BHS
Founded in 2020 during Covid by Harvard graduate and free-spirited American entrepreneur Akida Mashaka, BHS is a one-of-a-kind international American School in Barcelona Spain with a mission to solve the failures of traditional education, so all students in the post-Covid era can not only excel academically to attend the world's top universities if desired, but also excel socially and psychologically as well in equal measure.
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BHS stands for its revolutionary pedagogy "Build. Harvest. Succeed." that consists of providing an engaging school experience that is based on fearless curiosity and hands on problem solving through trial and error to achieve executive functioning success, instead of the outdated traditional rote memorization methodology that continues to fail the students of today.
BHS started as only Barcelona High School, but then added a middle school to keep up with the demand for its revolutionary educational model, and now BHS plans to expand to add a preschool and elementary school for the upcoming school year to further accomplish its goal of transforming education as we know it.​​
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BHS was created based on the idea of a Social Wellness School™, an educational philosophy for the post-Covid era that focuses on student mental health and social life, in equal measure with academics, in order for students to find their superpower.
BHS uses its own modern teaching methodology known as the BHS Method™, derived from Akida's BHS Method™ for Startups, and refined by award-winning American educator and BHS Director & Partner Amanda Slefo, which asserts that people learn better by doing versus memorization.
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Although BHS is growing rapidly (from 5 to 340 students in less than 5 years), BHS has the most internationally diverse student population in the world while still maintaining a small student-teacher ratio unlike the other international schools in Barcelona. This growth, small class size and unity in diversity creates the most amazing student life and student core values. BHS students say:
"BHS feels like one big family where we get to make new friends everyday".
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BHS is an independent private school that is 100% funded by school fees and tuition as BHS receives no (0%) financial support from the local and national Spanish government, nor its home country government, unlike the other international schools in Barcelona.​​
BHS teaches in native English and is the only American school in Barcelona that uses 100% US curriculum including Advanced Placement (AP), unlike the other American and IB schools in Barcelona.
BHS also offers Spanish and Catalan language fluency courses and the ESO Certificate for Catalan and Spanish speakers and Spanish nationals.
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Moreover, BHS is the only school in Barcelona with an Intensive English Program for non-native English students older than 12 years old.
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For high school students, BHS offers student housing with boarding and provides official enrollment and legal guardian documentation needed for student visas.​
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As explained above, BHS was created for the post-Covid education era. An era where flexibility and student-centered learning is the future and traditional one-size-fits-all education is the past.
Therefore, BHS is NOT for you if you prefer traditional schools with an educational model that focuses on "teaching to the test", instead of through academic curiousity, social wellbeing, and psychological confidence in equal measure to prepare students to be global citizens of the world.
On the other extreme, BHS is also NOT for you if you prefer super alternative schools that lack academic structure which undermines a student's ability to reach their full potential through learning how to study and challenge themselves academically, and even to perform well on standardized tests if desired.
However, BHS is the perfect school for you if you want a school that keeps its promise to holistically teach students to be problem solvers and in charge of their own destiny through academic curiosity, social engagement and psychological wellness.​​​
Instead of being located outside the city like other international and American schools in Barcelona, BHS is centrally located in the heart of Barcelona, in the bohemian neighborhood of Gracia with perfect access to all modes of public transportation.
BHS consists of a neighborhood campus, so it feels like attending university in an urban village, which makes the BHS student experience the most unique and rewarding in the world.
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The learning spaces are open and dynamic, and students are encouraged from different grade levels and nationalities to interact and ask questions in class which leads to an incredible blend of ideas and perspectives.
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BHS is approved and accredited by the Spanish Ministry of Education and Barcelona Education Department (Consorci d'Educació de Barcelona) with school code 08079146. As an official school in Spain, BHS students receive Spanish homologation to attend universities in Spain with their American High School Diploma from BHS.
At the BHS Graduation Ceremony, students receive an official American High School Diploma which permits students not only to attend universities in Spain, but to obtain university placement everywhere in the world, including throughout Europe and in USA.
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While BHS students have already been accepted into the most elite universities in USA (Princeton University, Parsons School of Design, Georgia Tech, Boston University, Middlebury College, etc.), most BHS students prefer the option to attend universities in Europe (particularly in Spain), including the UK, that offer Bachelor's degrees in English that match their interests. Alternatively, some students take a gap year after high school to further discover or develop their true passions before attending university.