A different kind of school

Alaria Nursery Schools was founded in 1974 as one of the main nursery schools in Madrid with the aim of becoming a benchmark in education for children from 0 to 6 years of age in order to help the cerebral and linguistic development of its pupils. It also has its own kitchen, large gardens and playgrounds.

Alaria International Nursery Schools counts on a team of qualified teachers who love their work and ensure that children enjoy their day to day while improving their learning. It is much more than a nursery school in Madrid, Alaria is a nursery school with a complete learning programme for children up to the age of 6, based on a methodology and an environment that favours early childhood education.

Throughout this time we have been evolving, adapting to the demands and social changes, being a pioneering school in the application of new methods and educational techniques in order to achieve the integral formation of our pupils. To achieve this, we have not only magnificent facilities, but also the necessary teaching resources and, above all, an extraordinary team of professionals of great human quality who, together with their excellent teaching preparation, have extensive experience and a marked vocation for the world of children. This allows them to give themselves completely to the children, providing them with the necessary attention so that they feel loved, protected and cared for, and can fully develop all the essential factors for their good socialisation, education and emotional development.

Our aim is to make children feel happy and self-confident, and to this end we have created an affectionate environment in which they can develop to their full potential. We also want parents, when they leave their children at our schools, to feel at ease and see us as an extension of their home.

In this journey we have discovered that the best way for a child to develop and become autonomous is to respect his or her personal rhythm, taking great care to give individual attention to each child, and encouraging continuous stimulation for the acquisition of attitudes through play, which will facilitate the development of his or her personality in a harmonious environment. Only in this way will the child be able to develop fully at all levels.

More than 50 years cultivating dreams

More than 50 years cultivating dreams

1974 Luciano Martínez and Amparo López founded the first Arcadia - Alaria nursery school, with the aim of creating an absolutely innovative educational framework in Madrid for children from 0 to 6 years old. Next 1978 The affection with which the families of Madrid welcome our school has prompted our founders to open two new centres for 0 to 6 year olds in Aravaca and El Viso, Madrid. Next 1992 Alaria's pedagogical team decided to implement its educational project with the innovative ‘Theory of Multiple Intelligences’, by the American psychologist and Harvard University professor Howard Gardner. Next 2007 Alaria begins to collaborate with doctors and professors from the Universities of Montreal and Valencia in the development of the ‘Philosophy for Children’ programme for the management of emotions, as part of its educational project. Next 2011 Alaria Nursery Schools have become bilingual centres, adapting their entire project with the aim of offering real bilingualism, and are now recognised as an official Trinity College centre. Next 2013-2016 With the aim of offering better facilities, we opened two new centres: Alaria Bernabéu and Alaria Serrano, both located in the northern area of El Viso - Chamartín. Next 2018 We moved our headquarters from Aravaca to a new site at Calle Barrial 7, where we were able to offer large spaces and gardens (with a forestry classroom, climbing wall, etc.) suitable for the specialisation of our project. Next 2020 In a context marked by the Covid-19 pandemic, the Alaria teaching team managed to develop an online educational programme with 4 hours of classes per day, tutorials and adapted online services, capable of supporting our families during the confinement. Next 2020 In parallel to the development of the pandemic, Alaria Nursery Schools inaugurated the Alaria Nuevos Ministerios nursery school, with 1,500 m2 of educational spaces and gardens in the heart of Madrid, soon becoming a reference for Infant Education from 0 to 6 years old, thanks to both its educational project and its facilities. Next 2024 Alaria Nursery Schools celebrates 50 years of history with the merit of having educated more than 21,000 children in its early years. Thank you to all who have helped us get to this point. Next

Why choose us

The 0 to 6 years stage is fundamental in the cognitive, emotional and academic development of the child. For this reason, it is critical to offer a project, facilities and equipment fully specialised in their needs during these years.

We are very proud of the more than 35 different nationalities that coexist in our classrooms, in a multicultural environment, which is developed on an English-Spanish model implemented by native and bilingual staff certified by Trinity College.

At Alaria Nursery Schools we believe it is essential to help our pupils develop their logical, critical and creative thinking… To do this, we provide them with Thinking Techniques and metacognition. One of our techniques is Philosophy for Children, specially adapted to help them understand and manage their emotions.

As a result of our experience in the education sector since 1974, Alaria Nursery Schools can offer your parents the guaranteed continuity in the best private schools in Madrid, once they finish the Infant Education stage to start Primary.

We want to provide our families with as much help as possible from different perspectives: discounts and payment methods, opening all year round including Christmas, July and August, long opening hours from 7:30 to 19:00, counselling and specialised services (paediatrician, speech therapist, educational counselling…), etc.

Our Team & Community

Our team is the key to the success of our Nursery Schools. The people who make Alaria Nursery Schools possible on a daily basis are not only perfectly qualified and coordinated professionals; they are also a team with a solid human background, compact and lively, in which each member feels secure.

All of them, committed to their work, believe in quality as a work philosophy and, through their efforts, and with an open and flexible attitude, make their work a daily success. Thus, they do not care, but educate in all areas, without rushing, being aware that affection, effort, responsibility and respect are the key to shape the lives of their pupils.

Our team is made up of experts in infant education, psycho-pedagogy, child psychology, paediatrics, nutrition, psychomotor skills, music and plastic arts. In addition, the adaptation of our pedagogical project to English is carried out by these professionals together with the ‘Alaria Nursery Schools English Team’, made up of native British and Spanish bilingual professionals and led by our bilingual project coordinator, who achieve perfect harmony in the natural exposure of the children to both languages from the age of 0. All of them have a young and dynamic mentality which, in many cases, is combined with a long experience acquired over the years in our centres.

Socio fundador 'My wife and I dedicated our lives to these schools; now, I feel a deep sense of pride in seeing how my daughter and Nacho run them with the same love, enthusiasm and dedication with which we created them’. Luciano Martínez Coordinadora pedagógica ‘Joy, affection, a thank you, an apology or a ‘I need your help’ are the most precious things in school. They cannot be bought, but they can be shared, learned and given'. Ana Conde García Socia Directora ‘These nursery schools, where I have grown up and where I now direct, are the grain of sand that I contribute to society. At Alaria, we are lovingly educating the generations of the future so that, together, we can build a better world.' Elvira Martínez López Coordinadora pedagógica ‘When children feel that they are listened to, they learn to listen to the world with empathy.' Adriana Pelayo Comunicación y Márketing ‘I know that communication with the school must be agile and effective. An informed parent has the means to make every day a meaningful experience and the peace of mind to trust us with what they love the most.' Laura Gómez Lama Coordinadora pedagógica 'We try to give the children the necessary stimuli from the security and affection,’ she says. I love to see the children grow and discover their own potential.' Naiara Fernández Segundo Socio Director ‘The discovery of my passion for running nursery schools has been an adventure, where every day I am reinvented by the surprise of seeing how education transforms lives’. Ignacio Grimá Alberola Coordinadora pedagógica 'Philosophy for Children is based on their questions, where the essential thing is not the answer, but the tools they discover to manage life’. Eva Sánchez Rodríguez Administración ‘All the most important learning in life is done through play, which is why investing in your children's education is the best way to ensure that the knowledge acquired today becomes the foundation for tomorrow's success.' Conchi Gabán Alonso

Recent acknowledgements of our project

We are constantly innovating to offer the best curriculum for our bilingual nursery schools in Madrid.

Acade Educación Privada
Trinity College London
VI Premio escuela Infantil

Some media appearances of our school

More information about the pedagogical project of our nursery schools

Our school in pictures