Jason and Abi

Considering moving out with my self employed beautician wife and my two year old son.
Any advice on schooling please

Rosemary

Hi and a warm welcome to the Spanish forum on BE. Myself and Fred James are the moderators for the Spanish forums whilst BEVS moderates Europe. Moderators are there to ensure that the site runs smoothly within the rules of BE. This is so that members gain the information that they are looking for and find their experiences on the forums to be friendly and worthwhile.

Problems and complaints should always be addressed to a moderator who will look into the matter and deal with it efficiently and fairly. Our members who post in the Spain Forums are usually friendly and helpful with a wealth of knowledge about the issues of living in Spain. I hope that you enjoy your time participating in the forums.

Please let me know if you need any further help.

Rosemary

Tadd1966

So many threads on this subject

Spanish state school is free from 3 yrs old (optional from 3 to 6 yrs old)
Nurseries for under 3's you have to pay
Alternatives (just like UK) private, bi lingual, international, boarding etc etc
Assuming your wife is going to set up / register her business / self employment in Spain you will need to understand the autonomo system.
Good luck

SezWez

Hi Jason and Abi

We're going through the same thing, we're both self employed so don't need to rely on Spain for an income and we've discovered there's a few different types of school:

The publico schools are free and follow a Spanish curriculum, they're good schools but can lack with extra curricular and class sizes can be 30+ All lessons are taught in Spanish so picking up the language is easier - they will usually use a local dialect too

Concertado schools are state subsidised schools which are usually catholic and can sometimes be boarding schools too but this isn't a requirement for attendance - you do have to pay fees for these schools, though it is much lower than an English private school. The extra curricular side is more advanced than the public schools and they will usually have an English department as well as teaching in Spanish and local dialect. Usually teach a Spanish curriculum

Privado schools are completely private and incur higher fees than the concertado schools but still lower than England. The set up is very similar to concertado's but they can adapt their curriculum more.

International schools are mainly taught in English with Spanish lessons and can be chosen dependant on the curriculum you wish i.e English, American etc and have equivalent exams and qualifications.

I hope this helps

Sarah

Rosemary

Not all public schools teach in Spanish. In the Valencian Province most lessons are in Valenciano. I am sure that others have said that lessons are in the local language in various areas but I hope that they will come on and clarify that for you.

Rosemary

snikpoh

In theory one can choose a 'stream' but in practice this isn't the case. At my children's school, some lessons are in Spanish and the rest in Valencian (about a 60:40 split).

Tadd1966

Class sizes vary from school to school and area to area - pretty much the same as UK.
As for Valencia the further north you go yes Valeciano becomes the 1st language but in the south as you get closer to Murcia the 1st language is Spanish and Valeciano 2nd and English 3rd. Same in Barcelona, Galicia and Balearic's
Local dialects are generally no different to regional accents in UK.
High schools introduce other languages as options mainly French & German
So many things that can go on out of school either in conjunction with the school or council run sports facilities, which are great and not expensive.
IMO Spanish state school is far better than anything I seen in UK but do your research
If you are self employed remember you will still have to pay Spanish tax etc if you live in Spain.

chopera

Firstly if by "local dialect" people are referring to Catalan, Valenciano, Basque, Gallego etc then they are using the wrong word. They are languages in their own right. Not dialects of Spanish (although I'd say Valenciano and Catalan are dialects of each other). Secondly the difference between these languages and Castillian Spanish is a hell of a lot more than regional accents in the UK. Most have common Latin roots, so there are similarities that make them easier to understand if you already speak Spanish, but it would still take time to learn them. Basque on the other hand is a completely separate language and would require a considerable time to learn.

snikpoh

... be careful ...

chopera

I'm trying to be

Tadd1966

You are quite correct and I assumed when "local dialects" was mentioned they did not mean Catalan, Valenciano or Galician etc. and were accents / local slang etc.I always try and imagine Catalan & Valenciano & the languages spoken in the Balearics (all very similar) are a half way house between Spanish and French but yes the various Basque languages are more in line with the Gaelic languages

chopera

Yes I realise it wasn't you who introduced the term "local dialects" to the thread, you were replying to someone else, but I felt it needed clarification. There certainly are dialects throughout Spain, but people should be aware that moving their kids to certain regions of Spain might entail their kids being mainly taught in a different language to Spanish.

BTW I don't think Basque is in line with any other language at all - it is quite unique. But we're getting a bit off topic .

Tadd1966

Apologies for going off topic
You may be right I don't speak either Basque or Gaelic but there are some links to the Basque language from the Celtics (you can probably say that about all languages) - see link
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Origin_of_the_Basques