Luce30

Hi
We are moving to the Moraira area in Feb with our 2 children, aged 7 and 9. We were hoping for the children to start at the primary school in benitachell but have been told there isn't a space for my youngest. Another school I have heard of (but can't find much info on) is Benissa. Does anyone have any advice/experience with with school? The head teacher at benitachell also advised us maybe not to put the children in school till Sept! Any advice on that too would be appreciated. Thank you!

lynnxa

I can't help specifically with the schools - but the idea of them not starting school until next September is ridiculous!!

for both of them but especially the 9 year old, the sooner they start the better - admittedly in Feb there will only be 4 months left of the school year, and a couple of weeks will be off for Easter - but even if they didn't really learn much, they would be immersed in the language & would be chattering away by the summer - & hopefully make some Spanish friends to play with over the long summer holiday


apart from that - over the age of 6 school is obligatory - you might run into problems if they weren't in school

perdiu83

Benitachell is i believe the best Spanish primary school in the area. I put my seven year old into Benissa school last year and have been very impressed. The only issue for me is that some of the lessons are taught in Valenciano, however it is difficult in this particular region to find a school that does not have some lessons in this local language.

Veterano

Luce30

Yes I think that may be a problem with moraira school, I think a lot of lessons are taught in Valenciano, even though it seems to be a nice school. Is the primary school in Benissa Parde Melchor or Manuel Dru? Are they good at intergrating English? I believe there are a few English children in each class? Sorry for all the questions! Thank you :-)

Luce30

Thank you, that was exactly my thinking! Seems silly to suggest that they don't go to school for 7 months! She said it was because the children would be working towards exams, which they would obviously fail due to language barriers, but as you say, that 7months would be very valuable in teaching them the language.

lynnxa

they work towards exams all year.....

they have an exam in every subject at the end of each 'tema' (topic) so are constantly tested - they get a report every term & in primary school, all their exam results are added together & averaged at the end of the year & if they don't pass enough subjects on the 'even numbered' years (2, 4 & 6) they repeat the year

she's right that they might not pass - but as I said, at least they'd get a head start in the language for the following year

when we moved our girls to Spanish school at age 5 & nearly 9, they started in the January - they both passed the exams that year - the older one even achieved high grades - although she could already speak pretty good Spanish when she started there

perdiu83

It is Manuel Bru. They are pretty good at welcoming English kids but as a parent you need to make the effort to speak Spanish ( or bring an interpreter). There are definitely English children in each class ( and other nationalities)