Luce30

Hi

We are moving to Moraira in Feb with our 2 children, aged 7 and 9 (turning 10 in feb) Up to now we are thinking of putting them in a state school as we are planning on staying in Spain so I would like them in be intergrated and learn the language as quick as possible. Does anyone have any recommendations on schools? We are renting in el portet to start. I have heard that moraira only teach in Valenciana, which I'm worried may be a problem if the children want to go to uni/work outside of the area when older??
I am also worried about my 7 year old son as he is quite shy and my 9/10 year old as she will be starting high school in 18 months. Does anyone have any experience of putting older children in state schools? Was in easy to make friends, did they pick up language quickly, are the Spanish children friendly to the English??? Etc, etc

Any advice would be greatly appreciated , thank you x

lynnxa

hi

I'm not far from Moraira, but far enough that I can't comment on individual schools

my children were 5 & very nearly 9 when yet started in state school here - they have both thrived - but my older daughter was, according to her teacher in state school, close to fluent in Spanish before she started there (she had had a year in International school here, had made Spanish friends & worked very hard on her Spanish in that time- good job she had already learned everything else they tried to 'teach' her )

at age 7 your younger child should have no problems at all, your older one will maybe be OK, but will obviously find it more difficult.

also, you need to bear in mind that they will be studying not only in Spanish, but also in Valenciano (they will teach in both) - so that's 2 new languages to learn

if your son was born in 2003 (have I worked that out right ) then he will be age-appropriate for yr 4 primary - so in fact he'd have 2 more full school years after this year - so wouldn't be starting secondary until September 2015 - which is good news, because he has longer to get up to speed with the language

Luce30

Thanks for that :-) It's my daughter, but yes, she was born in feb 2003. That's great news to have an extra year! I'm not sure she'll think so, going back into year 4 lol. We have already started teaching her a bit and she's picking it up well, so hopefully she'll be fine. Do you think they would let my son start in yr 1 (currently in 2) so he'd start off with the basics? He was born oct 2005

flotsum

When we moved over my children were about the same age as yours will be. Where we are the schools teach on a 2 year cycle so they have 2 years to meet the required standard to go up to the next cycle the school insisted that they both start at the beginning of the two year cycle, so my son had to re/take year 1 and my daughter continued in the year she was due to start. My daughter was 10 and painfully shy but she was fine, everyone took so much interest in both of them, even now their old teachers come up to them in the street to make sure they are still OK. It was more of a struggle for my 10 year old, my son who went into year 1 found the academic work a repeat of what he had done in the UK which really meant he could concentrate on the language, it took my daughter a year to get on top of the language and her academic work. They will need a lot of support at home when it comes to homework. My daughter was lucky in that everyone in her class looked after her my son found it harder I think because most of his classmates had moved up from a single class in infants together and were shy of him because he spoke english, however the headmistress insisted he joined football club and all was well "pasar" seems to be fairly universal as is "gol"!

lynnxa

sorry I don't know how I did that

your son will be in yr2 here - so he'd have 5 years of primary including this year

some schools will allow them to start a year back - some will even recommend it - but there probably won't be any real need

the primary schools around here will 'hold back' children who don't 'pass the year' on the even years (2, 4 & 6) so either or both might find themselves repeating at the end of this year in any case