sapphirerose127

Hello All,

I am looking at finding out any useful information with regard to moving my family out to Barbados.

We hope to be there by mid 2011 and it is simply a move for what we hope will be a better quality of Family life. I just do not know where to begin. I need any info that members may have on Primary school entry (my daughter will be 6yrs old at the time of the move). Shipping information, reasonable costs, recommended agents and things that turn out to be a waste of time taking over. During the last few years we have been sorting out our citizenship and I am in the last stages of my daughter's paperwork coming through, as we thought it would be best to sort this out before trying to set a date for moving. We will have to work, but we will cross that bridge a little later, once all the domestic worries are sorted. I am new to this forum so I am still looking through the older postings to see if any help can be found.

I look forward to any future comments, and thank you all in advance.

Sue

Hi,

Sorry your thread didn't get answered. I will see if I can help a little I don't live in Barbados, but here are some threads you could read to start you off. In the meantime I am sure someone will be along soon who lives there who will be able to give you some pointers.

http://britishexpats.com/forum/showthread.php?t=634322

http://britishexpats.com/forum/showthread.php?t=627417

http://britishexpats.com/forum/showthread.php?t=390340

manuc

hi, we moved to Barbados a couple of months ago
our experience has been mixed - we found a good house within a few days, buying a car took more time (choices are limited and really expensive)

we had a lot of trouble on schooling (in our case it was nursery) - you need to submit an application for your child early - as early as possible - if you are planning to come down for a visit before your final move you may want to submit the application then (a word of caution though during the summer vacation months - July, school offices are generally empty).

the private schools include providence and cordington (very expensive), the others you will want to try are Gabriel's and Winifred (traffic is hell in this area due to them being located at Collymore Rock)

once again, register as early as you possibly can since we were told that addmissions fill up one or two years in advance

on shipping.. we have yet to receive our container so we cant comment on local agents - it is expected this week so will update you on the experience with agent

do hope this helped

tfinteriors

Manuc,

Did you find a good preschool? Our daughter went to St. Nicholas and we absolutely loved it. The teachers are so loving and made the world of difference to her first year of school.

sapphirerose127

Thank you very much, this is so useful as schooling issues are one of my main worries. I will take your advise and try to get something in during 2010 in preparation for 2011. I was also wondering if the schools allow children to experince what it is like at the school before enrolling. It will be such a big change for my daughter, but she is young and I am sure she will adapt. As for a car, it seems from this forum that everyone finds it hard to find a good value for money deal and I have made the decision not to ship the one we have here in the UK. On the house front, we bought a house in St. Philip, Barbados a few years back, so I was thinking it may be an idea of shipping a few barrels of personal items, and selling off any large furniture here in the UK, but we are still un-decided as to whether we should rent or sell our UK home.

Sunniebgi

I'm not aware of schools that will allow a child to spend the day to see what it is like. Many schools do allow you to come,have a look around, but I'm not sure if they allow the child to attend for a day. Once accepted, they generally will have a "first day" for the new 1st year students (St. Gabriel's started that 2 years ago, but not sure if anyone else does it).

Most children in Barbados enter some sort of schooling (pre-school, nursury, Montessori) at the age of 2 to 2 1/2 and then enter into a primary school at the age of 4 (again.. it's age 4yrs turning 5 years during the school year Sept to Sept)

if she will be 6, she would be going into the 2nd year or possibly 3rd year class at any of the primary schools. I would strongly encourage you to get information early from the potential schools and get your application in. There can be openings in those years, as people move off island or move schools, but you still don't want to be left not having a place. This also goes for Government schools.

Re the car, sometimes you just have to bit the bullet, but you should also make sure you check out the nation classifieds for advertisements.

sapphirerose127

Sounds like the schools operate much as they do in the UK. I hope they don't have the dreaded catchment area criteria. On practical terms I don't want to have to travel too far, or in too much traffic for the school run, as our aim is for a better quality of life. It appears I will have to get a move on with the school application to avoid any dis appointment. As for the car I will take your advise and check the papers when I am next there. That was how we found our house in Barbados. The ad was tiny, I suspect the car will be the same. We just need to work what the average price should be for the make of car, not the price given on account of our accent!

tfinteriors

I would recommend Providence Elementary for you if location is what is the most important. Check out the other thread in Barbados - I have written a few times (and others have too about the schools) phone numbers are also included.

sapphirerose127

Thank you very much for hi-lighting these threads

tfinteriors

If it helps the dealers are fairly reputable and have what they call black books with the value of used cars in them. Your accent will not dictate what price they are going to tell you. I highly recommend purchasing something that is very common in Barbados. I have heard of nightmares waiting for parts (even my sister-in-law is now selling her vehicle because she waited 2 months to get brake parts).
Our roads are getting much better now, but I did get rid of the luxury car and was happy to downgrade just for the bumps and potholes. Just to give you an idea I had 2 friends purchase used Suzuki Vitaras and both paid near the $40 g (bds) mark a couple of months ago. We purchased one a couple of years ago and paid nearly double for something new.
I am not sure on the price of vehicles in the UK, but it definitely isn't like purchasing in north america. Expect to pay more up front and every year for road tax. Which I can't complain about because it should be the driver that pays that instead of putting road tax in with everyone's taxes. I just paid my road tax and it was $1600 and I have a small Vitara suv.
Hope this gives you an idea of what to expect dollar wise.

manuc

we managed to get her in Blossoms which is close to where we stay. she is a bit shy and the teachers have been realy great in getting her settled down

manuc

if you want some more information on car prices you can go to http://www.caribzoomzoom.com - it has the best listing for used cars and a couple of new car dealers also use it

just make sure that you do not expect too much - the best on the island will probably be suzuki / mistusbishi / toyota since i believe parts are easy to come by (someone may want to validate). i understand fords and minis do not hold out too well and the honda dealer does not seem like a very service focussed dealer (again someone may want to validate this statement)

Foxy_fromCanada

Suzuki parts are definitely easy to come by. Toyota and Mitsubishi also widely serviced here, like Manuc says.

North American cars not as often found here, so harder and more expensive to service (Ford, Chev, Chrysler).

Skoda is another make that you see fairly regularly, too. And Range Rovers & Land Rovers (but that's out of price range for many of us!).

Ikon

I think you just have to accept when it comes to cars on an island that it's a whole different kettle of fish to what it would be in UK/USA. We have a Range Rover that took weeks to get parts for, and when we took our Landcruiser in for something, they had the parts but the price was so much higher than we expected.

You just have to kind of accept the car stuff as one of the things that's a negative about living in Barbados, tbh. Nowhere's perfect!

Personally, I preferred going to a dealer rather than classifieds, just so that I'd have some comeback if/when things went wrong. It's more expensive that way though, so if you're just looking to get a cheap runabout then it might be more appropriate for you to go the classified route.

tfinteriors

Fantastic to hear. Teachers make the world of difference.