Spain - British Expat Forum

Hi All,

My family and I are looking to move to Spain within the next 6 months to a year and I am currently in a dilema with regards to my 2 daughters ages 5 and 2 with regards to their schooling. Do I send them to a Spanish state school or ease them in gently via an international school.

I would love to hear about other peoples experiences (good and bad!).....

Thanks in advance

Corrina

We do not have any children of school age, youngest is 23yrs!!!
I would always send my children, especially of the ages your children are, to a local state school.
They will intergrate quickly and will have mostly Spanish speaking friends etc.
Children in Spain more often than not accompany each other all the way from kindergarten up to secondary and become firm friends. This is not always so with International schools as the name implies, come holiday times most pupils scatter to all corners of the world and language stability is not so. A lot of the International schools teach Spanish as a seperate language and if you intend living here do you really need that???

Thanks for the response to the posting - the more and more I read about the schooling and children of my girls ages embracing spanish schooling and the lifestyle the more positive I feel that it is the right way forward - although can't help worrying a little more about the eldest but I am sure they will both be fine.

Currently enrolled in night school for myself to learn spanish and I think that I will be faced with the hardest learning curve with getting the old grey matter working properly again!!.

If anyone knows about schools in the Elche area - information would be appreciated.......

both my children have been in state schools for 15months, they are 12 and 13. They have both made lots of friends Spanish and English, they are both doing extremely well in all subjects they both speak excellent Spanish

Just a question, do the spanish state primary schools have interactive white boards and pc's and all that?

OUr local primary has a PC room and 1 white board and there are 400+ students. I guess it varies from region to region and will depend alot on the school's private budget.