You have got the job, found a chalet to rent and sorted all your administrative details out but ah.ah something is missing! That’s it, the children’s education! Back to square one and no passing the bank on the way!
Unless your children are still toddlers or babies, this is a difficult and important decision-definitely more important than your choice of villa and urbanisation. They will live with your decision for life-so don’t get it wrong.
We will leave finance out of it for the moment on the assumption that it won’t be a problem, or you think it won’t! Let’s start with the age of your children. The younger they are when you move the better. It sounds obvious but don’t try to move a child in his or her GCSE years.
Lots of people do only to find to their horror that syllabuses at the local international schools are different, facilities are different, some subjects are not on the timetable and their child becomes more and more upset while trying desperately to infiltrate a very well established and cliquey bunch of class mates. Don’t give them more stress at this very stressful time of their lives. In this situation a lot of boys just give up and the girls get more and more upset. There are obvious stages in a child’s life when a move is easier!
If your child is at pre-GCSE level, about to enter year 10, then the nearest international school is the solution. Life would be very tough for them at the local Spanish secondary due to the language problem and the very different approach to education. More subjects are studied and some such as maths and science to a much higher level than in UK schools. There is also more emphasis placed on the memorising of facts and less on the exploration of a subject e.g. there are no practical classes in Science subjects until the sixth form level.
Spanish children stay at primary school until they are 12 which means that if you arrive with an 11 or 12 year old they would have to start off in the last year of primary rather than the first of secondary. A bit of a blow to the child’s ego perhaps but a very useful introduction to the Spanish language and educational system. This extra year at a less intense level will help them become fluent much more quickly and teachers will have more time to give extra support.
As most children pick-up languages very easily starting your child at any time in a Spanish primary should not cause too many problems. However, many children will feel quite unhappy with the different teaching techniques; and will take a while to get used to the frequent exams in each subject and the emphasis placed on memorising whole chunks of the text books. Children who are not particularly academic or are rather shy may well benefit from the more familiar environment of the primary classes at an International School.
If your stay in Spain is only intended to be of a short duration, a year for example, continuity of education will be important and the International School the best bet. But this should be weighed up against the benefit, for a primary aged child, of picking up a second language in a relatively stress free and quick manner.
One last important point to consider is the further education of your child. If you want them to study at university in England it is much easier to gain entry from an International school than from a Spanish one, mainly because the children have to have GCSE English or equivalent to prove they speak English! This can be a real bore due to the lack of time your children will have when studying for the Spanish Baccalaureate and the difficulty of finding a centre near you to sit the exams in without going to classes.
