Well, we have just returned from our ‘fact finding’ mission in Torrevieja. We spent four days driving up and down. Stopping off in towns, villages and speaking to just about every English person we met. We met lots of lovely positive people as well as a couple of negative people. We stalked the local schools, spoke to kids, teachers and parents and basically the gist of it all is that you can do bugger all about anything until you actually have either house deeds or a rental agreement in your hands! Basically you cannot get a Padron without either of those and you cannot get in a school without the padron. The system seems to be the same as the UK in the fact that you have to live in the catchment area. However, the school that we saw, loved and had a meeting with the Headteacher at, doesn’t open registration for September until May. So that should give us plenty of time to sort ourselves out, get over there, rent a house in the catchment area, get a padron and enrol! We were told that there wouldn’t be a problem getting the kids in and that the Spanish/English ratio is about 50/50. Average class size at this school, and most schools apparently, is only 15-16. All staff talk Spanish and the English kids all have Spanish lessons whilst the Spanish kids are doing RE. The school day starts at 9am, lunch is 12.30pm-3pm and the kids either return to class from the playground (if the parents want them to stay in school) or from home (if they want them to go home - most of the Spanish kids go home). They finish at 4.30pm. The school year starts, like ours, in September and ends in June. They have Christmas and Easter off and various Saint days throughout the year.
The curriculum is similar to ours and they have lots of after school clubs. As all the teachers talk to them in Spanish it may be a little intimidating at first, however there are PLENTY of Spanish speaking Brits happy to teach you the basics from as little as 5 Euros per hour.
The general consensus that we got from almost EVERYONE that we met is that life in Spain is cheaper, healthier, friendlier and less dangerous. Only two out of the 60 or so people that we met during our FOUR days would go back to the UK. The sun shines a lot and with that comes good feeling from everyone. I can honestly say that last week, we met people that I know will be friends for life. I felt very safe and secure in the area that we went to and although I know there is crime in the area, there wasn’t a single hoodie on the streets and no teenage girl was wearing a life time’s supply of make up on her face or hoops the size of tyres in her ears.
We’re going for it…!!
Viva Espagna!
Good post! Well done you to actually do some sensible research which has paid off because yes you are right you do need to get the accommodation issue sorted out early on and yes most things are much cheaper here and often better quality - especially the food! hope your plans work out and that you are as happy with Spain as I have been. Good luck (ps the kids will be speaking Spanish after a few months)
Thanks for all the information. The one thing that worries me is the children keeping up their English language education too. Does anyone know if there is an option do do English as a second language in the state schools?
Hola, They teach the Spanish kids english!! as I understand it they buddy up ie the Englsih kids help the locals with their English homework and vice versa!! Its all sorted.
Thanks for that! Can anyone tell me what the curriculum is like ie. what variety of subjects the children do? Also is anyone near Malaga / Velez Malaga / Piriana / Los Romanes who can let me know about good schools in these areas?
I would really appreciate your feedback as I am in South Africa and it is not too easy to do my own practical research.
Thanks a ton!
Thanks Loopylou for the update on your facts finding mission. I’ll be in Spain the first 3 weeks of March looking at potential towns/schools for our move in August. I’ve heard a lot of wonderful things about Torrevieja and the surrounding area so I’m now planning to include this area in my search. Of all the different things I’ll be checking out the one that concerns me most is the school situation…finding the right one. I was rather impressed that on your 4 day trip you were able to find a school that looks right for you and your children. How did you find the school? Was there a listing of local schools that you used? The idea of standing outside a school waiting to talk to unsuspecting parents/kids is rather daunting…is this what you did? If so, did the school officials hassle you in any way? Were there any schools you looked at that you would suggest I avoid? If so, why?
The below is more general to anybody and everybody. I welcome comments/suggests from all who read this.
I’ll be flying into Malaga and driving north along the coast to Alicante. I’ve got three weeks to find “the right place”. I’m looking for a small town or village that’s not too touristy. (10,000 - 40,000 pop.) Because I’m an open water swimmer I need to be relatively close to the sea (no more than 20km inland). My 8 and 10 year old children are very excited about moving to Spain. They both are practicing Spanish with me but look forward to “really learning it”. When asked what they felt was important about finding a place to move they said they wanted a place that has lots of kids and a soccer field. We’re an easy going family that’s looking forward to a change. We love our life in California but it’s time to do something different and experience a new culture.
I realize that 3 weeks doesn’t give me much time to find “the right place”. However, if any of you have thoughts about where I should definitely look and where I should absolutely avoid, I would love to hear them. Or, if you have ideas about things I should consider while on my 3 week adventure, let me know.
Hi Camino,
I am just replying to your comments of coming to Spain for 3 weeks in March. We have a family run relocation
business that covers the Cadiz province, you can find our web address in the Business Services section of this forum.
I don?t know if the Atlantic waters are too cold for your swimming and you prefer the Med but if you can spare a
few days I am sure you could find the exact place you and your family are looking for in this beautiful part of Spain.
