Gcse's
 

Hi,
When we move over to Spain my three children will be going to a spanish school.
However i would still like them to take there GCSEs as well as there spanish exams, is there any way that when we move they can take these exams while going to a spanish school like classes after school, we will be moving to a area near alhurin el grande.
All advice would be appreciated.
Thanks :)

Re: Gcse's
 

Nobody else has responded so...at the bottom of this posting there are some ads about GCSE tuition by distance learning. Also as there are hundreds of expats in the AEG area I'm sure you'd be able to find private tutors for most subjects.
I can see why you'd want to hedge your bets but it's an awful lot for kids to have to cope with 2 sets of exams. Depending on their ages wouldn't it maybe better to give them a GCSE education plus extra Spanish to stand them in good stead? Just my thoughts.

Re: Gcse's
 

Hi,
I agree with what you are saying? and i did think i would receive more input in this question as we are needing this advice.
Our options are we will not be able to afford to put the three children through an English school out there, my girls are 4, 13, and 14, They really want to learn the language and they have said they are quite happy to go to a spanish school, but would like to take there GCSEs.
That is why i was unsure if they can have extra lessons to do there GCSEs they want to do the main subjects maths, English,
Thanks :)

Re: Gcse's
 

The main question is, are they going to live in Spain or are they going back to UK ?.
If they stay in Spain then you are wasting money on them, as they probably wont need them.

Re: Gcse's
 

They will do the international Baccalaureate ( i think that how you spell it )
its an international exam that is more rounded, and is being used in some schools in the uk.
As a teacher my self and having taught GCSE and a tiny bit of the Baccalaureate in my opinion the Baccalaureate holds more opportunity's for University Places world wide. what it does really is stops children having to chose 8 / 9 GCSE courses and is much more balanced for that reason.

Re: Gcse's
 

Hi,
We are staying in spain long term however if they decide they want to come back to the uk at any stage then they need the gcse's for jobs in the uk. :)

Re: Gcse's
 

Would have thought the baccalaureat would have sufficed, after all Tony Blair has been going on about moving over to that type of education in the UK, and there are many people from the EU working in good jobs in the UK without getting GCSEs.

Re: Gcse's
 

Hi,
Is that baccalaureat the exams in state school's, My middle daughter who is 13 wants to go back to the uk to university to do law when she has finished school over in spain.

And i would like to know would they accept the exams in england from spain.
Thanks for all your replys :)

Re: Gcse's
 

Hola!
If you google search international baccalaureate (IB) you might find your answer.
A private (fee paying) school near us has done away with GCSE, favouring the IB.
What effect this will have in 5-10 years time, regarding entry to top universities, remains to be seen...
Regards,
Carol

Re: Gcse's
 

They hold the same qualifications, so no problem.
In my opinion they are better and give a child a balanced all round education. Many students from overseas go to UK university's, that there is no problem with the qualifications in-fact they are held with high regard.

Re: Gcse's
 

Hi,
Thanks for everyones feedback i do understand they when they start at the spanish school they will have to get to grip with the language which i know my oldest daughter will struggle with, my middle daughter will fit in and it will i hope just come to her and my youngest well she has only just started primary school. To her it should be ok i just know that i have to work on her with the english language and teach her how to write english at home, but i would just like to say thanks for all the replys :)

Re: Gcse's
 

I think that they will be so immersed in the language that learning it will come easy. Spanish is supposed to be one of the easiest languages to learn. From friends who had children of school age when they moved over here and who couldn't speak Spanish, they are both fluent now within 2 years.

Re: Gcse's
 

Hi,
Thank you for your reply i have been trying to learn spanish myself but I'm not getting anywhere with it :o but i keep trying. i think once i am over there i will grab it hopefully.
Our friends have lived there just over two years and the kids after six months were able to string sentences together, and now are fluent, i have just heard the older you are the harder the brain takes to learning new things. thats probably why i cant understand a thing I'm saying ha ha ha.
and once you hit around 13 or 14 it's hard for them but i will have to see. i do feel guilty that i wont have the cash to send them to a English school but then i look at it as we are moving to another country and we should learn there language and communicate the way they do, so for us it is exciting to learn another culture and way of life. :)

Re: Gcse's
 

Personally, if it were me, I'd wait to move to Spain until the two eldest had completed their secondary educations. Your youngest will then still be young enough to make the move. I've seen too many English teenagers brought to Spain who have "gone off the rails" - into drugs, getting pregnant, playing truant, failing exams and generally turning into not-very-well-adjusted young adults with few real prospects other than barwork (and I don't mean Law!).

