here,s wishing it was!! My 2 oldest aren,t impressed with the "been held back a year" thing but then i suppose it will give them more encouragement to do well and it gives them a better chance at the language! We,ll never know if it,s the right thing until we,ve done it, we,re just doing what we think is the best for our kids and from what i,ve read previously i,m sure it is!

Debi

Hi Debi, we are moving to La Llacuna, not too far from Gandia, I have a 9yr old that is going into school and a 17yr old lad that will be looking for work, as Amber says until you try you will never know! good luck with the house

Ang

HI, I didn't have much time to look at the forum lately, but I am still in a process of settling and have a 3rd grader. I decided to put him in a British school as neither I nor he speak any Spanish at all, and where we are English is not much spoken..We are in a small beach town north of Valencia and the school is in Valencia. I have only the best to say about the school. My son is the only non-spanish speaking child at the elementary and they will give him private classess until he is up to the par with spanish curiculum. Head master is English and is really great. School is a bit chaotic but classes are small (15 in my son's class) and the Headmaster knows every single child by heart. This type of school suited us as they don't sell you merchandise etc like Caxton College for eg (which is also a British school but much larger and to me looks like a business rather than the school).
Apart from food (which they are "forced " to eat and I can't believe that my son is actually eating it albeit under protest) the boy loves it.

They even arranged a private transport for him as he is the only one going from our village but he comes home by bus.

As I said, although some may not like this kind of, slightly informal. school, we love it and have only the best to say about everyone.
Good luck with your move.

lets just face it what kid would like the idea of being kept back a year longer
I know I would not have !!!



But in a few years they will be thanking you or when they get the better jobs.

Even if they then come back to live in England they will then have a second language so this will help with getting jobs

It is hard for 13/14yrs + to go into the spanish system. Because of this "holding back" they have to repeat every year untill they pass all subjects except 4 (in Valencia region). My son goes to a private english school and is taking Igcse's this year. A number of his expat friends in the spanish system are now "dropping out" once they reach 16 so will leave school with no qualifications. It is expensive but alot cheaper than private school in UK. around €6000 p.a.

I agree with sercher. We are at British school of Valenca and it is about 6000 eur per yr without bus/lunch. For us, so far, it is well worth it.