Hi all, wonder if I could have some advice - help - opinions etc etc…
For many years my husband has wanted to move to Spain but I am too comfortable here in the UK - and have found many excuses not to move! recently my mother has died and part of me is thinking that a new life would be nice (we have friends who moved a couple of years ago, now live near Murcia) and we would move near them.
My thing is what is is like for English families with school children moving to Spain - I hear all the romantic ideas from husband and friends (but they are retired!). I need to hear real stories of what the education is like, how easy is it for kids to settle etc etc - as yet they speak no Spanish and nor do I although would make sure I learnt at least basics before moving! My daughter is 9 and son is due to start school here next year as he is 3. Daughter is very bright and destined for Grammer school here so woulnd’t want to hold her back etc.
Are you looking for the “real stories” or just some negative stories? We have both here on the forum. Most of the negatives will be related to crimes or Telefonica, most of the positives will be about kids and schools. Stick around and read a few stories on here, there are plenty.
Hi - I am seriously looking for Real Stories - think this is something which will happen for us in the near future and more than anything I need to be sure it is the right thing. I just want the truth about life for expats in Spain. Thanks for the reply. x
Myself, my husband and two children moved to the Alicante region 6 mths ago from the UK. We have purchased a house in an off plan development and are currently renting until ours is built. We have been really lucky as the house we rent is in a village in the campo (countryside) and our neighbours who are a mix of Spanish, English and Norwegian have been really helpful. My kids who are aged 9 and 2 have settled in surprisingly well. We came when the kids where off on their school hols so my eldest had time to get used to living in spain before she had to start school. In the last six months we have got our NIE numbers, bought a car, got on the padron, enrolled my eldest in school, enrolled my youngest in the nursery started doing some work and made quite a lot of new friends. We did it all on our own with no interpreters even though our Spanish is not great we managed to get what we wanted. Our main concern was for my eldest, getting her settled into school here was easier then we thought. We talked to our neighbours who advised us on the schools and as they had children at the school they could give us lots of advice and helped us with a few school letters etc. My daughter has made real good progress and uses her Spanish a lot especially out of school in the shops or when she plays with her friends. She does miss her friends in the UK but she e-mails and writes them letters and has talked to them a few times on the phone. Before moving here we did a lot of research on the areas and came to Spain a few times before deciding to buy in the Murcia region. Even though we thought we were really prepared there are some things you only find out when you get here. If anyone is thinking of moving to Spain the best thing I can say is come here and look around the areas, speak to the locals, estate agents, restaurant owners, anyone who might be able to help you in your decision. We love it here but wished we had done a few things a bit differently. Knowledge is the key to moving to Spain. Hasta Luego x
Me and my family are movin to Spain early 08 and I am very interested to find out peoples opions where schooling is concerned, I have two children a son who will be 3 feb and a daugther whi is 2 April, currently in England they both go to pre school twice a week for 2.5 hours a day however my son is due to start Nursery March. How does the education system work in Spain and is it a good idea to put mine both straight into spainsh schools or not? What age do the schools take them from? Is there anything set up like playgroups (english mothers pref as speak little spanish) or pre schools which my daugther could go to?
All your help and advise would be gratefully appreciated.
im currently looking into this myself and from what i find out is they can go to nursery about age 3-4 and school is cumpulsary from aged 6, although it may slightly vary in diffetent regions.
The school hours vary as well , as ome of them have a 2 hour lunch break then back to around 5, others go straight through to 2-3pm.
Good luck
Hi, although I don’t actually live in Spain at the moment i’m currently planning on making the move with my own child. I just thought I’d post a quick reply as I have first hand experience in this situation. I moved to Spain just before my ninth birthday and went straight into a Spanish school and really loved it. At the time I couldn’t speak a word of Spanish and 90% of my teachers couldn’t speak a word of English but within a year I was completely fluent and doing really well. Unfortunately we returned to the UK when I was 11, just in time for senior school, but I didn’t have any problems with schooling and went into the top sets for science/english/maths etc.
Having experienced both teaching systems I would say that my preference definately lies with the Spanish and I won’t hesitate in putting my own child into a completely Spanish school when the time comes. Hope this helps!
Hi SpainPlease - thank you for your reply, have to say your experiences sound good - I was contemplating an International School when we go for the kids but have to admit we would be seriously stretched financially if we did that. I would like them to go to the most local school if possible. I have always had a thing in this country that they should only go to schools that we can walk to! Guess it is different there as the residential areas are often out of town…
Anyway I am grateful for all the answers I have received so far and am glad I am not the only one who worries about this side of things! I am currently trying to get both children to learn Spanish through the BBC’s Muzzy system in the hope that they will not be totally at a loss when we do make the move! (also hoping it will help me a bit!)
