celestine

Good morning Spain. I hope my post finds you all in good spirits. A little help if possible. My daughter has changed primary schools this year and in her previous school was receiving addition language support during the RE periods and after school. I was lead to believe this was due to a government ruling on additional support for non Spanish children attending state Spanish schools. However since her move she has yet to receive any additional support. Could anyone tell me if this is something that is optional for schools to provide or a requirement. Many thanks. ps We live in Andalucia if this changes anything.

CBANDY

How old is your daughter? My daughter has just started spanish state school but as she is only 3 yrs old there is no problem with the language. In just 6 weeks she is speaking to us in spanish at home.

fionamw

I don't believe it can be any kind of government ruling; certainly it doesn't apply in this little bit of Andalucia. None of the foreign children I knew at 7yo's previous school had support. There was an after-school Spanish class some months of the year but no-one said anything about it being any kind of requirement & certainly not all the foreign children attended.

celestine

Thanks to you both for your comments. She is 9 soon to be 10 and although fantastic with most parts of the language some aspects of the language theory are a little more difficult for her to grasp. That aside she is scoring well in the tests she is having. The previous school must have just undertaken the support system themselves as they had more non Spanish children attending. Mini me is the only non Spanish kid at this school and can hold her own with spoken so I guess they won't think this is needed. Have a good day. C

manamama

My daughter is now 11 and when we came she was 9. The school itself did alot to support the children in learning Spanish. There were alot of british children and the director had arranged for after school lesson in Spanish. Also there was English lessons for the spanish children.

That was in Benahavis, Southern Spain.

However, in the North, my children get no additional help at all. No spanish lessons at all, but my children (3 of them) seem to be doing well.

My son and daughter who are 6 and 7 are pretty much top of the class. My eldest daughter struggles with the language as the work is harder but she is coping OK. She got a 7.75 in science test this week, which is good. However last week she got a 2 in Maths A bit disappointing but she says she didn't understand the problem questions. So have to help her a bit myself really. But usually she does well.

I think its a case that either us parents help more or get a private tutor.

snikpoh

My twins started school here just over 2 years ago (aged 9) and were the only English there (although there were lots of Romanians and Morrocans). They were, and still are, given additional help. This is partly to bring their Spanish up-to-speed but also to help with their Valencian as a number of subjects are taught in that language.

We were specifically told that this was a Spanish school unlike others inthe town which were deemed valencian. However, as time has progressed, more and more lessons are now taught in Valencian.

Anyway, to go back, at the same time as my 9 year old started, my elder son (aged 11) also started. He was given NO extra tuition but was simply thrown in the deep end and told to survive!

So, even within the same school, there seems to be no standard - some get help and some don't!

twistedmelon

Hello celestine,
Usually when a non spanish speaking child starts school they are put in the year below the one they should be in to help them adjust and for teachers to ascertain the childs ability.
ALL children will receive support in a subject if they are lacking, in your case this should be during other subjects, as you say RE and usually during english as this is obviously a subject they are not in need of.
I think it was policy to have extra staff to provide support but this is not law.
Arrange a meeting with staff if you are concerned.

Fortaleza

Extra help is given - certainly in Andalucia - at each school's discretion, depending mainly on staff availability. In primary schools, you will often find that the English teacher's level is quite poor in terms of conversational English as they rarely need to cover much more than numbers, colours, sports, pastimes and VERY basic grammar structures. There was a situation in a school in our town some years ago where the English teacher felt she didn't have sufficient English to help out so my missus was brought in for a short while. That was a fairly rare case. However I have found that in general after a month or so of total immersion, the need for extra assistance tends to fade away - of course, this is dependant on the child, and I've generally found the younger the child, the easieer it is for them. From about 9 or 10 onwards it is much harder.