Just thought I would tell you of our experience in Spain,

We moved here 6 years ago with a 5 year old and another on the way (house in the UK sold quicker than expected). We moved to a village inland about 30 minutes from Guadamar. Our daughter was the only English child in the village school at the time and at 5 picked up the language in no time, but we were prepared to send her to El Liminor International School if she was not happy. Out other daughter was born here and as you would expect is now fluent in Spanish and as far as she is concerned she is Spanish.

We have seen quite a few children come and go over the last few years and it seems to be no problem for the younger ones but is harder for the older children, they need a good year to master the language and with more English children in the school it is easier to stick to an “English group” and not mix with the Spanish children, which then makes it harder for them to be accepted and do all the normal things you would expect like go to the pictures etc, but at the end of the day all children are different in how they mix with others.

The choice was easier for us because of our children’s ages, you may find that your 14 year old may not be accepted into state secondary school if there is a language problem, but I think this varies from area to area so International may be the only choice.

I always seem to have a house full of children English and Spanish, I find it hard when the Spanish children are all talking to me at once and I don’t always understand, I get by but wouldn’t class myself as fluent ,but I learn a lot from these little people!

So for all of you out there it is a hard decision to make especially when your main concerns are for your children and how they will cope, personally for us the only regret that we have is that we hadn’t done it sooner.

 

Do as much research as you can, the village where we live is very different from the coast but they are only 30 minutes apart.

 

So good luck and if you move to the Orihuela Costa area PM me for a chat and a coffee.

 

Mint Bunny