Moving to spain

Hi all i'm new  to this and have been reading lots on these forums about schools and children. Myself my husband and our 3 children 13, 6, and 19 months are moving out to Spain next year. The thing that worries us most is the schools. Our 13 year old is to sit his Juniour Cert exam next June (so we would be moving after this) so he will defnitley have to go to internaional school as he doesnt have much spanish. We would like to send our 6 year old daughter to spanish state school as this is where we plan to send our baby when he comes of age , which he will be nearly ready for by the time we move. What I would like to know is would our daughter need to be fluent in spainsh to go to a state school or would she need any spanish at all. She will have just turned  8 by the time we move...

Your daughter doesn't need to speak Spanish to be accepted as by law all children must attend school at age six but if you can prepare her by exposing her to as much spanish as possible it will help. Many British children get put back a year because of their limited spanish and it doesn't help in schools like the one my children go to where they are two of nine other British children in a class. As a parent myself I feel that we have to out in double the effort that we would in the UK to ensure that our children do well in school.

Susan

Hi

I moved to spain in nov last year and have put both my kids in spanish school, 15 and 7 years of age,, they are both enjoying school and get plenty of help  to intergrate into the system, so i think it will all depend on area and the schools hope this helps

Hi we have lived in Estepona for 6 months, I have 3 children aged 6, 8 and 10.  They all go to a Spanish state school, when we first arrived they had know knowledge of Spanish what so ever.  We arrived in September and had very little choice of schools as they were all full, they ended up in the only one that could take all 3 of them.  Its a very Spanish school as their is only 1 other English child in the school, but that has proved to be very good for them as they they can't cling onto any other English kids in their classes.  At first I did panic and did find another school for them which had a 25% intake of English children, but after only 2 weeks in their new school none of them wanted to leave their new friends.  They all run into school and come out smiling at the end of the day, they have had a few ups and downs but thats to be expected.  My husband and I have both ageed the first year will be more about the language and intergrating into the school than the education.  We also send them to Spanish lessons twice a week which has been a great help.

Good luck with everything

We moved to spain 5 years ago and put our daughter into spanish state school.  She was only 3 1/2 at the time so she has learned the language without any problems and loves school. There were no english speakers at her school.  We did prepare her, before we moved, by teaching her basics i.e. numbers, colours, I am hungry/thirsty, happy/sad so she could communicate a little.  We also prepared flash cards for her with pictures on saying I am hungry/thirsty etc in Spanish so she could communicate with her non english speaking teacher.   It sounds like you have time to do a little preparation just in case your children go to a school without any english speakers.

Good luck with your move.

Hi

 Thanks for all your replies. Ive just enroled my daughter on a spanish course for children in the instituto cervantes satrting the end of March so we will see how she does on this and hopefully make a decision coming to the end of the year on where she should attend school.

We shall be living in the Punta Prima area and are not sure of what schools our children can attend  could anyone help me out here as to which primary and secondary shools are available in this area both international and state.

Hi D.A.D well done in getting your daughter on a course that will be a great preparation. I am not making any commission here but Jim's Speakee product is good for your younger ones. Here is the link:

http://www.speekee.co.uk/

Make sure that you choose the spanish language option when watching DVDs at home. There is so much you can do like Primary Spanish on the bbc site too. I would post the link but my internet connection is soooo sloooooooow right now.

Susan

PM me if you want any ideas.