Frequently asked questions

Espai Aigua is an officially recognised early years and primary school. Recognition, obtained after the building was adapted, gives official status to the children’s schooling at the project without giving up our way of doing things.

Espai Aigua is an officially recognised early years and primary school with 18 years of history. The project was born in mid-2009 in the Clot neighbourhood out of our concerns about education and child-rearing, as families and as professionals working with children. Espai Aigua started this project in premises in the city of Barcelona, in the Clot neighbourhood. This space housed the project for its first six school years. In September 2015 the project moved to the building of the former Tres Fonts state school, in Barcelona’s Guinardó neighbourhood, which had closed for good as a municipal school in June 2015. 17 years later, the project obtained official recognition from the Department of Education, achieved after the building was adapted. This recognition gives official status to the children’s schooling at the project without giving up our way of doing and understanding education.

The school’s overall ratio is roughly one reference adult for every 10–12 children. In the early years it comes down to a maximum of 8 to 10 children per reference adult, while in primary it rises to 12–13, depending on the characteristics of each group. These ratios may vary slightly in primary according to the group’s needs, but we always aim for them to be small enough to guarantee close follow-up consistent with our pedagogical principles and to attentively accompany the different learning, emotional and personal processes that take place throughout the stage.

Groups are organised mainly by cycles, but it is not a rigid arrangement. Each child’s needs are the main criterion in forming them, so at times there may be children of other ages within the same group. We continually consider whether each child is in the group that suits them best and, when necessary, we make the appropriate changes. We believe the mix of ages is very enriching, while we also maintain a distinction between the different cycles and the way of working in each, suited to the characteristics and needs of each developmental stage. Alongside this, there are often inter-cycle proposals and activities that widen this exchange even further. They may be one-off activities, projects that arise from shared interests or proposals linked to common goals, such as fixing up and designing the playground, preparing a celebration or creating a play. We also create spaces in which the older children can make proposals to the younger ones: reading them a story, showing them a project, preparing a performance, designing a movement circuit or suggesting a game in the playground.

We understand that everyone belongs to the educational community simply by existing. That is why we do not believe anyone needs to be “included” in the school; the challenge is to build the conditions needed for everyone to be part of it and take part in it without being excluded.

Not exactly. We cover curriculum knowledge through the “Tools” work slots, where specific elements of different languages (musical, verbal, mathematical…) are learned, and through “Projects”.

We know that starting out at school is not the same for everyone. Each child and each family needs their own time to settle into school, get to know the accompanying adults and the other children, and feel safe in the spaces and everyday dynamics. That is why the project gives children the possibility of settling in over whatever period of time is needed, according to each family’s circumstances. The teaching team places special emphasis on accompanying this stage, to help the child open up to the new reality.

Every settling-in process is different and depends on very varied factors, sometimes full of subtleties. We know that every family has its own particularities, depending on its history and experiences, so that no two processes look alike. That is why we attach so much importance to communication and transparency between the family and the accompanying adult: it is a shared path that lays the foundations of the relationships. Relationships that are interdependent and that grow together: family–educator and child–educator.

The move to primary is an important change that we accompany gradually and respectfully, bearing in mind each child’s path and needs. Whether they are continuing at the school from the early years or joining for the first time, we prepare this process so that they can get to know the new dynamics, build bonds and find their place with time, confidence and support. Always working as a team with the family.

Once the project confirms that a place is available and the family decides to join, enrolment must be formalised by bank transfer, giving the child’s name as the payment reference, and by sending us an email with the details needed to complete the process. Enrolment for new families is €200 until 28/29 February and €300 from 1 March. It is paid once, on joining the project, and for each child who starts.

To reserve a place for the following school year, families already in the project must pay, before March, a deposit equal to one month’s fee per child, which is returned on leaving the project provided three months’ notice is given, or on finishing Year 6. Families who have paid this deposit (or the enrolment fee, in the case of new families) but who do not start in September will not have the amount returned.

The school runs a continuous day from 9 am to 3 pm. From 3 pm we offer an extended-hours service and after-school activities to help families balance work and family life. Throughout the day, children move through different spaces and take part in various dynamics, activities and proposals, which take place in settings designed and prepared to encourage each kind of learning and experience. We are committed to slow education, which respects different rhythms and allows the time needed to go deeper into processes, without an overly fragmented structure. The organisation of the day is therefore flexible and can be adapted over the year according to the group’s needs.

From Monday to Thursday, an extended-hours service is offered for drop-off and pick-up from 8.30 to 9 am and from 3 to 4 pm. How this service is organised depends on families’ needs and may vary from year to year. In addition, after-school activities are organised for the different stages. In the 2026-27 school year, the after-school activities on offer are: Monday: Integrative martial arts (3–4 pm), early years; Integrative martial arts (4–5.15 pm), Years 1 to 3; Tuesday: Music combo (3–4 pm), Years 1 to 3; English (3–4 pm), Years 4 to 6; Wednesday: Musical play (3–3.45 pm), early years; Drama (3–4.15 pm), Years 3 to 6; Thursday: English (3–4 pm), Years 1 to 3; Music combo (3–4 pm), Years 4 to 6.

