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AN INTERNATIONAL school set to open this coming autumn term in Estepona will be the first centre on the Costa del Sol that offers the US curriculum, according to local education authorities.
Mayor José María García Urbano recently attended a walk-round of the newly-built Atlas American School, along with director of the holding company Mathema Educación, Antonio Arcones, and the soon-to-be headmaster, Trevor Sargent.
Atlas American School caters for pupils from infants to the upper sixth, or first grade to high-school seniors, has cost around €12.5 million to build, and will create 115 new jobs directly linked to its running.
Estepona town council set aside the land for the new complex – just over five-and-a-half acres, leased to the company for 75 years - to be built back in September 2020 – in the Selwo area, within the Torrevigía sector – and, in addition to the education centre itself, Atlas American School will have built-in halls of residence for students to board there weekly or all term as required, if they are unable to commute daily
The school will be trilingual, with teaching in English, Spanish and French – including a full-immersion programme in French - and similar in structure and layout to a centre in the UK or France, but with the curriculum being that which is taught in mainstream schools in the USA.
It has also applied to offer the International Baccalaureate – a global equivalent of A-levels which is recognised in any country and valid for university entrance worldwide, and which follows the European multi-subject-single-diploma route – and provides a business entrepreneur course for students aged 14 to 17.
As is customary in the USA, sports will play a major rôle in education and be an integral part of the curriculum, with plenty of time given to golf, tennis, pádel, soccer and other high-performance activities within normal school hours.
“An essential feature of education as we know it is finding the right balance between developing personal skills and the academic curriculum, and this balance should not be underestimated,” says Antonio Arcones of Mathema Educación.
The company, founded in 2012, also runs The British School of Navarra, in the capital of the far-northern region of the same name – Pamplona – and one of the few other US centres in the country, the Aquinas American School, which has three campuses in Madrid.
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