CEIP San Ildefonso is the oldest school in Madrid

Madrid

Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...

, Spain

Spain

Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

. Its origins date from 1543, the year in which Carlos V granted a Royal Certificate to finance the school.
It is dedicated to Saint Ildephonsus.
For years, it catered orphans of public servants but now the pupils are regular Madrid children including many immigrants.

Bilingual program

CEIP San Ildefonso participates in a bilingual program which was started in autumn of 2004 with British teaching assistants in 26 schools throughout Madrid. Children, starting in first grade or primero de primaria, have at least a third of their classes in English

English language

English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

 (or a minimum of nine hours).

Spanish lottery

For two centuries, children from CEIP San Ildefonso have sung the winning numbers of the Spanish National Lottery, including the hugely popular Christmas draw. The first time the children sang was on March 9, 1771.
As orphans, they were expected to be less susceptible to cheats.