Infinitypool

Dear All,

We plan to relocate to Spain this summer (early retirement). Destination not yet fixed, as it depends on schooling for our daughters (13 and 4 now).

Can anyone help with recommendations for schools teaching in English & Spanish? We're concentrating our search on Costa Brava, Costa del Sol 'Estepona to East of Malaga) and Costa de la Luz.

I saw a thread on the same subject on this site, addressing schools in Puerto Santa Maria and Jerez but can't trace it. Someone recommended a school in Jerez...
Thanks

fionamw

My 8yo is in one E of Malaga having spent the first 3 years in the local Spanish school; I'll let you know by pm if you want more, but generally I'd say keep running searches - there's oodles on here it's just a question of finding it! From how old is the optimum, how old is too old for a child to relocate, whether to put the younger one in state school from the off, etc etc etc

Infinitypool

Hi there,
Thanks for this. Definitely interested in details. English bilingual schools all look pretty expensive. Our 13 year old is presently in the french system in Paris and we may have to go for a Lycée Francais for cost reasons. Nothing wrong with that as long as you plan to return to France, which we don't.
There's a LF in Malaga which we're checking out.
We like the schools that offer the International Baccalaureat in the 6th Form, but they seem to be the English schools and v. expensive.

Maybe keep her in a French international school and switch to English when she's 6th form age (she's fluent in English). By that time we might have put enough aside to pay for it...

fionamw

I don't know if such a thing as a truly bilingual school exists, but my son's in the nearest British school to the Lycee in Malaga - about 2min up the hill - where, incidentally, he's the only Brit in his year so the percentage of foreigners is LOWER than at our local school in the pueblo!!!!
Yes the fees are steep and if you have done any thread searching you'll find all colours of opinion on education but we felt his written English was faltering in the village, and his prospects either of education or further down the line in further education & employment etc would depend on having excellent written as well as spoken English alongside good Spanish
With hiccups (no 8yo likes homework and assisting with Spanish deberes when your level feels only a bit above the child is pretty difficult) he's so far en route in that direction
I'm not sure what all the international schools do, but ours does IGCSEs which are the ones touted as being 'harder' than the GCSEs thusfar used in the UK - and I have to admit being clueless as to what happens in the 6th form, haven't thought that far ahead

Infinitypool

Thanks again, Fiona,
Well you're definitely in our catchment area (or one of them). Can you let me havethe name of your 8yo's school, or a link to its site. I fear the worst re price but I need to chase up all options.

We still have to decide where to live. If we choose a school in Malaga (LF or your boy's), how far away is your pueblo from the school and how long's the drive? Does the school organise a school bus? We were originally thinking of looking along the coast east of Malaga to buy but wouldn't rule out inland, so long as we're in a year round community where there's a minimum of year round activity.

fionamw

If you haven't visited the area much (or at all) I'd strongly suggest a trip to give you a flavour of city, town, village, distances, etc - and where you're used to in the UK will likely make a difference to your ultimate choice of location (please excuse lack of punctuation, have to keep explaining my other laptop's gone wrong and this one's ancient and cat-infested)

http://tinyurl.com/66a7tgu is the link to son#2's school
For me it's a long way - 44km each way twice a day unless I can find something to do to keep me out of the house, but then we've realised with a bump how our preference for a campo house has turned out not necessarily to be the best for us as a family
There are, of course, a multitude of places other than where we live which might do you fine (and yes, both west and east of Malaga are served by a bus route for the school) - and as to year round activity, well that's a piece of string depending on your preferred activities!!!!!!!

Infinitypool

Thanks for the link. I gave the school a call and they are sending info.

We spent a week in the Vejez Malaga region, near a pueblo called Arenas a couple of years back. We hardly visited Malaga but what little we saw didn't enchant. However, the coast along to Nerja was pretty so we were thinking of looking somewhere east of Malaga. East for convenience but I see there's a bus so maybe we could avoid your daily double round trip...

My wife is Spanish so culture shock less of a problem but we still have to make those two final decisions - which school? which locality? Chicken and egg.

We're also checking out Northern Costa Blanca and Valencia, as well as Cadiz-Jerez region, not to mention other parts of the Costa del Sol.

Complicated but we're making slow progress, at least in getting info on schools. We'll be glad when we can finally make a decision.

jonnyx

H,
You find a lot of links to scools in Marbella here: http://www.dbmarbella.com/en/links

Best regards from a sunny Spain,

Infinitypool

Jenny, thanks for this. We're heading for the Costa del Sol at Easter but before then it's Valencia.

Has anyone any info on schools in Valencia city? Especially the American School in Valencia? Also the Lycée Francais there?

Thanks,

snikpoh

There's also the international school just south of Valencia in Alzera (spelling?). I hear that's quite a good one.

searcher48

I know this is not in your mentioned area but have you looked at european school just north of Alicante with school bus that runs up and down the coast. They work towards (NO Igcse) Baccalauréat 4 different language streams french spanish english and german. So kids could do first language french second english. Majority of pupils are spanish so kids learn spanish in the playground. Its cheaper than other private schools in the area. discount for second child.

cricketman

Just learning Spanish in the playground is no good if you want to get a decent job in Spain!