaches, enjoy their time in golf clubs or even on hiking trails; there’s so much waiting to be explored.

Why choose these schools over the public Portuguese system?

One of the questions that expats moving with their children to Portugal have to contend with is whether to enroll their kids in public or international schools in the Algarve. Public education in Portugal is great; it’s completely free to nationals and residents with a residence permit.

So why choose international schools over public schools? Well, the major challenge when it comes to public schools is the language of instruction.

Public schools in Portugal, including in the Algarve, teach using Portuguese, which can be a huge challenge for expats who don’t understand the language.
While you can enroll your children to study in Portuguese, you must realize that the local language is relatively difficult and might take a lot of time before the children master it.

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