Moving to calahonda - Schooling

Hi all

im a first time user and looking for as much advice as i can get... we have been traveling to this area for a few years now due to my brother living in calahonda ... we have two children one of which will be going to college and thinking of st anthonys for his a levels.... but we have a question mark over our 12 year old daughter, initially thought of going the easy route and putting in an internation engilsh school but while on our last vist we where advised by both a couple of expats and Spanish friends to consider a spanish state school for her... . Which is my first question spanish or english ? Shes really keen to give it ago, which is a bonus as she wants to kearn the language, im just wondering how she will find the language barrier... the secondary school being looked at is the the in la cala I.E.S.... any thoughts positive or negative ? Regards a confused dad simon

Haven't you heard of the Brexit ...If i were you i think i would wait and see what deal the UK gets before i made such a life changing decision.

Windtalker;   it would seem Simon knows what he is doing.

So good luck Simon and welcome to EOS. 

Hopefully you will get advice you need from some who know about schools here

windtalker:  if you have nothing positive to say then  please keep your  political Views to yourself

As John says, if you keep the thread in view by the occasional posting, I'm sure someone with experience of the region and education matters will come through eventually.  

Good luck. 

Simonm

At 12 yrs old the workload in high school is high and learning a new language at the same time will be difficult.

IMO (and experience) your daughter will fall behind very quickly and it would be very difficult to catch up. Spanish state schools have strict repeat a year system which means if the child does not make the grade in that year they have to do it all again

Learning Spanish to the level she will require will take a minimum of 6 months with lots of private tuition after school - please don't rely on the school or other expat children. the school they will work with you if you have a plan but it wil be hard during the first 6 months at least and can yo afford any slippage in her education.

Can't comment on teh school you mention

You could start intensive Spanish lessons now whilst in the uK but it will still be tough

Sorry to sound negative but I have seen many fall by the wayside at this age

I  would advsie and suggest an international school where she will also learn Spanish. This would be my choice for any child over the age of 8 yrs. Too much risk involved

One final comment - do you speak Spanish? If not helping a child with homework (they get a lot) may be difficult

Good luck in whatever you choose

What i said was positive ...If i were you i would wait to see what in store for expats in Spain after Brexit nothing political about that   at all it's called common sense     ...I would also consider my 12 year olds education especially with only 4 years left in the UK system . You asked for advice i gave you some ...If you don't like positive advise then carry on.

We have removed the 'schooling thread ' to avoid repetition. 

Tadd1966 makes some good points. However, you may also find that she is already ahead of the Spanish state system in many subjects if she is progressing well in the UK (your 12-year-old). As Tadd said she will need about 6 months at her age to pick up the language properly, kids are much quicker even at 12. I have friends who just moved to Switzerland and their 12 and 15-year-old are speaking German already after just 7 months, so I wouldn't worry about the Spanish too much. However if you go to an English school they will most likely give her extra Spanish support anyway. All the kids speak Spanish outside of class so she will pick up Spanish anyway. If you can choose a private school I would go that route, the teaching will be much better and she will get a better education. I have had a lot of experience with both types of schools and I would not 'always' recommend state schools, it very much depends on the school and that is very difficult to know until you are in, my experience hasn't been great. I don't know St Anthony's but it won't be difficult to get feed back on it from the local area. The best is to speak to people from the area or other parents. Also you can check their GCSE and A-level grades to get an idea.

Ian

Good points but again in my exprience I find my family in Spain are ahead of family and friends of a similar age in UK on many subjects especially maths, sciences and languages

Where they are different is IT is lacking in Spain in comaprison with uK but improving, history similar but more focus on Spain history rather than Uk history and maybe Geography again Spanish vs UK

Funny you should say that, my experience has been exactly the opposite ie. maths and sciences when comparing to my nephews and nieces in the UK. Just goes to show that that the differences between schools and autonomous communities are very big. I'm am referring to Valencia when I comment of course.

Ian

Yes funny how things are and maybe it depends on the school, pupils, teachers, parents etc. 

I do prefer the Baccalaureate to A levels much broader and IMO better prep for uni