Inside The British School of Málaga with Principal Stefan Rumistrzewicz

The British School of Málaga offers a British and international education for students aged 3 to 18. With more than 25 years of history and a diverse community of over 1,000 students from more than 56 nationalities, it has grown into one of the most established international schools on the Costa del Sol.

We spoke with Stefan Rumistrzewicz, Principal of The British School of Málaga since 2021, about the school’s history and track record, its academic pathways, its values, and what makes Málaga such a compelling place for international families to settle.

25 Years of History at The British School of Málaga

The British School of Málaga has been educating students for more than 25 years, making it the most established international school in Málaga. For a family arriving in the city for the first time, I think our history and track record means reassurance. Moving to a new country is exciting, but for a family it can also involve a great deal of uncertainty and choosing the right school is probably one of the biggest decisions parents have to make.

Being established for more than 25 years means that BSM has grown up alongside Málaga’s international community. We understand the experience of families arriving from overseas, but we are also very much a Málaga school, with deep roots in the local community.

For me, though, longevity only matters if you continue to evolve. Education has changed enormously over the past 25 years, as has Málaga. So I am proud of our history, but I am probably even more interested in what we are doing next. We have a very simple philosophy around school improvement: improvement isn’t something we do for an inspection or review; it’s simply who we are.

That combination of stability and a determination to keep getting better is perhaps what our history really means in practice.

Trusted by International and Local Families

Reputation in education is built slowly. Ultimately, it comes from the experiences children and families have every day and from whether parents feel that a school genuinely knows and cares about their child.

One of the things I particularly value about BSM is that we are not simply an “expat school”. We have Spanish families who have been part of the school community for many years, alongside families arriving from all over the world. Today our community represents more than 50 nationalities and over 25 languages.

That diversity creates something very special for children. They grow up regarding different languages, cultures and nationalities as completely normal. At the same time, because we are firmly rooted in Málaga, children don’t feel as though they are attending an international school that somehow exists separately from the country in which they live.

For a family choosing a school, I think that balance is incredibly important: your child can belong to a genuinely international community while also developing a real connection with Spain.

A British Curriculum, Rooted in Spanish Life

The school follows an enhanced British curriculum from age 3 to 18, with Spanish language and cultural studies running alongside. The great advantage of this combination is that children don’t have to choose between receiving a British education and becoming part of Spanish life.

Our academic framework is British, eventually leading to IGCSEs and A Levels, but Spanish language and culture sit alongside that throughout the school. For Spanish students we also ensure the appropriate Spanish curriculum requirements are met.

For an international child arriving with little or no Spanish, I would tell parents not to worry. Children are remarkably good language learners, particularly when they are immersed in an environment where languages are part of everyday life.

Equally, we have considerable experience supporting children who arrive with English as an additional language. With more than 50 nationalities in the school, welcoming children with different linguistic starting points is simply part of what we do. The aim isn’t just for children to learn another language. It’s for them to develop the confidence to live, learn and build friendships in a genuinely multilingual community.

Higher Education Options for BSM Graduates

At Sixth Form level, students pursue A Levels alongside the Spanish university access exams, giving our students something enormously valuable: choice.

A Levels are internationally recognised qualifications and provide access to universities across the UK, Europe and much of the wider world. At the same time, our Spanish programme ensures that students who want to remain in Spain have access to the Spanish university system.

Our graduates therefore follow very different pathways. Recent destinations include universities such as Imperial College London, St Andrews, Manchester and Glasgow in the UK; IE, Navarra, Málaga, Autónoma de Madrid and Complutense in Spain; Delft, Amsterdam, Groningen and Erasmus Rotterdam in the Netherlands; Trinity College Dublin; and universities further afield. Most of our students are accepted by their first-choice university.

I think that’s particularly important for international families because plans change. A family may arrive assuming their child will eventually return to the UK, for example, and five years later that young person may see their future in Spain, the Netherlands or somewhere completely different. Our responsibility is to keep as many of those doors open as possible.

Rankings and Recognition

BSM has been recognised by Forbes, MiCole and El Mundo as one of the best schools in Spain. It’s obviously lovely to receive external recognition and we’re proud of it. But I don’t think any good school should spend its time trying to climb rankings. What matters is what happens in classrooms and corridors every day.

Over recent years we have worked very deliberately on the quality of learning: developing our teachers, strengthening leadership, looking closely at what happens in lessons and continually asking ourselves what will make the greatest difference to children.

At the same time, a school can’t be reduced to examination results. Children need to be challenged academically, but they also need to feel known, safe and valued. They need opportunities to lead, perform, compete, create, make mistakes and try again. So I hope those recognitions reflect that combination: high expectations alongside a genuinely caring and inclusive community. The rankings are nice; the experience children have here is much more important.

