wendi
2/21/2005 18:29 EST
Has anyone got any advice on enrolment at schools in the valencia region? Is it a good idea to send english children to a spanish state school instead of a private english school. We cant speak a word of spanish yet but are taking lessons in April. If anyone has gone through this process with their children and can let me know how well they settled into their new environment I would be very pleased to hear your stories.
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kiwifamily
2/22/2005 08:42 EST
Hi Wendi
We moved to Barcelona from New Zealand 4 months ago with two boys aged 14 & 11 (now 15 & 12). We wondered where to send them to school but decided on an English Private school in the end (luckily my work agreed to pay the fees). People have said that if they go to a Spanish school that they lose a year of education but they become very fluent in Spanish (and its pretty hard to start with so they need to be kids that can cope). Our oldest boy he didn´t want to lose a year of school when he was heading into examination years. Also it is harder here in Bcn to find a school that speaks Spanish not Catalan. We decided it would be better if they were both in the same school. They have both settled into the school well, although the work is harder (they have skipped half a year each because of the season difference and the syllabus is different). I think if they had been a couple of years younger we would have considered a Spanish school more seriously.
Oh by the way, we only had about a dozen lessons in Spanish before we came. The boys are learning Spanish at school and our older boy also has to speak Spanish at his table tennis club. He is speaking quite well now after 4 months. WE all have a long way to go but it is surprising how much we know already.
Jill
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wendi
2/23/2005 09:31 EST
thank you so much for your experiences of schooling. I have decided that I would like to send my twin daughters to a private school as i feel they would stuggle more in a spanish school. I am worrying about the fees as unfortunatly I have no job at present to pay for it. What I was wondering was, if it was easy for you to enrol them at the english schools as I ve read that there are long waiting lists. I was hoping to enrol them when we visit in April ready for the start of term in September 05. What documents did you need to do this? Was the process easy? Any info would be useful
thanks wendi
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kiwifamily
2/25/2005 08:14 EST
Hi Wendy
If you manage to pay, it is worth it if you think they will find it hard. I have heard of some children very unhappy. As for getting into the school, we were lucky to get in as there were only a couple of places left. There is another British school that has very high standards and only very bright kids get in. We have heard from our boys that some schools are not very good- there is at least one in Bcn that kids have left because there were kids with drugs and the teaching was bad. See if you can find out about the school beforehand. I think you should contact the potential schools as soon as possible and get them to send you some information about the school. Maybe ask if their are any parents who would be prepared to correspond with you about the quality of the school.
We emailed the school and then I arranged to phone the Head to discuss the boys going to the school. We only had to send them the boys school reports, fill in a form and then send a deposit (I think that was all). Of and our older son had to bring a list of his maths topics he had covered. What age are your girls and where are you from? Are you looking at British or American school?
Here are some websites that might elp, but don´t assume all the schools are on these ones- do a little more searching.
Cheers, Jill
http://spain.english-schools.org
http://www.spainexpat.com/living/schools-spain.php
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sasky
3/1/2005 16:38 EST
It depends also on your situation; are you staying for good in Spain of going back after an year or so? Do you want to interfere with spaniards or just with foreign people. If you are staying in BCN, speaking catalan will help!Be ware that in an intl school it will be diifficult to make friends, as most kids will be moving on after a year or two. I am dutch, lived three years in BCN and now in Malaga for 6 years already... For enrollment in a spanish public school you need to know where you are going to live as well. If you need more info, do not hesitate to contact me. I will try to help.
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wendi
3/3/2005 16:57 EST
thank you for your reply. Our intentions are as follows: we are arriving in Late June and planning to stop long term depending on how the children settle in at school. We plan to review it around November time, if they are doin well, and we like it and hopefully have managed to find jobs we definately want to stay. We would like to intigrate with the spanish as much as we can but know this might be difficult in the early stages because of the language difficulties.
Up until very recently my twi n daughters have been having help at school as they have been statemented since 5 yrs old. Their speech is ok now but im just worried in case if I send them to a spanish school they might find it incredibly hard to cope. I want to give them the best chance of enjoying school life and have discussed it with them. We are visiting the valencia area in April with the twins and have contacted a couple of schools in the area.......Los olivos, and El Plantio int. school of valencia. I dont suppose you know if either are any good? We are hiring a car out whilst there to have a look at other areas we might like to live. Can you recommend any good secondary schools anywhere, north or south?
Any further information you could give would be useful.
thanks so much
Wendi
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kiwifamily
3/4/2005 09:38 EST
Hi
Sasky makes some good points. Many kids don´t stay long at the international schools, but alot have parents who live permanently in Spain. It´s good for the kids to meet people from all around the world. Mind you, we are only able to stay for 3 years so that also influenced our choice to go for an international school. I have heard that a few Spanish schools are very helpful to foreign students and give them extra tuition in Spanish, but most won´t do anything extra. It could be worth checking out one or two in the area you are interested in.
Our older son has joined a local table tennis club and so has met Spanish kids and gets to practice his Spanish with them. Our whole family also plays touch rugby here in Bcn and its a mix of Spanish and foreigners, so the talk is also a mix of English, Spanish and Catalan- we all speak a little of everything. We also have only Spanish neighbours so talk with them. I think you can have a little of both worlds without being exclusively expat.
Cheers
Jill
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