Your first priority is surely your kids' educations, not your desire to move to Spain (albeit for the right reasons, in the long term). A wait of a few more years is no great hardship when compared to your kids' futures. You'd never forgive yourself if it all went pear-shaped would you? Particularly as you have daughters as opposed to sons - Spain is still very behind the times compared to the UK when it comes to equality between the sexes and your daughters' prospects here IMHO will be a lot poorer than in the UK. Hope you don't take any of this the wrong way, just expressing a personal opinion :)

Re: Gcse's
 

I've seen a lot less problems with young people here, but that may be just where we live, but the kids here seem very well behaved and polite, and they are mainly ex pats. Much less in the way of problems, mind you we don't have bars etc round us.

Re: Gcse's
 

Hi,
I totally respect your opinion and it is a valid one, However england has the same and if my children wanted to do drugs and get pregnant, play truant, fail there exams in my opinion that would be mainly the parents fault, My children have been bought up to respect there self's and to enjoy what children years they can, which they do. We have not just woke up and said lets move away we have been planning this move for 3 years. i have told both girls if they want to finish there education here they can stay, but they want to come and i will support them 100% in there education. Our friends children which they do have a teenage daughter is by far more well behaved and good than most children that i know of here in the uk. :)

Re: Gcse's
 

Whilst on the subject of spanish schools...

I understand that the age year goes from january to December. In the uk its september to septmber.

Question: Which month do they go back to their new year. January or September?

I have been told to come back to my local spanish school in March to fill out the forms. In fact, all the spanish schools (state and private) that I have called have given me a month next year to fill out forms and register. Is the normal?

Its so difficult to get in. When I call the English Schools, (which arent my first priority), im welcomed with open arms and can see them straight away.

Anyone know?

Re: Gcse's
 

Is that baccalaureat the exams in state school's,

Each country has it's own equivalent of the baccalaureate at 18 for university entrance. The International Baccalaureate is entirely different and offered by a few private schools in Spain. In the last few months, it has been awarded points by the university entrance board so that an A in IB actually carries more ponits than an A at A level to reflect the fact that it's a lot harder exam. I'm an examiner for the IB so know exactly how few schools in Spain offer it. Personally, I've been looking into taking GCSE Spanish in Spain
myself and it seems virtually impossible. You need to register for the exams and orals at a centre in Spain which don't seem to exist so that entails returning to UK for the exam period. Some private schools in Spain do offer the IGCSE (not the same as GCSE but acceptable) and they could enter as a private candidate while distance studying on the net. But people forget how expensive GCSEs are to take when not subsidised by the school!

Re: Gcse's
 

I looked into taking a Spanish degree with the open university as you can study it from anywhere in the world. Trouble is without the UK subsidy it came to something like a total of 7000 pounds!! :scared:

I quickly filed that idea into the waste paper basket and took the DELE instead by the Instituto Cervantes. A similar, if not higher, level of Spanish is required and it cost about 150 euros. Much more palatable!!! :)

Re: Gcse's
 

Without wishing to be rude I do hope for your child's sake you re-consider teaching her (written) English at home

Re: Gcse's
 

Have you tried here:

http://www.britishcouncil.org/spain-exams.htm

Re: Gcse's
 

Hi,
Can i ask you why you say that?

Re: Gcse's
 

Um, maybe check your posts for spelling and grammar errors, I think is what wheatsheaf is tactfully trying to say! ;)

Re: Gcse's
 

Excuse me? it wont be me teaching her written work i am sure i can manage some reading books.

I think a lot of ppl on this forum could be quite rude, I am sure a lot of ppl on here have made errors, and i am sure a lot of children who are taught at school make errors. And regarding ppl tactfully saying i personally think it is rude.

Re: Gcse's
 

[QUOTE=the sun is shining]Excuse me? it wont be me teaching her written work i am sure i can manage some reading books.

