tlcjs

Hi, Me and my husband are moving to Spain in two years time with out two children who will then be four and three, so were just looking for abit of advice.
We will be moving in with my mum and dad while we look for somewhere to live, and when we get there they'll be six months till our son starts school.

Is it best to put our children into Spanish or international schools?

If they went to a Spanish school, how do children cope with the langue barrier?

Are they groups i can go to with my children to meet other English people in the area?

Thankyou

Rosemary

As Concierge for the Spanish section of BE I would like to say hello and welcome.

BE is a very large expat website, so if you have problems finding your way around we have concierges who will try to direct you. The moderators for the Spanish forums are Mitzyboy and Fred James, moderators are there to ensure that the site runs smoothly within the rules of BE. Problems and complaints should always be addressed to a moderador who will look into the matter and deal with it efficiently and fairly. Our members who post in the Spain Forums are friendly and helpful with a wealth of knowledge of the issues of living in Spain. At the top of the page you will find a quirkily named thread called Free Beer which is full of important and useful information. Hope you enjoy your time participating in the forums.

Please let me know if you need any further help.

Rosemary

fionamw

Ok I know little of the Nerja/Torrox area (apart from liking Torrox west beach in the summer!) but ref schooling in general:
Please put them in Spanish school. At 4 & 3 they will soak up enough to be speaking quite happily in not many weeks - certainly in a few months they'll have an Andaluz accent! Our now-10yo started in the 2nd year of pre-escolar at rising 5 and knew the requisite six or 10 words to get him to the loo, say hello & goodbye, say his name etc and was one of the gang rapidly. Many people will tell you sticking with the Spanish system throughout is fine and I have no doubt it is fine, for us though we wanted the security of knowing his English would be up to the level expected of his school year if he were in the UK so we put him in a British international school at age 7 rising 8. So thusfar it's 3 years Spanish state school, 2 and a bit British ... where ironically there are fewer 'furriners' in his year than in the village state school!!! and having just met his Spanish teacher yesterday I know from her that she regards him as being a pupil of the same level as a native Spanish speaker. (his work ethic and actual marks are another issue)
So.... each to their own. Read up as much as you can about job prospects for young people here and/or in the UK or for that matter anywhere; clearly that's going to sound laughable at the ages your littlies are, and for many people just making a move to a different culture/environment/lifestyle is worth it for its own sake, even if not longer-term. As I was saying before I interrupted myself, read as many threads as you can, and best of luck

katekordzinski

Hi

I found your thread through searching on the web. My husband and I are also looking to relocate to Torrox/Costa/Park within the next couple of years and have the same questions. Have you found any answers when doing your research? Would you mind sharing them please?

Our boys are aged 5 and 3. Do you know what the local school is like, does it cope with English children and would my sons manage in school?
We've been to Torrox many times but this was before we had our children. Are there are playgroups etc for younger children and basically what is life like living in Torrox?

Thanks

flotsum

Hi i do not live in the area but I have 2 children in spanish state school and can share my experience of that. They started at 6 and 9 and have been in a spanish school for 3 years, the youngest rapidly picked up spanish the older took a bit longer as she is very shy but both were speaking and holding there own in 6 months, it took my oldest a year to write confidently but none the less they both passed every subject the first year. There are no other english children in the school, the teachers insisted they learn spanish through play and that they both joined after school clubs so that they could talk in a non classroom environment. However we have to constantly insist at home that our youngest does extra reading and writing in english as his primary language for these is now spanish and he is loosing these abilities in english and reads english with a spanish accent!

katekordzinski

Hi

Thank you for your reply. It has been really helpful and given us something to think about. Where in Spain did you move to if you don't mind me asking? Are you glad you made the move from the UK and happy with the way of life there with your family?

We are looking to move mainly for a more family orientated environment/ way of life (and the weather!) We would be moving near family (in laws) and will have some community around us initially which is a bonus.

Did you fit into your new community easily etc?
Hope you don't mind me asking-it's giving us food for thought and other people's experiences help.
Thanks Kate

fionamw

Assuming your family are either British or English-speaking, and the community you refer to is English speaking, you might have to make some choices about how you prioritise that side of life and how you prioritise your children's learning of their (presumably new and presumably to become equally-important-as-English?) 2nd language. The consensus from reading forums is overwhelmingly that immersion works best, which might possibly conflict with spending time within your 'home' culture. If on the other hand your intention is a short-term venture into Spain, maybe that will play a greater part in your thought processes.
Everyone deals with decisions about their new life in Spain, and how best to configure their child(ren)s education so these comments are not meant to be judgemental, rather to prompt thought.
As to fitting into the community, that too rather depends on where you choose to live and what and who you define as community. Try to read as much as you can on BE Spain ("other places are available"!! ) and you will get a picture. What you do with that knowledge only you can decide

katekordzinski

Thank you for the information. It is much appreciated. Our intention is to fully become involved in the Spanish way of life-schools, community, language etc and having my English inlaws in the same area will help us to settle. We are English residents and only speak English, but with a view to learning Spanish and becoming fully involved in the Spanish way of life -work, friends, school etc. Having our children attend a Spanish school and learn fluent Spanish is our goal, but naturally we are a little apprehensive about them settling in well, making friends (and us) with the initial language barrier. It is good to read that others have immersed themselves fully and it as been a success. I will continue to read further forums and welcome all (good and bad) experiences and/ or advice.
Thank you for your post again.
Kate

