Spanish children start secondary school at 12 , a year later than their English counterparts.The added maturity makes the whole process a lot less frightening and, for the less academic children, the life sentence of 5 years before you can leave is at least reduced to 4!
Secondary schools are called, rather ominously, “Institutos” (or Insti by the students) and are found in all decent sized village with a population of above 5000 and of course several of them in towns and cities.
They do not normally run to a huge size even in the larger cities such as Malaga. More schools rather than bigger schools is the rule!
Some schools have a uniform policy now, but it is not the norm and there certainly isn’t a big problem of inappropriate or designer gear being worn to school! Another big difference between UK and Spanish secondaries is the hours.
Institutos start classes at 8:15 and have a continuous day until 2:45, with 2 short breaks for the boys to ram sandwiches down their throats as quickly as possible! For some of the more rural children who get picked up by bus at 7 and not returned home until 4 this almost amounts to torture by starvation!
The four year compulsory ESO course is divided up into 2 chunks of 2 years and children have to pass the first chunk before they can move up to the second. This involves repeating the year for some children but it also means that all kids know what they are doing and as a result far fewer are disillusioned and marginalised so behaviour is generally a lot better than in UK comprehensives.
For the first two years kids study the same subjects, maths, Spanish, social sciences, natural sciences, English, French, music, art, religion and PE. In the third year geography, history, biology, physics, chemistry and geology put in an appearance.
In the fourth and final year, students choose between the arts or science side. If they plump for sciences, be warned, the maths become very hard (equivalent to about UK A level). They study all the sciences and laboratory techniques as well as the basics-2 foreign languages included.
The arts kids study history, ethics, and “cultura classica”- an introduction to the classics. School life is hard and the pressure can be quite intense as the ESO qualification is essential for virtually all further steps in life. However, as with the primary schools, there are frequent school trips and outings to break up the monotony.
After ESO the students have three main choices; to leave and start work, to carry on at the school studying for the “Bachillerato” (baccalaureate) in the humanities, art, natural sciences, social sciences, or technical sciences or to stay on studying but for a “formacion profesional” qualification.
These are the equivalent to UK GNVQ and HNVQs and are practical based courses in very wide range of subjects from childcare to forestry.
The bachillerato courses are very hard work and yet again, repeating a year is quite common. All students have to study philosophy for the 2 years which can try even the cleverest of students! Philosophy at 16! Other compulsory subjects include French and English.
The humanities students study Latin and Greek, History of Art, History, law and sociology and the science students the separate sciences, maths and economics for the social scientists.
Overall the “bac” system is a much wider based education and students really do finish with an impressive range of knowledge. But be warned it is an exhausting tearful ride-and that’s just the mum!