Every group goes on weekly outings. In the early years stage, these outings are mainly to nearby spaces, such as the neighbourhood’s parks and gardens. In primary, the scope of outings gradually widens and the learning spaces and contexts become more varied, both natural and cultural, in the neighbourhood and the city. We go on outings to parks and green spaces, to Collserola, to the beach, to cultural venues and to other places considered of interest for the projects and processes developed over the year. In addition, in primary, once a month we visit the Mercè Rodoreda Library.

The school offers a three-week summer camp. In the 2026-27 school year, it will run from 22 June to 9 July. The summer camp is included in the July fee.

Small ratios allow personalised, active attention throughout the day. In addition, there are short group meetings every morning, in which experiences and proposals are shared and children’s voices are given space. These moments begin with welcome rituals (songs, shared proposals…) and the reference adult explains what the day holds. What children express, propose or need also serves to think up and prepare new proposals.

The teaching team of each cycle periodically publishes a post on the school’s private blog, where families can get to know and follow the groups’ day to day, the processes and the proposals that unfold over the weeks, through texts, photos and videos. Access to the blog is restricted to the project’s families. In addition, every week the teaching team emails all the families in the cycle the most relevant information for the week ahead.

Monthly fee: €504 × 12 payments. Paid all year round, July and August included. The July fee includes the three weeks of summer camp.

€352 per month. 30% discount on the second and subsequent fees while siblings attend the school at the same time.

The enrolment fee for new families is €200 until 28/29 February and €300 from 1 March. It is paid once, on joining the project, for each child who starts.

€504 per child (€352 siblings). Equal to one month’s fee per child; it covers the August fee. Returned when leaving the project, with three months’ notice.

Fees are collected by direct debit within the first five days of the month. If a payment is returned, the family bears the bank charge. Each receipt carries a payment reference; if you pay by transfer, quote it in the payment description.

Families are an active part of the educational community and can take part in the life of the school in different ways, according to their interests, possibilities and availability. Their participation takes shape both in everyday activities and celebrations and in working committees, which drive projects forward and respond to needs as they arise. We also have a school management working group, in which families, teachers and the school’s leadership take part. In addition, families take part in the upkeep and running of the school through a task system, which allows everyone to contribute to sustaining the space and the community.

To share questions, worries or more personal matters, families can contact the accompanying adults by email or through the school’s management platform. Morning arrival and pick-up are also everyday moments for exchange and communication. In addition, over the year there are at least two individual tutorials with each family, one at the start of the year and another midway through, to share each child’s process in more depth.

There are different spaces and channels for exchange between families and the accompanying adults. Over the year there are cycle meetings, one each term, in which the group’s processes and other general aspects of its day to day are shared. Pedagogical meetings are also called to go deeper into specific topics that are significant or that generate interest or concern among families.

Each member family contributes 2.5 hours a month of maintenance tasks, that is, 10 hours per four-month period. These hours may include tasks such as painting, small repairs, cleaning, gardening, organising materials, etc. Tasks are organised with the support and coordination of the members of the working group in charge of this area.

So when a family cannot complete the 10 hours of tasks assigned to it, the part not done is compensated financially, at €10 per hour. At the close of each four-month period (31 December, 30 April and 31 August) the difference between the committed hours and the validated hours is calculated and, where applicable, the corresponding receipt is issued.

Management platform (gestio.espai-aigua.org): each family logs in with their email address, following the invitation sent by the school. There families will find fees and receipts, the maintenance-task system (to sign up and see validated hours) and meeting bookings with the team.

The gradual acquisition of autonomy passes through different stages and aspects. In the early years, a first and delicate stage of separation, and the first steps in self-regulating physical needs, caring for one’s own body and relating to the space and the surroundings. Later, in primary, some first years in which a new separation from the family takes place in order to get to know and practise social relationships in depth, gaining a great deal of emotional autonomy through conflict resolution and a more precise expression of emotions. The following stages focus, finally, on autonomy in studying, investigating and getting to know the more abstract world; a stage in which each child’s identity in relation to others and to their surroundings is gradually defined.

Espai Aigua’s Pedagogical Lab was born in the 2021-2022 school year with the aim of consolidating a way of living education that sees teaching practice as an ongoing space for reflection, action research and transformation. It is a project from which we observe, ask ourselves questions, try things out, review and try again, starting from the real situations that arise in everyday school life. We understand that educational improvement is not the result of chance or of applying closed formulas, but of a conscious process in which we teachers research our own practice, share questions and build pedagogical knowledge collectively.

In the afternoons and on some weekends, the Lab also hosts training for educators, families and anyone interested, with an approach centred on learning by doing. That is why we offer training and accompaniment for people or teams who want to learn more about this way of understanding education, go deeper into a particular issue or explore how to bring some of these outlooks and practices into their own contexts.