Bilingual PreK–12 school inland from Playas del Coco, built on an integrated Multiple Intelligences curriculum.
Lakeside is the school that makes the north end of the coast work for families.
It runs PreK through 12th grade, bilingual, at Tablazo de Sardinal in Carrillo — inland from Playas del Coco. Along with La Paz's Tempisque campus, it is one of the few full PreK–12 options up that way, and if you are buying around Coco, Ocotal, Hermosa or Papagayo, it belongs on your list.
Lakeside teaches through an integrated curriculum built on the Multiple Intelligences model — the idea, in their words, that intelligence "differentiates into specific modalities, rather than seeing it as dominated by a single general ability."
In practice that means a kid who is not a strong test-taker but thinks in music, movement or images is not written off as a weak student. Whether that is a good fit depends entirely on your kid.
Their stated aim is to "prepare our students to be successful, confident, bi-lingual individuals who are prepared for the emerging global community." They also hold Costa Rica's Ecological Blue Flag.
Lakeside publishes less than the bigger campuses do — no student numbers, no class sizes, no facilities list, no tuition. That is not a knock; it is just a smaller school with a smaller marketing operation. But it does mean the visit is doing more work here than the website.
Families buying in the north who want a full PreK–12 bilingual school without driving an hour south. Go see it, ask directly about class sizes and about how the Multiple Intelligences model actually shows up in a school day.