The Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports of Spain has honoured Sir Roger Fry, founder and president of the educational institution King’s Group, with admission into the Civil Order of Alfonso X El Sabio for his merits in the fields of education and teaching in Spain and internationally.
The Civil Order of Alfonso X El Sabio is aimed to reward figures distinguished for their merits in the fields of education, science, culture, teaching and research in Spain or internationally.
The Ministry of Culture, Education and Sports has decided to award this prestigious Civil Order to Sir Roger Fry for his contribution in the field of education and teaching, especially through the educational institution of which he is founder, King’s Group and its emblematic King’s College schools.
Sir Roger Fry founded the first King’s College school in Madrid in 1969 and, since then, the prestigious educational institution has grown to a total of five schools in Madrid, Alicante and Murcia, with more than 4,000 students. It also has a school operating outside of Spain in Panama.
His main goals as an educational institution are to provide students with a rigorous and comprehensive British education and to be at the forefront of British education internationally.
In addition to the schools, the Group also owns other educational and non-educational entities, those being: King’s International (summer camps and academic year abroad programmes), King’s Training (language training and coaching for professionals) and Nexalia Services (catering services).
About Sir Roger Fry and the history of King’s Group
Sir Roger Fry was born in Portsmouth and educated in England. In the 1960s, after visiting Spain for leisure and feeling captivated by the country, he decided to move there to work as a teacher.
In 1969 he established the first King’s College school in Madrid, an institution founded in an effort to offer more than a bilingual education to young Spaniards: he wanted to give them the opportunity to enjoy a high quality education based on the British curriculum and thus get access to the most prestigious universities of the world.
The first King’s College school opened with 70 students enrolled, although in fact Sir Roger Fry was only expecting 30 pupils to join that first year. In just five years, the school already had 500 students enrolled. In 1978, it moved to its current centre, the Group’s flagship school in Soto de Viñuelas (north of Madrid), that nowadays enrols more than 1,500 students every academic year.
Thanks to the success of the institution and the excellent academic results achieved each year by its students, King’s Group has become one of the most important and prestigious international educational institutions in the world.
Not surprisingly, in 2012 Queen Elizabeth II gave its founder the title of Knight of the Realm for promoting British education internationally and enhancing cultural relations between Spain and the United Kingdom.
Moreover, in 1981 Sir Roger founded the British Hispanic Foundation in Madrid, whilst between 1996-2011 he was also President of the Council of British International Schools (COBIS), a body of which he is now honorary president.