Hello

I think I am starting to understand the spanish school system (kids are 3, 8 & 11) but could I just clarify a few things:

Registration takes place in Mar/April for the following September.

Would it be normal for the children to stay back a year to concentrate on their Spanish?

If we don’t decide on an area before registration will I have problems enrolling them in the local school at a later date?

Is religious instruction part of spanish schooling (not wanting to get into the wrongs/rights of this)?

Many thanks for any info/help tips etc - only starting to get to grips with this at the moment!!

Fi

If any one could help with these I would also be interested.

As far as religion class is concerned, I had brought this up some months ago and yes it is something tought in the school system but one has the right to be excempted from class and by law they will be given alternative lessons.  However I have recieved various interpretations to what is taught during this class and I have been told a - general religion/spirituality etc b - roman catholic religion and upon request islam   .... don’t know which if any are the case

Hi Claudio

From further reading, that does seem to be the case.  I would imagine that the options if you opt not to go with the Roman Catholic religion would be limited depending on each schools resources.  More likely to have more options available in the bigger towns.

Thanks for you reply.

If anyone has any other tips on schooling I would really appreciate them - we are pretty definate about sending them to the local schools to immerse them in the language.  It shouldn’t be a problem as they are both above average students.

The little one (3) is another matter - has anyone hired a spanish au pair for their toddlers, I am considering this for the summer months to help with her Spanish before enrolling her.  She’s a bit timid to start with and I think it would give her the extra confidence.

Hi there

We moved to a small village in may 2007 with our four daughters, 15,13,11 and 10.  We had looked at sending them all to international schools but our finances wouldn’t stretch for them all.  Our eldest would be sitting her GCSE’s in Uk this year so we felt she should attend the international school.  She did but only for 6 weeks (a costly 6 weeks, we had to pay a one off registration fee - a yearly fee plus the 6 weeks fees which in all cost us 2,000 euros which they wouldn’t refund).  We had a 2 1/2 hour round trip in the morning and then again to collect her.  In the end she asked us if she could attend the local school as she was struggling with the long days and felt that she wasn’t able to mix with the local children.

She has started in the year below to enable her to gain more spanish but to be honest all four are doing extremely well.  The two eldest had exams before christmas.  Their system works in that they take 11 subjects and at the end of the year they have to pass 9 out of the 11 to move up to the next year.  They keep them down until they pass but they can leave school at 16.  So you can have quite a varied age range in some of the classes.  My two eldest did really well.  Brooklyn (who had been at the school 3 months when taking the exams) passed 7 out of 11 and of those she didn’t pass two were level 4’s (they are graded from 1 to 10 with 5 and over being a pass.  Jodie passed 4 but she had only been in school for 2 months and like I said to them both they have passed exams done totally in spanish…...

The two younger ones have really settled and to be honest they are loving it.  Madison would have started senior school in the UK last year but here they don’t move to senior school until they are 12.  She has took to the language like a duck to water.  Both her and Atlanta have been given different work from the classes but they are slowly catching their classmates up.  Atlanta took an exam in Religious studies (we opted out of Roman Catholic as we are Cof E) but to be honest she really enjoys this class.  She passed with 6 out of 10, 8 was the highest mark in the class….... 

They all do get a fair amount of homework.  Our eldest does at least 3/4 hours everynight whilst back in UK if she got 1/2 she would be lucky.  SHe comes straight home, gets on with her work and then sees her friends.  All the kids here tend to go straight home and study and they come out after they have completed their work….

My gilrs are in bed now but I will ask them what they do in the alternative class to Re as I am not sure….

If you want anymore info let me know and if I don’t know I will try and find out for you.  But all in all our experiences of the local schools have been good.  THe one thing I would say is not to be afraid to go in and ask for extra help for them.  The junior school did give extra help straight away and also provided 4 hours extra tuition free after school.  We have had to go into the seniors to ask for help for Jodie and Brooklyn (they are taken out of 4 of their english classes for spanish) but once asked they have been very helpful.  Another point is that Maths is taught very different and it has taken all min a while to adjust.  Divisions are done back to front and the symbols are different.  Little things but if you don’t know that a dot is a x sign then it does get confusing…

Again let me know if anymore info is needed and good luck with yuor searches

Regards
Sherryl

Thanks again Sherryl. Would appreciate to know what they do get taught in Religion class to see if its a general brush up of most/all religions and an overall insight on the meaning and message of religion or are they only taught the Roman Catholic Church teachings.
Thanks
Claudio

Hi Claudio

I have asked a few more people with regard to religion in school - the classes are predominantly Roman Catholic, but apparantly in some schools if you opt out of this they use the time to give extra spanish lessons.  So it really depends on whether or not RC classes are important to you (and particular with regard to communion/confirmation ages) or if you would prefer extra language classes.

Again I think that all this can depend on the individual school and its resources.

Good luck!
Fi

Thanks Fi - that all makes sense and would be great if they can give extra spanish (or catalan in my case) classes instead.

Fingers crossed

Claudio