Magellan Announces New Campus Move + Program Expansion

4/17/2023

Magellan International School, an International Baccalaureate (IB) World School known for its Spanish Immersion program, announced the relocation of its Kindergarten - grade 8 campus to 7501 N. Capital of Texas Highway effective August 2023.

The move will allow Magellan to expand on its IB offerings to include the highly regarded Diploma Program starting in the fall of 2024. Like Austin, the school has experienced steady growth since its founding in 2009 with a significant increase in the last few years as the demand grows for unique educational programs that include language acquisition, global mindedness, and design thinking. Magellan projects enrollment at 645 students in the 2025 school year. Current enrollment is 530, including 125 students at the Preschool, which will remain at the Chimney Corners location for now.

New Northwest Austin campus will offer a world-class International Baccalaureate education with grades Kindergarten - grade 8 moving to the new facility for the 2023-2024 school year and addition of high school in Fall 2024.
Responding to market demands for its high quality Spanish Immersion program, Magellan will enhance its Middle School program to include a flexible language model to serve students that do not yet speak Spanish.
New campus supports strategic growth in athletics, extracurricular programs, and human-centered design thinking.

AUSTIN, TEXAS - Magellan International School, an International Baccalaureate (IB) World School known for its Spanish Immersion program, announced the relocation of its Kindergarten - grade 8 campus to 7501 N. Capital of Texas Highway effective August 2023. The move will allow Magellan to expand on its IB offerings to include the highly regarded Diploma Program starting in the fall of 2024. Like Austin, the school has experienced steady growth since its founding in 2009 with a significant increase in the last few years as the demand grows for unique educational programs that include language acquisition, global mindedness, and design thinking. Magellan projects enrollment at 645 students in the 2025 school year. Current enrollment is 530, including 125 students at the Preschool, which will remain at the Chimney Corners location for now.

“We are excited for our students and teachers to have world class facilities that match our academic programs. With the new campus, Magellan will be able to offer the full International Baccalaureate continuum through high school and to expand athletic and extracurricular opportunities for our students.” says Scott Hibbard, Magellan’s Head of School.

New facility supports strategic growth in design thinking, language acquisition, and global mindedness
Magellan’s new campus features a large bilingual library with a reading deck, two makerspaces to support innovation and design thinking, sensory-friendly classrooms, bright art rooms, and spacious music rooms with a recording studio. Magellan students are known as the Navigators, and, fittingly, the play structure on the new playground features a large ship to encourage imagination and exploration.

Students at Magellan International School are nurtured, encouraged, and prepared to be the next generation of innovative, globally minded, culturally curious students who thrive with purpose and will contribute to building a better future. The curriculum for preschool and primary school programs ensures that children become biliterate in English and Spanish and proficient in Mandarin. Magellan prepares children to become forward-thinking global citizens, grounded in the attributes of the International Baccalaureate learner profile.

New campus offers a world-class International Baccalaureate education through grade 12
Following the relocation of the campus, Magellan students will continue in a Spanish immersion program from preschool through grade 8 within the International Baccalaureate (IB) framework. Starting in grade 6, Magellan will add a new entry point for non-Spanish speaking students. Spanish will be offered at an introductory level allowing students to benefit from the IB Middle Years Program and language acquisition.

In 2022, Magellan went through a rigorous IB Multi-Program Evaluation visit as part of the five-year re-authorization process for its Primary Years Program and Middle Years Program. Magellan will open its high school in fall 2024, starting with grade 9, and will pursue accreditation for the Diploma Program.

“Magellan was started in the middle of the 2008 financial crisis. I wanted my children to have an education that wasn’t currently available in Austin - multilingual, multicultural, focus on design thinking, secular - like the one I attended as a kid in Mexico City. 2008 was a crazy time to start a school, and we had very little funding available to us. I socialized the idea of bilingual education with parents in our community and found other parents that also wanted a different type of education for their children. There was significant interest, so we ended up bootstrapping the startup process together. It began with one family taking a leap of faith and writing a check for the full year’s tuition for their daughter, even before we had the location identified. It was very hard work and I can’t tell you how incredible it is to see this vision coming to fruition exactly how I had imagined it many years ago. Today Magellan has more than 530 students who are learning Spanish, Mandarin, doing hands-on design work in our innovation lab, and learning to be global citizens. It's rewarding to see our startup school succeed and positively impact so many children. Today, Magellan is 1 of 4 schools of its kind in the US, and the only one in Texas. This further establishes Austin as a top educational hub globally.” - Erin Defosse, Magellan’s Founder.

About Magellan International School
Magellan is an education startup success story and was founded by aerospace engineer, tech executive, entrepreneur, and ultimate risk-taker, Erin Defossé. Magellan opened in 2009 and has grown faster than any school in Austin’s history while achieving accreditation by Cognia and authorization from the International Baccalaureate (IB) to teach the Primary Years Program and Middle Years Program. The IB is a world-renowned international program of education that develops inquiring and knowledgeable students. Magellan prepares children to become forward-thinking, global citizens who are prepared to live and work in a globally competitive world.

Magellan’s student body is 57% diverse, and the faculty is 70% international, representing 15 countries. Magellan’s mission is to prepare the next generation of innovative, globally minded, culturally curious students who thrive with purpose and will contribute to building a better future for us all. Magellan’s vision is to become the preeminent multilingual International School in the U.S.

Magellan is grateful for strong partnerships with LPA Architects, Linbeck Construction, Piper Sandler, Spire Consulting Group, and Stream Realty Partners. This team is collaborating closely with Magellan to build a world-class campus for its students and faculty.

Magellan is accredited by Cognia and the International Baccalaureate (IB) and is a member of the National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS), Texas International Baccalaureate Schools, Texas Private Schools Association, and The International Spanish Academy. Learn more at www.magellanschool.org

PRESS CONTACT
Jenny Jackson
jenny.jackson@magellanschool.org

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