We have lived in Cieza for over 3 years we moved with children 9 and 6 at the time, in Cieza I do not know of any other British children but I am sure there are some in Blanca. We originally wanted to buy in Blanca and had visited the local school they were lovely and helpful have you applied for the place yet as it is the final few weeks for applications.

No! Will ring my friend tonight and see if she feels confident enough in her Spanish( which I think is excellent but she is more modest!) to talk to the local schools and find out if they have spaces and what documentation they need to process the application. All the reading I have done indicated that we had to either own a house or be able to produce a rental agreement to be able to apply. I have been able to get a full immunisation record which I believe is also a requirement. Thank you for your advice so far, it is extremely useful.

you'll need padrón, resident cert. probably passports & a medical ( you can get the form from the school or the ayuntamiento dept which deals with education in the town) You might also have to have medical ins or tarjeta sanitaria - but come to think of it you won't get the resident cert. without that...........

school finished for the summer a week or so ago in most areas, but there will probably be somone still working for a bit longer

if not, then the education dept at the ayuntamiento will tell you which school you will be sending your son to.

if you tell me what year he was born I can tell you which year he is age-appropriate for - primary or secondary

He was born in January 2001, from what I have researched he will be in the final year of primary, is that correct? It is actually the reason we have brought our move forward by 12 months so that he can have the year to learn Spanish fluently before going to Secondary school ( he has had lessons here, but no where near enough to be fluent) .

yes it would be the last year of primary

often when children start that close to secondary they will be held back a year initially to give them a chance to catch up a bit linguistically - or they will be put into the age-appropriate year & maybe repeat if they don't quite become fluent enough

many will manage, some won't & will be held back a year - but then so will quite a lot of native Spanish speakers for one reason or another - it's like a second chance in a way

Thank you so much for the information, he is our main concern and we need to do all we can to help him settle in and enjoy the opportunity he has to learn a whole new way of life ( him and us!! ).

I think the name of the school in Blanca is CP Antonio Molina Gonzalez, there is also a catholic school, I wonder if you can use your pre purchase contract to at least begin the paperwork. The murcia education website is www.educarm.es I would phone the school to see if they have places left, if they have they maybe able to advice you as to the paperwork they will accept to reserve the place. When you have arrived your son will need an NIE for a secondary school place but we got our primary places with passport numbers. Strangely in Cieza we were not asked for immunization records for the children in primary school but they wanted these and Tarjeta Sanitaria when my daughter went up to secondary school. When you are settled you will need to get your sons immunization records put onto a spanish card and he may well need to have some extra jabs as spanish children have a lot more than english children, the vaccination nurse at our surgery sorted it all out for us. When we moved we did not know that we had to applu for a place so early and we misssed all the usual time limits, we found that through July we could still move the process forward. Good Luck.

Great details, thank you so much! Yes, my friend will ring and hopefully we can get the school ball rolling! Do you know if there is a secondary school actually in Blanca or do all the children travel to a bigger town?

I think we were told that the children went to one of the bigger towns nearby, ours were so young then that I can't remember. I think school restarts on the 10th of september for primary children the educarm website will have the school calenders up for next year at some point, you will find that there are local variations especially around fiestas so when you have the place ask the school secretary for the dates as I spent the first year turning up to find the school closed because they were taking a puente!

your son will need the NIE/resident cert now for primary school - they are really tightening up on things