CARE: The Values Behind Everyday School Life

The important thing about school values is that children should experience them rather than simply see them written on a wall. We use the acronym CARE: Creativity, Aspiration, Resilience and Empathy, and those ideas run through school life.

Creativity is about children thinking differently and being prepared to explore ideas. Aspiration means encouraging them to aim high without creating a culture in which they are frightened of getting something wrong. Resilience is about learning that struggle is a normal and important part of learning. And empathy is fundamental to living in a community containing so many different cultures, backgrounds and perspectives.

You see those values in classrooms, sport, music, Houses, student leadership, friendships and the way students respond when something doesn’t go according to plan. Ultimately, we’re trying to develop successful young people, but also good human beings.

“Growing Our Future Together”: The Parent Partnership

BSM’s motto is “Growing our Future Together” and the school places a strong emphasis on the relationship between parents and teachers. The word I always focus on in our motto is “together”. Parents know their children in ways that we never can, while teachers know them in a very different context. When those two perspectives work together, children benefit enormously.

That doesn’t mean parents and schools will always agree. In fact, some of the most productive conversations I’ve had with parents have started with disagreement. A genuine partnership means being able to have those conversations openly, respectfully and always with the same question at the centre: what is best for this child?

On a practical level there is regular communication between teachers, tutors, leaders and families, alongside weekly school communications and opportunities for parents to be involved in school life. But partnership is really a culture rather than a communication system. Parents should feel able to talk to us, and equally we need to be honest with parents, including sometimes having difficult conversations. Trust grows from that honesty.

Joining Mid-Year: How It Works

Another thing that sets BSM apart is the flexibility offered to families who arrive mid-year. This is particularly important in an international school because international families don’t organise their lives around the academic year! People relocate because of jobs, family circumstances or opportunities, and that can happen in November, February or April just as easily as September.

Our Admissions Team therefore works throughout the year, including for Sixth Form, and we are very accustomed to welcoming children midway through the academic year. The academic transition matters, of course. We look carefully at where a child is in their learning, their previous curriculum and whether they need additional support with English or Spanish.

But I would argue that the social transition matters just as much. A child arriving in a new country needs to make friends and feel that they belong. Our House system helps enormously because every child immediately becomes part of one of our four Houses (Earth, Wind, Fire or Water) alongside the support they receive from their class teacher or tutor.

The objective is that very quickly they stop feeling like “the new child” and simply feel like a BSM student.

Beyond the Classroom

There is an enormous amount going on, and I think that’s important because children often discover what they’re passionate about outside their formal lessons.

There are sports including football, basketball, athletics, volleyball, padel, rhythmic gymnastics and judo; creative opportunities including art, singing and songwriting; and clubs ranging from chess and debating to gardening and videogame design. We also have student leadership through Head Students, House Captains and Student Voice.

And yes, there are probably a couple of surprises. We have a Dungeons & Dragons club, for example (something I have a particular soft spot for!) and our judo students have access to coaching from former Olympic champions.

Through ISP there are also international programmes including Model United Nations, cultural exchanges, science, filmmaking and other projects connecting our students with young people around the world.

Education should help children discover things about themselves that they didn’t know before. Sometimes that discovery happens in a maths lesson; sometimes it happens on a stage, a sports court or sitting around a table rolling dice.

Stefan’s Proudest Achievements as Principal

The obvious answer to what I feel most proud of at the school would be growth. When I arrived in 2021 we had around 670 students; today we have more than 1,000. That is an extraordinary transformation and reflects the confidence families have placed in us.

But numbers aren’t really what I’m proudest of.

I’m proud that while growing significantly, we have also become a more genuinely international school and have continued to raise our expectations of ourselves. We’ve invested enormously in developing teaching and leadership and in creating a culture where colleagues are comfortable talking openly about learning and about how we can improve.

I often describe school improvement as lots of small things done well, consistently, by lots of people. There hasn’t been one magical initiative. The school has improved because teachers, support staff and leaders have collectively been prepared to keep asking, “How can we make this better for our students?”

Perhaps what makes me proudest is walking around the school and seeing children who are happy to be here and adults who genuinely care about them. Growth is wonderful, but maintaining that sense of community as a school grows is the real achievement.

What Being Part of ISP Means for Students

The school is part of the International Schools Partnership. For students, the biggest benefit is that their school suddenly becomes much bigger than the campus they walk into each morning.