Myself my husband and our boys jack 9 and George 6 are hoping to move to a little town called Velez Rubio in the next few months as soon as our house has sold. I had real worries regarding schools and if the boys would settle especially Jack. But reading all these posts i feel so much better and can’t wait to move. Good luck to everyone
In terms of kids’ education, this is my experience. We live in a completely Spanish area (very few expats apart from us!). My daughter was born here and is 3 in Feb. She currently goes to a nursery school and has been going since Sept 2006. We only speak English at home so her English is much better than her Spanish and we felt she should start going to school quite early to help with Spanish. This is a private nursery school and we pay 185 euro a month. It’s from 9am-2pm (apart from June & Sept when it’s 9am-1pm due to the heat). Next September, as she was born in 2005 she is able to enter pre-school. This is from three years old to six years old and isn’t compulsory, but basically everyone sends their kids. As far as I understand it when they enter primary school at six years old (which is compulsory) they should already be able to read and write so that is what they do at pre-school. The timetable here is exactly the same as for the nursery, which is the same for primary school - 9-2 and no school in the afternoon. Many schools do extra-curricula activities in the afternoon.
One thing you might want to think about is the Ministry of Education and the British Council have a bilingual Spanish / English project in quite a few primary and secondary schools. This is state-run and the children have lessons in Science, History, etc. in English as well as in Spanish. It might be an alternative to people looking for international schools but finding them too expensive. We’re going to try and get our daughter in the one in our town but unfortunately admission is done on catchment areas and I’m not sure we’ll be able to. More information is here:
Hi there, have just joined the forum and am looking at the same with regard to schools, what a minefield and knowing what to do for the best. We have decided to live in Mallorca really excited but scared aswell. Really don’t want to make a mistake with the school, but all the feedback is really positive. Do you have to be living in spain before you can apply to the state schools? We are going to be renting to start with and trying to co-ordinate it all is making my head spin. Glad to know there are other mums having the same worries, any info would be appreciated.
As I have posted before…..........we have many clients who have relocated and their children have settled in without problems, now speak Spanish and are not interested in returning to the UK.
I have just returned from a visit to Benalmadena in Spain after visiting friends who live there and have decided to relocate there with my 11yr old daughterr (will be 12 in September) in July/Aug 2008. I have wanted to move abroad for quite sometime and myself and my friend have decided to sell up and take the plunge and start our own business in Benalmadena. I spoke to a few Real estate people and most of them gave me positive advice on schools for my daughter but one told me that i should expexct my daughter to be bullied at school for the first six months, as you can imagine i was horrified!!! She is very excited about the move. We have now decided that we are going to put buying the business on hold for 6-12months and just wortk out there too make sure that she settles. I am taking her over for a visit in March, hopefully to meet other English children who have experienced the move and how they have adjusted. Once we return from this trip we will both be having Spanish lessons until we move and then continue them once we arrive in Spain. I would be very grateful for any advice and if anyone has any experience of Benalmadena schools i would love to hear about this, but any advice on any schools in Spain would be appreciated.
Just thought I would share our experience of schools with you all.
We moved in May 07 to a small village Cuevas de San Marcos, which gave our four daughters time to settle in. They are aged 15, 13, 11 and 10. The eldest had asked to go to an International school which because of her age we thought it would be best, however she only ended up attending for 6 weeks. The reason was a mixture really down to the travelling (2 1/2 round trip twice a day) . The main reason was that she felt she wasn’t able to mix with all the spanish children like her other sisters were as their spanish was far more advanced than hers… I was surprised when she asked us if she could attend the local spanish school… My other three had all started and despite a few teething problems they were settling in well. Obviously my main concern with our eldest was that we had messed with her education as back in Uk she would be getting ready to take her GCSE’s. After much discussions we agreed that she could attend the local school and I must say it’s the best move we have ever made.
All four of them are getting extra help with their spanish and the two younger ones get extra lessons after school which are free. Our eldest decided it would be best if she started back a year. There exam results in December were very promising and we are really proud of them for how they have coped. They do get a lot of homework but all the studying is def paying off.
They all still miss their friends back in the UK as they had some amazing friends but likewise they have made some lovely friends here.
My advice is to look at all types of schools. What is right for one child isn’t always right for anothe. Go with your own instincts and listen to your children once they have started school. If they are having problems help them immediately. Re the bullying my girls have not experienced any sort of bullying… It has been a positve experience for us re the local schools and the bonus is now that we have no school fees and travelling expenses…. My girls said it was rather scary at first sitting in a class not really understanding the language but now they are well on the way to being fluent….
Good luck to you all and if I can be of any help to any of you just e-mail my anytime… Just going off to sunbathe now, soz
