How old will he be when you arrive in Spain?

 

You can consult the academic performance of the schools in Madrid here:

Resultados Académicos | Subdirección General de Inspección Educativa | EducaMadrid

My kids go to a state school in Madrid and we are quite happy with it.

 

He will probably be 3-4 years old when he arrives in Spain. I think the public school systems start at 6 years old right?

 

Infantil / infants state school starts at birth (where available).

In most areas it's available from the year in which a child has its third birthday, so children born during 2021 would start this coming September 2024.

Attendance is obligatory from age 6 to 16.

 

State funded places for infant school (non-mandatory from 3 to 6) are extremely rare in Madrid. If this is a criteria for chosing a location chaeck the availability carefully before committing. We had to put our kids into private "playschools" until they reached 6.

 

I understand the “daycare” or “preschool” would be private somehow. That’s before 6 years old. I am okay with that. What I am trying to figure out is the primary school from 6 years old and up. I know it’s still couple years away at least. But I want to be well researched and prepared when we make the move.

 

Well he is obviously okay to start in a Spanish primary. If he is in Valencia community he will get Valenciano and Spanish. English is more a subject than a skill - so the level they achieve as teenagers is not that high , although many kids go to private after school academies to remedy this. Public schools are pretty much similar to public schools any where- they are not as good as the private ones but not as bad as you might think. If however

 

I saw people recommending good public schools over private schools for various reasons. They claimed the teachers or academics are the same if not better. And the kids will be in a better social environment. Only that the private schools have better facilities and more extracurricular activities. Cost is not an issue for us to sign up for private schools.

The Madrid state schools can be bilingual in Castellano and English. I would assume the kids will learn more English in schools in Madrid than in Valencia.

 

First of all it is impossible to assess in a general sense quality in schools. My son wen through Spanish primary and secondary then went to a private bilingual. The state schools were fine until he reached ESO4 ( 15 year/16) when they were ready to start proper academic school study. Here, it was really a case of the majority of students dragging the classes down as they still were in compulsory education and many weren't academically inclined. After that year things get better as they stream off the academic ones but there are large classes and my son always said that people just talked the whole time and the teacher just zoned out. His bilingual school was pretty much the same in terms of academic motivation but because he actually did the " hard" subjects -maths and physics- they were no more than 6 in the class so much easier for the teacher to control and teach. That is my experience but I am an English teacher and I have mix of private and public school kids and they all seem pretty clever and motivated.
The one thing I would also say is that it is not worth worry too much about education when they are really young and definitely not a good idea to impose your values on them as how they develop and what they become is really a mystery and more often than not completely different from how you envision them when they start primary.

 

I agree with you. Sometimes I tend to overthink about giving the child the “best” path as how I envision it. I should just go with the flow and see which city/neighborhood that we like. Then we will go with the public schools that it offers. I always believe it’s easier to switch from public to private if needed in the future, not vice versa.

It’s a permanent move to Spain. Only thing is we haven’t decided between Madrid or Valencia yet. We may live in each city for 6 months in the first year and experience both before deciding on where to buy a flat. Unless we can make a conclusive decision before the move.

 

Hello, there is an school search engine where you can find schools by language.
vamosaestudiar.com
Hope it can help.

 

Children learn as many languages as they are exposed to. At 4, it is a great age, to expose them to more languages. My 10 year old speaks 4 languages. My experience is to let them learn naturally via fun and immersion. Kids want to learn the language other kids speak, during play, in sand pits.
Have you also considered music lessons?