Hi There?
I am also in the middle of a huge dilema also. My husband has been asked to go for an interview in northern spain - Burgos. We had set our minds on sending our 11 year old daughter to an international school , thinking he would get a job in Madrid or Valencia or other main cities. I have looked on internet and I can?t see any foriegn or international schools any where in the district. Do we risk it and send her to a spanish school???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? Has anyone placed a child of this age in a spanish school and if so how did it work out. Any info or advice would be extremely welcome - my head is spinning with it all!!!!
Thanks
Defenitly spanish school. Not becse I have had any direct experience with them (allthough I have read they are ok) but surely just for the fact that your child would learn frequent spanish (or catalan) and that is a major thing in todays world (being bilingual opens up so many opportunities).
We will be opting for spanish schools over private. I read on a forum (could even have been this one?) about a young lad whose family lived in Spain being left with no other option but to go to England for uni because his Spanish was not good enough for a Spanish Uni. This was after 6/7 years of private schooling in Spain. (Sorry this is just anecdotal as I can’t remember where I read it). But a very valid point if you plan on living in Spain long term and if you want your children to have the opportunity to be bi-lingual. My eldest is also 11 but I think that after the initial settling in period he should be fine.
I do understand your concerns though. Is your DD the outgoing type, do you think she will make friends easily? We are considering hiring a Spanish Au Pair for the summer to help with the language. It could work well if we find one who would like to improve her English at the same time.
Thanks so much for your replies - it helps when you know that their are other people out there that have gone through this too and came to the same conclusion! Thanks again. I would still love to hear of anyone elses experiences.
Hello, this is the first time we have posted on this forum. We are planning on moving to the costa blanca area, hopefully in summer this year. We will be moving with our four children, aged 13 ,11 and twins aged 6. We would appreciate any information regarding schools . The two older boys may have to attend a british school, we are in two minds as where to send the youngest,STATE SCHOOL or a BRITISH SCHOOL. British schools in Torrevieja seem to be the cheapest .Has anyone got a child in a british school in this area ,or on the Costa Blanca. Also any information on a good state school and the surrounding towns and villages would be greatly appreciated. I believe that crime is high in the Torrevieja area, can anybody confirm this. If so can anybody recommend a good area to live, where it is possible to travel in to those schools.
We moved out to a small village Cuevas de San Marcos in May 2007 (an hour inland from Malaga). We have four daughters 15, 13, 11 and 10. We made a decision to send our eldest to an international school in Malaga as she was going into her last year and would be taking her GCSE’s in UK. However they put her back a year to enable her to learn more Spanish. ( I think to get more school fees personally) We had to pay a one off registration fee and an annual fee plus the fees. However after attending the school for only 6 weeks our daughter asked if she could go to the local Spanish school (costly 6 weeks - 2,000 euros and the school wouldn’t refund anything). It was a long day as it took 1 hour 15 mins to get her to school then we would travel back to the village and make the round trip again. It meant that she had a 10 hour day then had homework to do. She also felt isolated from the others kids in the village.
Our other three daughters started the local Spanish school at the end of Sept and they haven’t looked back. The two younger ones have been getting help with their Spanish from day 1. They also get 2 hours of extra tuition on both a Tues and Wed. Madison is 11 and would have started senior school back in the Uk but here they don’t attend seniors until they are12. Both her and our youngest are almost fluent and have really put us to shame. They have been doing seperate work from the spanish kids but are now starting to do some subjects along with their class. Brooklyn is 13 and has struggled somedays. You can imagine doing French in Spanish when Spanish is a new language!!!!!!!!! We went into to see the headmaster and asked for extra help (which isn’t always forthcoming in the senior schools). She now has extra Spanish lessons and is doing really well. We are led to believe that the children take 11 subjects and at the end of each term they sit exams, their main one being end of May/June. They have to pass 9 out of the 11 or they will be held back a year. The grades are 1-10, a 5 and over being a pass. Brooklyn passed 7 out of 11 and of those she didn’t pass two were level 4’s…....... Not bad going really for 3 months worth of schooling.. Our eldest started in the middle of Oct and passed 4 but two she didn’ sit and those she didn’t pass again they were lelel 4’s… She started in the year below to enable her to get the Spanish language. She has struggled more than the others as she is in constant contact via msn with her friends who will be sitting their exams this year and leaving school, however she is now finding that she is understanding more and more and is so pleased she decided to go to the local school. I am very proud of them all as I am struggling with the langauge. They have made so many friends and to be honest my eldest said the you do feel isolated when you are not attending the same school as all the local kids. Both her and Brooklyn both know that they have to work extra hard and know that the hard work now will pay off in the future. They do get a lot of homework here. The two in senior get around 3/4 hours a night !!!!! The two younger ones probably 1/2 hours per night…..
If you need any more info I will be glad to help in any way…
Kind regards
Sherryl
my mate thinks spanish school is better , now there kids is 11 going on 12 and no problem with this has spanish freinds and he the one that helps them out
I have to agree, it really brings on their spanish and my girls have now got a great circle of friends who all help with the langauge. My daughters don’t speak any english when they have friends round…....
Thansk Sherryl that was helpful. And hats off to your daughters and to their parents that took such a brave decision to move country with 4 grown daughters!
With regards the homework it was a bit of a culture shock but to be honest all the kids go straight home, do their homework then they have their spare time. My girls have got used to it now and it’s become part of their daily routine.
I have done all my schooling in International Schools as I was moving most of my life from country to country (usually far east or south america) so for me it was almost a necessity to keep a steady language throught out my childhood, and one that would be extremly useful all my life (I am italian BTW) so I grew up bilingual. Most of you are English speaking so I would defenitly suggest spanish schools mainly for the language, cultural reasons and thus your kids would grow up bilingual english - spanish/catalan.
However the IS schools I went to were fantastic (the better be with all the cash one spends on them) in that they offered so many opportunities to meet people from all over the globe, experience new cultures and make international frineds which I still regularly contact and see. Also, extra curricular activities were always much better than what local schools would offer; this is also seems like the case in spain (I doubt state run schools have on campus swimming pools, high grade gyms, sports facilities, theatre with drama classes, libraries, etc ) - maybe wrong mind you.
