Starting School
Friday, September 19, 2008 @ 9:31 AM

We have 3 children so starting school at the age ranges was never going to be a walk in the park...so what would by recommendations be

1. Take a translator at all times...if you can't speak Spanish then don't think you can bumble through, its not worth it. I use a local one and she has been a god send as she has children in the school

2. Learn Spanish as soon as you can, interestingly our local ayuntamiento runs lessons for next to nothing, which seems better than paying a heafty € on a language school

3. Make sure you have all your forms and be prepared for utter confusion and go with the flow.

4. Bottom line..if you don't know ask...

Our children have started in their local Primary/Infants and they are settling in, with our eldest in the local Secondary, they will all be put thro the PASE track for those children who don't speak Spanish/Valenciano and more than likely at the end of their year they will have to stay back a year which seems quite common, don't get worried about this as they will then fly thro that year.

So far we have been hit with homework with the . in place of , which caused much laughter, my daughter being called Taxi as they can't pronounce her name and my wife and I running from school to school not knowing what the devil is going on

We have the youngest two finishing at 4-30pm, which is great for my wife as she can get all the things she wants done and I get peace and quiet to work at home, off thing though, they have a break from 12:30 to 15:00, and then back to study, whilst the oldest finishes at 2pm

We find it all so much cheaper than Ireland, certainly the school fees for the secondary at €5 compares well with Ireland, at €500!!

All in all fun and games, and no doubt they will all be speaking Castellano and Valenciano long before I do...

Luego...buene suerte

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