We are moving to the orihuela costa at the end of october due to my husbands relocation with work. We have a property secured but we are extremely worried about school for my 7 year old son. The information i am receiving through the internet is that it is impossible to get children into school mid term, we don’t want to consider international school at the moment as i am losing my considerable income and want ensure our living before committing to fees. We would consider schools around the area, we are actually moving to los altos on the orihuela costa and are desperate for some help and suggestions time is very tight and obviously would not consider leaving my son out of school until the next intake in may. We also have an 18m old daughter who we want to go to nursery but our sons schooling is priority at the moment. If anyone has any info that might help we would be very grateful including any general info and opinions on local schools.
many thanks amanda

Thanks for that, yes it has lots of info but i still don’t know if i’m going to beable to get my son in school mid term and would really like some info on the schools in orihuela.
Many thanks
amanda

Hi there, I have two boys aged 11 and 9 yrs and have lived here for five years, they are in San Miguel School and are very happy and doing well, there is a school in Los Altos which would be the most practical for you. As in England where you live dictates where your child goes to school, there is a 2 hour lunch break and if your child is out of the catchment area he will not be allowed a place on the school bus and so you would have to make four trips a day to any other school. If places are available he will be permitted a mid term entry but will probably not get a place on the bus for the first academic year. >My eldest was 6 when we moved here it was the perfect age as he could already read and write in English so he is completely bilingual where as the younger has Spanish now as his first language. Hope this helps.

Hi there,

Thankyou very much that info really helps, do you know much about the school in Los Altos? Can you give me any information about the area i.e amenities, proximity to the nearest beach etc. We are moving to no. 17 las palmeras ( if that means anything to you).
Thanks once again
Amanda

Hello again, all of the schools now are at least 50% english, I have met people whose children went to the school and they seemed very happy but I dont have any personal experience, it is quite big and they have allowed the kids to graffiti the name of the school on the walls so they must be quite progressive, as a whole the level of education is on a par with the British curriculum, the first six months are very hard as the children are only spoken to in Spanish so I strongly recommend spanish lessons. Do not worry so much about verbs as they pick them up as they go along get one to one conversational spanish. There is no uniform here and we have to provide everything, books, pencils about 200 euro a year. There are no packed lunch and the menus are improving (there is no longer fish head soup as a starter) the school dinners are 3.25 a day but from next September (well you get a letter in May) offering Becador (every child over the age of 6 is entitled to a grant) the bus and school dinner is only 25 cents a day.

Los Altos is situated between Torrevieja and Punta Prima, new roads have and are still been made so communications are very good. It is less than 5 minutes by car to the beach, you are one of the lucky ones that you have a bus service close by but you really do need a car out here. There are shops, bars and restaurants everywhere and lots of banks, I dont know the actual urbanisation. There are street markets in different towns around the area everyday of the week.