Private schools in Guanacaste

The “Gold Coast” of Costa Rica’s Guanacaste region is blessed with several excellent private schools that offer an outstanding bilingual eduation. If you’re considering moving your family to this beautiful coastline, you won’t have to worry about Jack and Jill learning their ABCs — or for that matter, their college-prep calculus.

Most of the enrollment at these private schools comes from extranjeros who relocate to Costa Rica. But many well-to-do Costa Ricans also send their kids to these schools for the superior educational opportunities they offer. Chief among these are the certainty that they will learn English, and will graduate from high school with the credentials to attend universities in the U.S., Canada or Europe.

One of the greatest advantages of educating your children in Costa Rica is the international, multicultural, polyglot environment.  A father who sends his children to CRIA in Brasilito once told us that when all the parents come to pick their kids up, you can hear 20 languages spoken in the parking lot, including French, Russian, Croatian and Italian. This kind of immersion in a melting pot of nationalities gives kids a rare and unique perspective on the world.

Another big benefit for kids from overseas is that they will not just pick up a little Spanish, but will soon be speaking it like a native. Younger kids especially have the ability to learn a second language so well that they can speak it flawlessly and without an accent — an advantage they will have for the rest of their lives.

Here are some of the most widely recognized private schools in this region:

• Costa Rica International Academy (formerly Country Day School):  Pre-K–12th grade.   http://criacademy.com/  Across the street from Reserva Conchal, just south of Brasilito. 
• La Paz Community School:  Pre-K–12th grade.   http://www.lapazschool.org/  Located at Mar Vista, between Brasilito and Flamingo. 
• Lakeside International School:  Pre-K–12th grade. https://www.lakeside.school  Located near Sardinal, on the road leading to Coco. 
• Waldorf School:  K–6th grade.    https://waldorf.cr/about-us/  Located in Cañafistula, between Villarreal and Veintisiete de Abril. 
• Del Mar Academy:  Pre-K–8th grade.    http://www.delmaracademy.com/index.html   Located in Nosara.
• Academia Teocali:  Pre-K–11th grade.    https://www.facebook.com/academiateocalilib/  Located in Liberia.