Colegio Menor San Francisco de Quito is a private, bilingual school that was founded in 1995 and is affiliated with the Universidad San Francisco de Quito. Goodness, Beauty and Truth are the underlying principles that inspired the founders to create a renaissance school that draws on the best of the international and American school models, while teaching students to understand, respect and celebrate the diversity of Ecuadorian culture.

With more than 1,300 students, the school is divided into four sections:

Early Childhood – Play Group to 2nd grade
Elementary – grades 3 to 5
Middle School – grades 6 to 8
High School – grades 9 to 12

Class size is small, with no more than 17 students per class at the preschool level and 22 students per class in the other grades. All Early Childhood classes are taught by a core teacher and a bilingual assistant.

Based on the liberal arts, Colegio Menor’s curriculum provides students with the opportunity to complete a set of core courses as well as develop their knowledge and skills in art, music, and a variety of elective subject areas. At the high school level, all courses are taught as part of a college preparatory curriculum. Colegio Menor offers Advanced Placement (AP) courses in Calculus, Statistics, English language, English literature, Spanish literature, Studio Art, World History, and Biology.

Colegio Menor is one of the area's most important schools, with recent graduates accepted to prestigious universities in North America, South America and Europe.

• A highly qualified team of local and international educators.
• A strong music program with band, orchestra, and piano concerts both at the school and in the local community.
• An innovative art program with annual exhibits.
• Academic fieldtrips to the Galapagos Islands and/or Ecuador’s cloud forests.
• Innovative discipline and academic support systems that encourage each student to be accountable for his or her own actions.
• A comprehensive advising program that involves all members of the community .
• International recognition and participation in the Model United Nations program in Ecuador and abroad
• An active student role in organizing activities at the school through Student Council and its supporting committees
• Annual interdisciplinary weeks based on themes chosen by students
• A proactive college counseling program

Colegio Menor is a bilingual English-Spanish school. Students attain high levels of proficiency in both English and Spanish through our long-term bilingual model that begins with an English immersion program from playgroup to kindergarten then transitions to a bilingual program with English instruction in all core* classes from 1st to 12th grades.

Colegio Menor is located in the valley of Cumbayá, about fifteen minutes from Quito. Cumbayá is a developing residential area and a pleasant place to live and study. The five-hectare campus offers generous green space for play at recess, athletic competitions, and other school events. The campus includes the following facilities:

• A modern library and teacher resource room with over 40,000 book titles and didactic materials, contributing to a collection of almost 100,000 items
• Computer and science laboratories
• Specialized music facilities, including independent practice rooms
• First-rate art and athletic facilities housed in the DaVinci Center
• A planetarium
• A duck pond with a variety of small farm animals (Play Group area)

Colegio Menor students participate in a variety of extra-curricular activities including athletics, music, Model United Nations (MUN), Junior Achievement and student government. Our community is fortunate to have highly active student councils at the Middle School and High School levels. The councils’ representatives promote school spirit and social service projects, and they provide an important bridge between the faculty and the student body.

Colegio Menor’s Model United Nations delegations have earned prestige and valuable experience through participation in MUN models/competitions in Latin America, the United States and Europe. The high school band has performed internationally at the Jazz Festival of the Berklee College of Music in Boston, U.S.A.

Colegio Menor has a community service office that coordinates the service projects of students and faculty members. Students begin their community work during the Early Childhood years and end their careers at Colegio Menor by completing more than 200 hours of community service at the high school level.

Participation in community service is always mutually beneficial. For example, our 4 th grade students have developed an exchange relationship with a cloud forest village near Quito. Community members in the village teach our children about the area’s biodiversity, and our students are helping their primary school with the creation of a library. Most importantly, our students strengthen their core values as they discover that the world around them is large and needy.

Colegio Menor has made a multi-year commitment to several long term service projects. The school operates a community library in the town of Puembo, and, in collaboration with the High School student council, we are currently in the process of creating a second community library in Tumbaco. In addition, the community service office operates our “Teachers Teaching Teachers” (TTT) program in which Colegio Menor teachers provide pedagogical training to local teachers in municipal and fiscal schools.

If you would like more information about our community service programs or would like to contribute in any way, please contact our community service coordinator, by clicking hWere .