Apologies sun is shining. As I said, I didn't want to be rude-and if you read the post to which I replied you actually did say you would be teaching her to write Engish at home.

Re: Gcse's
 

[QUOTE=wheatsheaf42]See- some of us can't type correctly either :)

Re: Gcse's
 

[QUOTE=wheatsheaf42]Hi,
I am not offended by your good self, However when you look at previous be post's there written skills are just as bad.

Also sometimes on here things are worded different and actually spelt different because of ppl rushing and not spell checking, At my age i am not fussed how thing's read or are spelt.

For work purposes it is different, i have been office based since i left school at 16 i am now 32 on the 23rd of this month, I currently run my husband's company so out of being a terrible speller and terrible at written work i have done ok ( Well sometimes ha ha ha :) )

Re: Gcse's
 

[usQUOTE=the sun is shining]Take a look at the use of 'there' or 'their' E.G.
'THEIR' written work is on the desk over 'THERE'.....a very easy mistake when we use 'spell check' I once used the word saliva [spit] in my posts about mosquito bites. I knew it was wrong so used spell check...but went and chose Sylvia from the options. I also took some flack over that!! The only spell check you can safely rely on is the one in word which corrects grammar and spelling.
Keep posting and full marks to you for being interested in keeping your children's options open.

Re: Gcse's
 

The English language is so mixed up ;) ;)

Real Eyes, Realize, Real Lies all sound the same but so different :)

Re: Gcse's
 

Absolutely!!
And good as spell checks are.... they can sure make a fool of you if you rely too much on them.

Re: Gcse's
 

Very true, though you would normally find "replys" doesn't exist, for example, whereas "replies" does.

One thing that does get me going is the spelling of plural nouns- such as putting apostrophes- "holiday's" or "apple's" when they shouldn't be there. Oh well.

Re: Gcse's
 

Ahh well, if the English language GCSE concentrated on teaching English grammar as the old (1960s) O levels did then people would have a much better grounding, which would help them in learning other languages as well. Ohh for the Good Old Days.

Re: Gcse's
 

I learned English grammar better through learning French at school- maybe English kids doing Spanish in Spain might benefit their learning of both languages

Re: Gcse's
 

Hi,
I must say i went through my daughters school book and in one part she had used this in her art book ( i dont know what i did ere) and it was ticked in red pen from the teacher, should of been here not ere, so to be fair if a teacher can not be bothered to correct her in her school years what chance do kids have, and with my own spelling they dont stand a chance poor things. :)

Re: Gcse's
 

Yes, I agree, although for me it was via learning Spanish. I can't remember studying things like the Past Perfect, transitive verbs, modal verbs or relative clauses in my english grammar classes (ok, that was a few years ago and maybe I have forgotton some of what I studied). I learnt all of these things and more for the first time whilst learning Spanish.

Re: Gcse's
 

I am with you there Keith. It's not what something is called- past perfect or pluperfect - its how you use them properly and only the use of the comparative through a foreign language helped me get an idea. Latin was good for that too but rather more advanced and theoretical in many ways.

Re: Gcse's
 

Fortunately, doing O levels in 1960 in English Language as well as literature we had to use correct grammar, and woe betide spelling errors, they were marked down. I really only noticed the problems with the lack of teaching true grammar when I started to learn Russian in 1992, Russian, as with Spanish and French has a well defined grammar and declensions of verbs. Those of us of my age had no problems, but those in the class who were in their 20s had great problems and it slowed the whole learning process.

Re: Gcse's
 

I really think that if your children are 13 and 14 you should wait and finish their English education. They are too old for the Spanish system and like most kids here will end up drifting back to the UK - possibly with no qualifications.

Mark

Re: Gcse's
 

hi there be very carefull about brining children to spain and hoping that they will get a good education ok if you start you children very young no older than 4yrs old we have bought a house in almeria and when my children have finished there education in england we shall go out full time my children are 15 and 12 if you speak to english couples in spain with children most of them have sent there children back to england at 13 to finish there education and stayed with friends my children are going to stay in england as jobs in spain are very limited but they love holidaying in spain so think very hard first

Re: Gcse's
 

the older girls have very little chance of learning Spanish to the level required to pass their exams at spanish school, so as others have said, either wait until they have completed their education in the UK, or pay for them to go to an International school with an english curriculum over here