We live in Jerez (200,000 inhabitants) but it is very spread out and feels more like a large town than a city. It?s a fabulous
place to live, only 20mins to the beach and 20mins to the mountains & countryside. Take a look, if you like what you
see, get in contact, I?m sure I could spare some time to show you around if you make it this way.
Best wishes
Paul (.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address))
Don’t worry about lists for schools etc, just ask. I promise you that there will be plenty of people in each area that you visit that will have opinions good and bad about the schools there. We needed to find one that would accomodate both kids at the same campus and because our youngest is only 4 we had to find an infant and a junior school on the same site. Hence why we ended up at the school that we chose. We were fortunate that the school’s Headmaster was extremely helpful (and eager) to accomodate us and we, the children, the pupils and their parents all loved the place! Just ask around, believe me, word of mouth is THE BEST advertisement for everything! As for English, I know that the schools are very keen to make sure that the English kids help the Spanish kids and vice versa, so I wouldn’t worry too much about that . You will get some bad advice, but you will get lots of good, sound advice and there are PLENTY of people who will bend over backwards to help you and make sure that they help you avoid any pitfalls that they have encountered. We met people during our four days there that I know that will be firm friends when we get there and will help us settle in. Being a part of the ex-pat community is something that I’m looking forward to. I think that it will help me cope with leaving my friends and family back in the UK!
We have just accepted an offer on our house and will be out there just after Easter, so if you need any more advice about anything, I’ll be so full of information, I’ll be ready to burst!
Good luck with your ‘fact finding’ mission. You will get SO much out of it in three weeks, you’ll probably be spoilt for choice!
Hi Loppyloula, brilliant post that you wrote about your factfinding holiday in Torrevieja. Thats the area I’m hopeing to relocate to. Hope you wouldn’t mind me asking what area you decided on in the end and what school it is because that is the main thing that I need to focus on for my children. Cheers - Terri
Nice to read your plans, it takes me back to when I was looking to buy in Spain. We ended buying in the small village of algorfa, which is within easy reach of the motorway. there is a local school which looks to have all modern equipment and the locals are very friendly. There are a few English people around.
If you would like to know who we bought through, then I could dig out that info and pass it on to you. We used an English guy who lived in Almoradi and he found just what we were looking for.
We chose Torrevieja due to the fact that we had been there several times on holiday and therefore knew the area fairly well. Also the job that I have been offered is in the Torrevieja area and so it was a done deal really. As for the schools, like I said earlier, I had to get the lowdown off local residents before I went to look and then I literally stalked the school gates on the look out for ex-pats! Luckily I was able to spot some (not hard really - I just listened into their conversations, if they were speaking Spanish, I knew to move along!) Then it was just a question of asking all the questions that I had to as many people I could find and then make a judgement from their answers. My kids are 6 and 4 so it was important to me that the school accomodated a good play environment. My husband and I watched the kids in the playground to see how they interacted with each other, which I know sounds VERY wrong, but we saw no signs of bullying and no segregation between the Spanish and English kids. The boys all played football together, English and Spanish on the same sides, talking to each other in both Spanish and English. It had really good vibes and we just knew that our son especially would fit in really well. As for our daughter, she hasn’t even started school here yet, so has nothing to compare school in Spain with. She hasn’t even learned to read or write yet, so her first language in that respect will be Spanish. She is a confident girl anyway, so I have no worries for her. I have to say though, we would never have made the firm decision to move over had it not been for our 4 day ‘reckie’ of the area. We went without kids, didn’t spend a single minute in our apartment apart from sleeping and toured around in our little hire car getting to know the area and venturing to places that we had never been to before. In fact the place where we have rented our house is in a town that despite having visited the area four or five times previously, had never even heard of!
So my advice to you is to nip over on a cheap flight for a few days, get some advice from lots of people and make your informed decision then!
Good luck with all your plans and if you need anymore advice, let me know.
I currently live in France we also have children (3 boys). We moved from england 2 years ago. Children only been in school just over a year and are fluent in French (apart from the youngest, he only started in September).
We are selling our place in France and then moving to spain. Our reasons are:-
You can not make money in France, going self employed costs around 10000 euros before you start.
The weather, must be better than france it seems to just rain here lately.
To start a business (self employed) with the weather aswell.
Bigger place for better money
Beaches, places to go, water parks for the children.
Better people. English or Spanish
We are not bothered where we go in Spain. We are trying at the north of Spain as i have horses ant must be alot easier for grass to grow rather than burn further down spain, but if its further down we go then that isnt a problem. we need something with at least 5 ha of land as i have horses. We are not bothered if its just land and we can build or if its a ruin, or just a small building as long as we can build that doesnt matter to us.
I had loads of questions about schools but think most have now been answered.
We will be moving to Nerja before Xmas and wondered how to get the kids in at a school at that time of year (they are 10 and 12).
Is it possible to get them in then.
If anyone is from Nerja and knows of a good school can they get in touch or anyone with general advice.
Also I have read that primary education is up to 14 years old, is this right? because that would then mean only looking at one school.
Also any help on estate agents in that area would be good for long term rental.
I have looked at Nerja Reality, C&G Inmobiliaria and Villsolrealestates, so any others would be great.
