Zola School in las Rozas was born in 1992 right after Atlanta secondary education school closed. Atlanta was managed by a teaching cooperative since 1988. The first Zola School was inaugurated in 1968 in Ciudad de Los Angeles, Madrid. New settlements lacking educational facilities were common in this times due to the fact of a rising urban development. Along those years private education played an important social role of an extraordinary revelance.

Zola school located in Villafranca condominiums, Villanueva de la Cañada was inaugurated in 1989 In a different enviroment, under the impulse of Mr Zósimo Ibañez and Ms Consuelo Pinto.

The population to whom the school offers its services nowadays, is a mid-upper class and had already started to stablish in the outskirts of Madrid in search of lower housing prices and a more direct contact with nature. Villages in the northwest fringe have ceased

The current inhabitants of Las Rozas form what can be described as upper-working-class. By and large they are families who have left the capital in search of cheaper prices and a better quality of life. It is this sector of the community that we taylor for in this school.

When the school was originally setup it was then a very risky project. The school was located far from the centre of Madrid and all the services the capital provided. Furthermore, there were no residencial areas nearby. and “Atlanta” coorporation could then hand out the building with no students to attend.

During the academic year 1992-1993, our academic role was just 99 students, which increased to 295 by the following year. The number rose steadily to the current 1200 we have now.

In 1994 the school introduced German as a further language in addition to English. The school also received 120 new students from the Loyola School which closed down at the end of the previous academic year. From this point onwards, the school became the natural choice for local German families who wished for their children to continue using their mother tongue. Furthermore, other families also saw the advantage of studying German for the future of their children, as it is one of the most prolific languages in Europe.

In 1994 Madam Consuelo Pinto undertook several expansions to the school such as the new infant building. This enabled us to provide independent facilities for our infant students which were totally separate from the elder children. At the same time a petition to incorporate a secondary stage for ESO and Bachillerato was requested. The enlargement of the school happened in tandem with the increase in the population.

During those days, more time was spent coordinating and planning training programmes. In addition there was more time dedicated to organisation. However, some issues needed to be resolved amongst the members of the management team. There were those who favoured further enlargement of the school and there were those who wanted to concentrate on ways to improve the functioning of the school as it stood. In 1998, in Ayllón (Segovia), 8 people created a document where a compromise was reached. This sought to improve the school as a whole by reviewing the curriculum, improving the library and the then newly emerging technologies and to revise the methods used in class.

While the school was undertaking all the improvements, Las Rozas was growing rapidly, becoming a developing area where many important companies had found advantages in setting up their new offices.

In 2003 Javier Ibáñez takes over the management of the school. The main focus of the school is team-working within the senior management aiming to improve the working conditions, teaching methods and delivery of the curriculum.

Looking at the demands and necessities in education around the area, the school stopped being private and became “centro concertado” in Primary and the Infant Stage in 2006 with Secondary following in 2007. Despite this change, the school promised to give the same sevice and quality education it had done as a private school.

In November 2006 the first school commitee was created which will continue with the work the school has been doing so far. Member of all groups are represented on this committee: students, parents (two representatives from AMPA), teachers  and the administration department.