Through ISP, students can collaborate and compete with children from schools around the world. Current opportunities include international cultural and virtual exchanges, ISP Scientists, Model United Nations, Changemakers and other global programmes.

That international dimension matters because today’s children are going to live and work in a world where collaborating with someone thousands of kilometres away will be completely normal.

There is another benefit that students perhaps don’t see as directly. Being part of a wider international organisation gives our teachers and leaders opportunities to collaborate with colleagues in other schools, share practice and learn from one another.

So ISP provides both the visible international experiences for students and, behind the scenes, a much larger professional community supporting the people who teach them.

Why Families Are Choosing to Settle in Málaga

There’s the obvious answer: sunshine! But as one of Europe’s fastest growing cities for international families, Málaga offers much more than that.

It manages to combine the opportunities and culture of a major European city with a quality of life that is increasingly difficult to find elsewhere. You have beaches and mountains on your doorstep, an international airport connecting you very easily with the rest of Europe, fantastic food and culture, and an increasingly dynamic technology and business community.

For children, I think there is something particularly special about the lifestyle. Families spend time outdoors. Children grow up around different nationalities and languages. There is a strong sense of family and community in Spanish culture.

What has changed significantly in recent years is that families increasingly don’t see Málaga simply as somewhere to spend a few years. Many arrive and decide to make their lives here.

I’ve seen the city change enormously during my time at BSM, and the school has changed alongside it. That mixture of Spanish identity and increasing internationalism is one of the things that makes Málaga such an interesting place to raise a family.

Advice for Families Weighing Up Their School Options

Visit the schools. Websites, examination results, rankings and recommendations are useful, but schools are communities and you need to experience them.

Walk around. Look at the children. Do they seem happy? Look at how adults speak to them. Ask about learning, but also ask what happens when your child struggles, how the school helps a new student make friends, how teachers communicate with you and what opportunities exist beyond examination results.

And think about your own child rather than somebody else’s. The “best school” in Málaga isn’t necessarily the school at the top of somebody’s league table; it’s the school in which your child is most likely to thrive.

When families visit BSM, of course I want them to be impressed by what they see. But more than anything, I want them to be able to imagine their child here – walking through the gates, making friends, being challenged by their teachers and gradually becoming part of the community.

If they can picture that, they’re probably getting closer to making the right decision.

About Stefan Rumistrzewicz

Stefan Rumistrzewicz has been Principal of The British School of Málaga since 2021 and has worked in British and international education for more than 30 years. Originally trained as a scientist and teacher, he has worked across both Primary and Secondary education and has held senior leadership and Headship roles in a range of international-school contexts. 

Since joining BSM, he has overseen a period of significant growth and development, with the school growing from around 670 students to more than 1,000 and becoming an increasingly diverse international community. His educational philosophy centres on high expectations, strong relationships and continuous improvement, with the belief that schools succeed when students, staff and families genuinely grow their future together.

Frequently Asked Questions: The British School of Málaga

What is The British School of Málaga?

The British School of Málaga is the only British school in Málaga city, offering a British and international education for students aged 3 to 18, with a diverse international community of more than 1,000 students, around 60% of whom come from international backgrounds.

What curriculum does the school follow?

The school follows the British educational system and is an official examination centre for GCSEs and A-Levels, complemented by Spanish Language and Literature and Social Sciences. Students from Year 7 can also choose French or German as an additional language.

What are BSM’s recent exam results?

The school reported strong GCSE results in 2026, with 41% of grades at Level 7/A or above, compared with 23% across the UK, and an 88% pass rate at Level 4/C or above, 17 percentage points above the UK average.

Where is the school located?

The school is set in the leafy residential area of Cerrado de Calderón, around 15 minutes from Málaga city centre and close to the A-7 motorway, on a 19,950m² campus with dedicated areas for Early Years, Primary, Secondary and Sixth Form.

What facilities does the school offer?

Facilities include a new Primary building opened in 2024, science and computer classrooms, music rooms, a library, an indoor sports hall, swimming pools, football and basketball facilities, padel courts and playgrounds.

Does the school offer before or after-school care or transport?

Yes. The school offers a Breakfast Club from 8:00am and an after-school club from 4:00pm, along with school transport to main areas of Málaga and both the eastern and western Costa del Sol. A full-time nurse is also on site during the school day.

What are the school fees at BSM?

The school charges a one-off enrolment fee of €1,100 per child. Tuition fees start from €8,780 in the early years, rising to €12,050 in Years 12 and 13. A full breakdown is available on the school’s fee structure page.

How can families apply or arrange a visit?

Families can find full details of the admissions process on the school’s website, and can make an enquiry or book a tour directly.

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