chris76

Hi

can anyone recommend any state schooling around murcia?

All the searches just throw up private schooling.

Its for a 7 and 4 year old,the plan is we're wanting to rent for a year but are struggling to pick an area which has state schooling.

we are coming over for a week in a couple of weeks to suss out the area so are keen to hear any suggestions as to where were likely to fit in

thanks in advance

chris76

anyone?

cricketman

All areas have state schooling. Which state school you are sent to will depend on where you live. Normally you are assigned the school closest to your house although sometimes you get a choice if you live in a city and there are several close by

Go to the web page of the ayuntamiento of where you will be living. Sometimes the schools have their own website too and it will be linked from the ayuntamiento page

Just a sidenote that actually only the poorest in society are guarenteed a state school place in Spain. When you apply to the school you have to prove your income, and if the school is full and your family earn too much, you will be told to go to a private school

However, there is a huge lack of kids, Spain has one of the lowest birth rates in the world! So this rarely happens nowadays

chris76

cheers,so its not going to be a problem then?

I just wasn't sure how to approach it,whether i should put schooling first when looking for a area.

Im going to have a good look around the mazarron region in a couple of weeks time,ones things for sure i dont fancy paying around a grand a month for 2 primary school kids.

cricketman

You normally have to apply in around April for the following year, so you may have missed the boat for the 2015-16 course. You need to go and talk to the ayuntamiento of where you will be choosing to live

flotsum

Try www.educarm its the murcia regional portal for state schooling from there you can link into the different schools website. Schools are already allocated for next year. We applied the first year in june it was really difficult as we had to use the appeals process, then appeal in september when our children were allocated different schools!! Murcia run a points system (computerized so does not pick up that children are part of a family) you need to choose at least 3 schools when you apply in fact we were told to list all the schools in the town because if there are no places in the ones you chose they will not allocate to a different school unless it is on your list. As your children will be going into schools which are already allocated you may need to go to the town halls education office and ask which schools have spare places for the years your children need then just list these because you may end up with children in different schools.

chris76

Thanks

So we need to decide on an area and apply by april 2016 for the September start?

So could this be done while living in the uk? Or would we need residency numbers etc?

cricketman

You couldnt do it without a residential address and proof of income (how they allocate places). So in theory you would have to be in Spain

However, you may want to talk to a local gestor to see if there is any way around that

flotsum

In our town you apply for primary school places in february, first allocation in April then its appeals. You will need NIE and proof of residential address, before applying. We also needed a collectivo padron to prove that we were all at the same address for the children to go to the same school.