flotsum

HI, we live in inland murtcia out in the campo. It was the decision to live in the campo with young children that really shaped our lives! We spend a lot of time driving into town for school runs and then again later in the day for after school clubs or as they have gotten older to meet their friends, this has made a huge impact on our lives and because we live in the campo meeting Spanish friends ourselves has been as almost impossible, a lot of that is my fault I did not expect it but I have really struggled with Spanish, I can get by and sort things out but if someone just starts talking I struggle, and this coupled with the fact that there are very few english speakers where we live has I fear led to some isolation. this is compounded by the fact that my husband who is spanish has had to go back to work in the UK! Having said that our neighbors who are only at their campo homes weekends and holiday are all very friendly and they insist I have their numbers and also shown me where they live so that I can get help, all the local farmers and water company people look out for me and always jump in to help when I have a crisis! We are glad we made the move, although not being a family because of work has been hard, we do have Spanish and English family an hour away so this helps. The children are happy at school and are making very good progress they were much better at adapting to Spanish schools than I thought they would be as the teaching methods were very different in their English school, the one thing we learnt was to go with the flow, sit back and wait and on most occasions the children sorted things out for themselves. The first day at school was the hardest, but despite the language barrier they both could not wait for day 2.

katekordzinski

Thankyou for your reply. It really helps. It's interesting how the kids settle so well when they're our biggest worry!! Knowing my inlaws are in the same area will help me I think-they are very good with our children (and us!). I hope your husband returns to work in Spain soon. It must be isolating at times -even when our youngest was born and my husband worked away a lot I struggled at that time-it was very lonely and hard work on my own. I hope you managed to be together soon.

Thanks again for the information, it really is appreciated.
Kate

vonnie1975

HI, just reading a few comments on here to help me with my move, im moving to torrevieja in jan 2013 i have a 6 and 8 yr old, do you think they will be ok in spanish school ie. the lanuage? how do they teach kids that come from a british school to spanish school? hope some-one can settle my mind a bit as im very worried incase they dont pick up spanish

flotsum

Hi my kids picked up the language by the total immersion of them being in a Spanish environment, they were the only British children there, in fact I don't think the school had had british children before, but there were some morrocan children who also did not speak spanish. The teachers just told us to make sure the children were exposed only to spanish TV, take them to the parks after school, enroll them in after school clubs, they then let the other children teach them through play. Both my children were also given one of the teachers who taught English to go to with their problems and in the first month these teachers checked on them all the time, other than that they sat in the lessons and absorbed the language, they were also both taken out occasionally to help with extra lengua however this back fired because the school inspector said this could only happen when they were being taught lengua so they missed a lengua lesson and had to catch up. We also sent them to school with english/spanish dictionarys that were suitable for their age and had taught them how to use themMy youngest who was 6 coped fine my oldest 10 at the time struggled as obviously the language used in class was more advanced. I will say it has to be a commitment on your part to help them at home, they will need help with their homework etc. We were lucky that our children have done well at school with minimal extra help at school. the teachers also suggested that the children went to summer school in the long summer holidays to ensure that they did not have 3 months of total English conversation. Do you know much about the schools where you are going? Do they have many British children? I know that when we were looking people told us that if there were quite a few English speaking children in the class it would take longer for the children to pick up the language as people would translate for them, I don't know how true that is or if it was just that persons opinion. Also are you learning Spanish as a family now as that will help, we used to switch DVDs that the children knew to Spanish before we moved out to at least let them get used to the sound of Spanish and they seem to just absorb the language, unlike me still struggling!

Rosemary

As Concierge for the Spanish section of BE I would like to say hello and welcome.

BE is a very large expat website, so if you have problems finding your way around we have concierges who will try to direct you. The moderators for the Spanish forums are Mitzyboy and Fred James, moderators are there to ensure that the site runs smoothly within the rules of BE. Problems and complaints should always be addressed to a moderador who will look into the matter and deal with it efficiently and fairly. Our members who post in the Spain Forums are friendly and helpful with a wealth of knowledge of the issues of living in Spain. At the top of the page you will find a quirkily named thread called Free Beer which is full of important and useful information. Hope you enjoy your time participating in the forums.

Please let me know if you need any further help.

Rosemary

paintermujer

I think it also depends on the school you choose.The teaching quality in schools varies massively whether it be a public school or concertado...there have been good and bad said about both.

Our dd has just changed school from public to concertado...in our particular case the new school is worlds apart from her old school and is taught at a much higher level.She in herself is now much calmer because of less classroom disruption and the general ethos and is more prepared to do homework etc.

Get as much info on the schools in the area where you are going to live..if its an expat area you will be able to ask other english speaking families...a bit more difficult in an area with all spanish as only time can really let you get a feel for the general schooling...they never seem to have much of an opinion of their schools...theyre all the same to them but they most certainly are not.

My daughter was 8 when we came here. She hads had her ups and downs even having problems with her dislike of school dinners which in general are vile by the way.

But they come to accept it as normal in the end but to start with it can be a massive culture shock to them.

julesaussie

Hi Kate- we are moving to Torrox Costa next month- my 6 year old will be going to Spanish school- I can let you know how it goes
Jules