After much thought and late night chats we have decided to take the plunge and move to sunnier clime’s.
We are in need of advice. i have just left the royal navy after 22 years, and after a career of travelling, we need to move (my wife was also in the navy)
We seem drawn towards the Costa Blanca, around the Alicante area, our main concern is Schooling, we have 1 son who is 8 this year. So any info, tips and pitfalls to avoid would be great.
After spending what seems like months trawling thro message boards and blogs, ‘SpainExpat’ is by far the most informative and written in good old fashioned ‘lay mans’ terms. Keep up the good work.
After spending what seems like months trawling thro message boards and blogs, ‘SpainExpat’ is by far the most informative and written in good old fashioned ‘lay mans’ terms. Keep up the good work.
Great, very happy to hear it. 😉
The school question remains one of the most important and most asked questions on the board here. Try the Living in Spain section of the forum though, as there have been a lot of informative and reassuring responses to that question.
We seem drawn towards the Costa Blanca, around the Alicante area, our main concern is Schooling, we have 1 son who is 8 this year. So any info, tips and pitfalls to avoid would be great.
After spending what seems like months trawling thro message boards and blogs, ‘SpainExpat’ is by far the most informative and written in good old fashioned ‘lay mans’ terms. Keep up the good work.
Hope to hear from someone soon.
Cheers Simon
Simon we the real forum here and thanks for that Message about the forum , we here to help like rob and my self we do are best to help out
Alicante is not bad spot , you like , so why not book a holiday down here and meet up with me and i show you around , i am in Elche 99.9998 % spanish i am the Irish guy here think the olny one ( ya where you brick , only guy that get troun out pub just see if the irish guy spiles his drink , and riverdance dont get me going , i love it and hate going back to the uk Ireland working
only problem was the spanish but get around it
ya to morr that what i say now
jurdy
I think you have made a good decision. We moved to Costa Blanca 2 years ago when my daughter was 6. We are so happy here, we would never move back to England.
This is my experiance with schooling in Spain…....... Spanish state system; I was unable to get my daughter into a local spanish school because I needed consent from her father. (Even though I was never married to her dad but the biggest problem was I don’t know where he is, I haven’t seem him for 3 years!) So thinking the only other alternative being an international school , I sent my daughter there. However, I have found the standard of work (English and Maths) to be quite a bit lower than the ones in the UK. With the standard in english, I think it’s because of all the other nationalities in the class so the staff had to teach accordingly. But more importantly… she was not learning alot of Spanish!!! (I’ve learnt more Spanish than her just from watching TV!!!) So I started exploring my options again. Finally, after a year and a half being at an international school, we moved my daughter to a little private Spanish school where she is very happy and doing very well. She learnt more spanish in a week of being at the Spanish school than she did in a 1 1/2 yaer .
No one child is the same so the most important thing when choosing a school is WHAT SUITS YOUR CHILD’S NEEDS! And you know your child best!
Hi Ex Matlot, In our experience many of our clients have settled their children into local schools and have been delighted with their progress and their general good progress along with rapid learning especially Spanish (I am surprised by the last posters comments regarding her childs slow learning of Spanish, I would suggest this is not typical)
The Costa Blanca does have a lot to offer despite its bad press, usually the inaccurate UK press and TV. You are coming at a good time - prices have slowed and you will have a good choice of ready now new property. Good luck.
Hi there, can’t help on the schooling front, but I can highly recommend the Costa Blanca (the further north the better to be honest as further south is where the bad press is generated!).
My brother came out the Navy after a hugely long service, and is very tempted to come out with his wife, but at the moment family health issues in the UK are posing a problem. So well done for deciding, its a decision I’m sure you won’t regret!
my son is 8 and has attended 2 different schools in costa blanca, the first one was in oriheula costa and he seemed to like it but didnt learn anything, he had no extra spanish lessons at school and didnt take part in any lessons because his spanish was very limited at the time (our fault i know!!), at christmas though we moved and he changed to a school in guardamar and this is completely different he has 1 hour of Castellano lessons every morning and has come on so much in just a matter of weeks, he is more than capable of holding a conversation and when I went into school for a meeting with his teacher this week he was very impressed with his progress in such a short time (thank goodness what a relief!). The only areas which are not brilliant are his handwriting as he was taught to print in the uk but now he has to write joined up which is hard for an 8 year old boy ha, also mathematics problems are worked out differently here to in the uk, his answers are correct but his workings out are different for multiplcation and division. Be careful where you move to because if you register in a state school your children will go to the school that is in your catchment area so you cant choose your school. Also it seems to me that the larger percentage of spanish children in the school the better the school, this is in my experience definately anyway. Terri
Hi tezza. I understand you have to take the school that you are offered in the catchment area and are unable to choose. Are you able to make appointments to visit the schools you like and have a look round and meet the staff.
Hi tezza. I understand you have to take the school that you are offered in the catchment area and are unable to choose. Are you able to make appointments to visit the schools you like and have a look round and meet the staff.
Thanks
GINA G
Hi Gina, I did visit 2 schools at first, it is hard though unless you speak spanish, I took a translater along with me which is a great help
I have a quick question for Tezza which is why did you have to get permission from your child’s father before getting into a state school in Spain. Was this because or Spanish laws or UK?
We plan to move to the Murcia area (or just North) this summer but have to go through the UK courts to get permission for my husbands children to come as their mother has, at the very last minute, despite knowing about our plans for the last 8 months, to refuse to allow it. We think as the children are now 12 and 16 and really want to go that we will be allowed to move but I am worried now about what you say about the school. Do the Spanish schools require this permission to be given from the children’s non-resident parent or would a court order be sufficient?
We are also struggling to get written info on the quality of the local schools as they don’t seem to supply it and the children’s mother is refusing the move on the grounds of poor education standards in Spain. We know this is not true but I am finding it VERY hard to come up with the proof. It’s easy here as you can just go online but I think it is different in Spain or am I missing something?
After much thought and late night chats we have decided to take the plunge and move to sunnier clime’s.
We are in need of advice. i have just left the royal navy after 22 years, and after a career of travelling, we need to move (my wife was also in the navy)
We seem drawn towards the Costa Blanca, around the Alicante area, our main concern is Schooling, we have 1 son who is 8 this year. So any info, tips and pitfalls to avoid would be great.
After spending what seems like months trawling thro message boards and blogs, ‘SpainExpat’ is by far the most informative and written in good old fashioned ‘lay mans’ terms. Keep up the good work.
I got a bit scared there!
I have sole custody of my son, and I am used to making all the decisions regarding everything. I will be applying for state school for my son in the Barcelona area in August 08 and I am definetley not planning on involving my son’s dad in the process.
I can not see how the Spanish school system would have required the dad of your child to give his concent to putting your child in a state school! Do you have joined custody then?
As long as the court has given you sole custody or that you can proved that you are divoced then you have nothing to worry about.
But s for me…...because I was never married to my ex but his name is on my daughter’s birth certifcate, so… as far as the authorities are concern, I am still with him therefore it became a big problem when it came to enrolling my daughter.
Hope this has put your mind at ease.
TaTa
tonia - 01 April 2008 02:28 PM
Hi TaTa
I got a bit scared there!
I have sole custody of my son, and I am used to making all the decisions regarding everything. I will be applying for state school for my son in the Barcelona area in August 08 and I am definetley not planning on involving my son’s dad in the process.
I can not see how the Spanish school system would have required the dad of your child to give his concent to putting your child in a state school! Do you have joined custody then?
