Hi. any advice greatly appreciated ....am considering taking a year out to Spain (pref southern Spain) with my two non-Spanish speaking kids (aged 12 and 7). International schools are out of our price range (which would be ?2500 per child per year).
Just wondered if any one has found concertada schools that teach enough English, especially in the secondary school.
Thanks!

Hi there,

Sorry, I can’t answer your query but I am also interested in finding out more about Concertadas as we are also planning a move to the Costa del Sol next summer with our three children who will be 16, 12 and 10.

I have visited all the International schools along the coast between Marbella and Malaga and agree that they can be very expensive.  Furthermore, the price goes up with age!  I have the say, the quality of the schools differs widely, and not necessarily dependent on price and I have found one school which is less expensive and offers a really good educational provision which at the moment will be the school we will send our children.  However, should anyone have any further information on Concertadas I would also be very interested.

Good luck with your plans 😊

Hi Lynn

Which school were you thinking of? Also I’ve since spoken to the Spanish Embassy who tell me concertadas do not do dual education but would only teach English as a subject.
A relatively new development in Spain are bilingual schools - these, as far as I understand, may only be really bilingual in name however and are part of a drive to increase English teaching in the country.

I am favouring Sunnyview school in Torremolinos http://www.sunnyviewschool.com .  I have visited Swans, Aloha, St Anthony’s, Calahonda College, Benalmadena International College and British School of Benalmadena.  Fees are significantly cheaper the further away from Marbella (as is the cost of most things!)  The school is attractive and seems to have invested in its infrastructure well.  Obviously, your needs are different if you are only going to be in Spain for a year.  The other school I quite rated was the British School of Benalmadena, again its fees are less than the Marbella schools.  Its a tough one as the fees for three children are still going to be a massive outlay for us, but I can’t see them being able to cope with Spanish schools at their age.

Stay away from the British school benalmadena,
i have just removed my child from there as they are a rubbish school.
If you want more reason for this i will let you have them.
Be very careful of international schools here as most of them are privatly owned and only in it for the money and not education hence my removal.
Most state schools in these areas are very good look into them first.

I have my son in private school at the moment. My daughter who was at a state school in Fuengirola is now 18. I have to say it was the worst 3 years of my life when she was 13 to 16 “Institute Age” The discipline was non existent, half the staff were on sick leave due to depression or stress. Smoking was a regular occurance.
I suppose that probably the worst thing was when a friend of mine showed me her daughters mobile, she had taped a class where the teacher was cowering in the corner whilst the 15 year olds happily threw things and insulted him. The girl in question was horrified as had not been there long and taped the incident to show her parents.
Nothing was done when reported. It is common knowledge that the teachers in secondry school suffer abuse on a regular basis.
I am not saying that my son’s school is the best, in fact I do have a few doubts academically but one thing is for sure, he is disciplined and there are no problems of any other kind, in fact he loves his school which to me is number 1 priority, if a child is happy he will work.
Please take into account that the max allowed in a class by law is 28, there are 33 children in my friends public school, there are 20 in my son’s class. Big difference. I struggle to pay the fees, but past experience makes me do this.