Spain - British Expat Forum

We are currently going through the motions of buying a property near Almunecar with the intention of permanently moving out there within the next 6-9 months. We have a four year old daughter who we want to get settled into a local school shortly after we move out there.
The local village of Otivar has two schools, one of which is a junior school, which we have heard is quite good, and infinitely better than the nearby private International school.
Can any expats provide details on the Spanish state school system, such as term times, starting ages, curriculum, hours attended, etc. and basically, how they compare with British schools?

Thanks in advance.

Just seen your posting - very late I kno9w, you may already be out here, but we have to children in Spanish State schhol aged 13 and 7. Term time is mid september to week before xmas, then after 3 kings (5/6 jan) to easter which is one weeks holiday then they finsh end of June. they do have the odd day of for teacher traing etc, and term times vary where you live my 7 yr old goes 9-2 september, 9.30-1.30 4-5 rest of the year, but in june it cuts down again because of the heat, i think they start at 8.30. my 13 yr old is 9-2.30 monday and 8.30-2.30 the rest of the week.
They start full time school in the september of the year they are 6 (the year for intake is jan - dec here not sept - august as in the uk) so if you are 6 on 1 jan or 6 on 31 dec you start in september.
They do not do GCSEs but work towards the baccalaureate which is EU recognised, probably more so than the GCSEs if you want to work elsewhere than the UK. You also get three written reports a year and can see the teacher every week if you wish, for my daughter it is every monday and my son every thursday.
They both love it and get more homework than uin the Uk but even my 13 yr old does it here - and with enthusiasm.
Good luck, Otivar is lovely.

Hi and thanks for the reply - I had forgotton all about my original posting, it's been that long!
Unfortunately we're not quite there yet - looks like it will be April before we move, although we're popping over for a short break at the end of this month.
Our daughter will be 5 in May, so presumably that means she won't start school until September 2005, whereas here in the UK she would be starting after Easter this year.
Do Spanish children just stay at home until they are 6 or do they have pre-school classes? What standard of reading/writing ability do they typically have at that age?
Did your children cope ok with the language? The first few days at school must have been tough for them (unless they spoke Spanish beforehand, of course).
Your website looks interesting - I know we have a fair bit of renovation and improvements to make to our property so we may be in touch later in the year.
Thanks again.
Desperado.

Desperado wrote:Did your children cope ok with the language? The first few days at school must have been tough for them (unless they spoke Spanish beforehand, of course).Desperado.

At five years old children are like sponges and your daughter will be speaking Spanish in no time at all. Don't worry about her, she'll be fine. I was five when I went to school in Paraguay and, although it was a very long time ago, I do remember not understanding things the first few weeks. However, everyone was very kind and patient towards me and it didn't take me long to be able to speak fluently. The down side was that when we returned to the UK I refused to speak Spanish ever again and so when we went back to Latin America when I was 14 I had to start all over again (I had forgotten everything). I'm not as fluent now as when I was five. 8)

Good luck with your move.

jacques wrote: and get more homework than uin the Uk

I think it depends very much on each individual school - and that's worth checking out. I used to have to set extra homework for the boys as they hardly got any - it was a joke! We enventually took them out of the local school at Easter and had a private tutor for them for the last term before we moved. I'm not saying this is true for all Spanish schools, in fact I hope not, but it's something to be aware of. 8)

MOst towns have pre schools, for children up to the age of 6, and some have pre shcools attached to the main school, although places here are limited as it is not a legal requirement, the earlier you apply the better your chances of getting accepted are. If you are over before you actually move I would advise you to visit the school and enquire. If there are no places at the pre school attached to the school there is quite often a fee paying pre school. It ususally costs approx €90 per month. You also have to buy text books. As fa r as standard of reading and writing at that age goes that is a tuff one as each child is different, my daughter whgo is seven was average in the UK and is still average here (although she cannot understand ALL she reads, she can read it all, which in the Uk she couldnt, but that is because once you have learnt the spanish alpahbet you can read any thing as the pronounciation doesnt change).
Our children could say hello, goodbye please thankyou and count to ten plus a few colours when we came to live here, the first few days were difficult but they got by (there are no english speaking teachers at my daughters school). Because we have no school bus from our village the children can - and ours do, stay at the convent in town during the week - free of charge - and this has helped them immensly, as they have spanish 24/7 for 5 days a week, even the first weekend they came home we noticed a remarkable differnece in their spoken spanish and when they got theri homework out we were amazed, they only had to ask me two or three things - and my son is 13.

WE now have to remind the childrn to speak english at home and encourage them to watch Uk vifeos at least once a eek to keep up their english as we want them to be bilingual. In fact aftr three months at school my sons marks were the saem for english as spanish!!!