School in spain

[wiggers12]

hi,

i am looking for some general information/experiences/advice on the spanish education system and wondered if anyone could help.

thinkin of moving to spain with family, have 2 kids 9 and 6, is it better to go full on and enrol them in a spanish state school or an international school, what are the pros and cons? and what is the application process like?

[jojo]

It depends if you're planning to stay in spain or return to the UK - if you're planning to return then an International school. State schools in Spain have a totally different curriculum and teaching style to that in the UK and the two dont compliment each other. Also your 9yo may just about be ok in a spanish school, but as children get older its harder for them to integrate, speak the language and learn in a foreign language. Another thing to take into account is Spanish schools have a lot of homework - can you help them with that? Can you converse with the school should there be problems???

International schools on the other hand generally teach the English curriculum and lessons are in english. they do alot of Spanish and spanish history as well. But international schools cost money and altho there will be Spanish children there, yours may not integrate as easily with spanish children locally???????

Jo xxx

[xabiachica]

Originally Posted by wiggers12

hi,

i am looking for some general information/experiences/advice on the spanish education system and wondered if anyone could help.

thinkin of moving to spain with family, have 2 kids 9 and 6, is it better to go full on and enrol them in a spanish state school or an international school, what are the pros and cons? and what is the application process like?

yes, what jojo said - except IMO the curriculum isn't that different at that age - although it's obviously all in Spanish!!! Problems would arise though if you wanted to return to the UK when a child was say, 15 - in the UK they'd be half way through GCSEs so would have missed a year of marked coursework - or after graduado at 16 to do A levels - the Spanish system doesn't lend itself easily to that transition


have a look at the 'forms, education, tax ......... etc etc.' thread above - one of the posts has tons of info & links about education & school in Spain


then by all means come back to ask as many questions as you like

[anderso]

Our 3-year old recently started in a "British College" here in Valencia. Although the teachers are English and the curriculum is British, about 95% of the children are Spanish. Seems to be the thing here for "nice middle class families". Send your kids to a private British school. There are 5 or 6 in the area and all seem to have waiting lists.

For us it's the perfect combination. We want to integrate and our little girl to mix with Spanish children, but it makes life a lot easier for all of us that the school's working language is English. Our daughter gets a "soft landing" with a familiar language spoken around her, yet will have plenty of Spanish lessons.

[JJnilla]

You've gotten some great advice in this thread already.

I moved out with two children then 8 and 5 years old. They went straight into the local Spanish school in our town. There was an English teacher at the school which was a big help as none of us spoke Spanish when we arrived. I translated homework and forms from day one using my trusty dictionary.

Pros:
They were both getting by in Spanish within 2 months and fully fluent before the year was out.
They both have truly authentic Spanish accents and just "get" the culture.
It really improved my Spanish although I'm still a long way behind the children.
They made a lot of friends fast with people who live close to us - very important for the children.
It's free.

Cons:
It is a steep learning curve for the children and they were very tired for the first couple of months. That said they were still happy generally.
It was really hard going translating for the first year.
I didn't understand things like the Spanish "queue-ing" system and waited a very long time for parent teacher meetings etc. until I realised what was going on.

After 7 years I think we made the right descision. We always planned to stay and my children are holding their own in their classes. We have always had to supply extra tuition, but I think a lot of parents do that even when they haven't left their native country.

I think it comes down to whether you plan to stay long term, and how flush you're feeling.

[baldilocks]

Slightly aside, one thing you are also likely to find is that, out of school, the local children will be likely to be involved in lots of activities and in addition to the usual sports things (judo, karate, football, tennis, swimming, etc.) there is likely to be a local band, music lessons, private lessons in all subjects including English either in an Academia or on a one-to-one basis is somebody's (often retired teacher or one who didn't make the cut on that year's allocation of posts) home. You will probably find, also, somebody who will give them additional Spanish lessons (make sure that it is a native Spanish speaker from Spain, otherwise your child may start learning with an impossible accent that nobody else understands)

What I am saying is that kids here don't just 'hang-out' they get involved. They are also taught to be responsible from an early age. It is not unusual in the summer holidays to see a group of about a dozen children ranging in age from 5/6 upwards in the charge of a 12/13 year old marching along the street to and from the swimming pool, all extremely well behaved.

This is what happens in our village, but it may be different elsewhere.