Help me convince my wife!

[cdheiner]

Well, I'm getting pretty serious about moving from E.E.U.U. to españa in about a year if all goes well.

Before I get too far into the process, I need to convince my wife that we can and should do this. She has a couple of major dilemas that I thought the forum might be able to help with:

1) We have four kids, the oldest being 10. Where could I read specifically about living there with young kids (English schools, safety, acceptance of a large family of foreigners, etc.)? Does anyone have personal experience or know of a specific post, blog, book, etc. that would help with this?

2) She loves her career as a fitness instructor, and would love to be able to continue teaching classes (step, spin, weightlifting, floor aerobics). The problem is she doesn't speak Spanish. Any idea if she would be able to teach in English (or minimal Spanish)?

Thanks! ... CODY

[omeyas]

You could try looking here. (http://andalucia.com/forums/topic-f24.htm?sid=0eb2cf40b7be6cc3a73cd5e5d787306f)
There are a few American schools in the larger cities, and lots of International schools, but they don't come cheap, especially for four kids.

[landlady]

Ohhh, Cody, don't get me started on schools for foreign kids here - I could write a book on it!! Seriously, there have been loads of postings in forums relating to public versus private schools - pros and cons - and the problems facing foreign children in schools in Spain.

The crux of it seems to be, if you get the children in early, they are better off in a Spanish public school and soon pick up the Spanish language. For your eldest child however - private would probably be more advisable. although neither course guarantees you a good education here! We have found the way the Spanish teach the children is much like how we were taught some 40 years ago. Not saying thats bad, but we do find they control the class by punishment (detention, lines etc.) rather than motivate the children by praise and exciting lessons, especially at senior level. Emphases seems to be on lots of tests and the threat of being held back a year if the child does not pass them. Off course, different problems arise depending on which area you wish to live in and not all schools are the same. Sometimes children have settled in with no problem into a totally Spanish environment, but it has to be said that I have heard of some cases of bullying, because of the child being different, that forced the parents to remove their children and move them to another school where there were more English speaking children.

Your wife would have no problems teaching her skills in the area I live in as there is a huge British population, and she and the children would probably settle in easier initially too with the support that is here for them, (English language, friends, activities, familiar products etc. etc) but I am guessing that you would prefer a more Spanish area.

We treat this as a stepping stone and will move off an urbanisation and into a more Spanish area once our daughter has finished her education and I can speak Spanish more or less fluently. There has been and still is a lot of problems and challenges to be faced and a lot of improvements that need to be made with the educations system here, i.m.o.. Some parents and children have been lucky and found the perfect school and environment for themselves, but many others have had a lot of stress and grief to find a good school where their child can be happy AND get a good education - we are still struggling to find this, but then, that's the same the World over isn't it.

[cdheiner]

You could try looking here. (http://andalucia.com/forums/topic-f24.htm?sid=0eb2cf40b7be6cc3a73cd5e5d787306f)
There are a few American schools in the larger cities, and lots of International schools, but they don't come cheap, especially for four kids.


Thank you for the link to the Parents in Andalucía discussions. I haven't had a chance to look through them in much detain yet, but it seems like a great place to start getting ideas from other parents.

I found a website for one American school in Barcelona that listed tuition rates - depending on age, they were about 700-800 euros/child/month :'(. Is this about the going rate? Are the prices any different in Madrid or elsewhere?

Finally (and sorry if this is a dumb question), what's the difference between International and American schools? ... CODY

[cdheiner]

The crux of it seems to be, if you get the children in early, they are better off in a Spanish public school and soon pick up the Spanish language. . . .

Your wife would have no problems teaching her skills in the area I live in as there is a huge British population. . . .

Thanks, landlady, for your reply. My wife was happy to hear that you think she could teach, at least initially, fitness classes in English.

As for Spanish vs. English schools, whey is it too late to put kids right into a Spanish-speaking school? If we move within a year or so, my kids would be 4, 8, and 10.

Finally, what have the tuition ranges been in your experience for private, English-speaking schools?

Thanks ... CODY

[Pepino]

I'm not a parent, but I think the first thing I imagine that you have to weigh up is your kids individual personalities. If you've got 3 fairly outgoing, sociable kids who make friends easily in your home town, then I'd put money on the fact that you'll have 3 fairly outgoing, sociable kids able to make friends when they suddenly find themselves in a Spanish environment too. They might even find themselves the coolest kids in the school if they've got the right outlook. 3 shy wallflowers might struggle though and become a target if you're unlucky enough to end up with a school with any kind of bully culture.

I remember different new kids coming into my school years ago, and thinking back, the way that some of them sailed into a comfortable school life or not, was probably down to their own outlook (and you can't teach that kind of thing)

Maybe I see things from too much of an adult point of view though.

Best of luck though with your plans! :)

[djS]

Guadalajara, Spain
The Doyles http://www.rte.ie/tv/thegreatescape/images/doyles.jpg

Mark Doyle, his wife Sonia and their two daughters Rebecca 13yrs and Ambar 3yrs moved from Bray, Co.Wicklow to Guadalajara, a town near Madrid, Spain in 2005. Originally from Guadalajara, Sonia was studying english in Bray when she met Mark 16 yrs ago. Along with his family Mark owned and ran a pub on Bray seafront – Jim Doyles. After 14 yrs of life together in Bray Mark and Sonia decided a change of lifestyle was in need for the whole family.

In short they felt that Spain would give them an all round better quality of family life. Sonia moved over first with the girls to settle them into school, while Mark stayed on in Bray to sort the sale of the family home and his share of the business. Sonia’s family still live in Guadalajara and the Doyles stay with Granny and Granpa initially...

By December 2005 Mark is over in Spain full time and they’ve bought and moved into their new home....and settling into their new life in Spain.
ttp://www.rte.ie/tv/thegreatescape/guadalajara.html

try see can i get it on podcast and give to ben to post it up ere
jurdy

watched it and was very good

[olivia]

Hello,

I moved to Malaga with my 8 year old son last september and initially put him in a private school costing about 400 euros a month before extra curriculum activities...and the special school uniform had to be bout from one overpriced shop in town. We did not last a month there... in fact we only did 2 weeks and moved to a local school and now he speaks very good spanish!

What we found was the British private schools primarily cater for spanish kids who were begining their english studies..so the standards were quite low compared at least to England. Also the schools promoted English speaking only, apart of the daily one hour spanish class which was too fast and advanced for our son when he was starting there. That was our main reason for moving him... he was going to take years to learn the language.

The local school is fine...it took our son a while to settle. Not being able to communicate with other kids and the teacher was quite tough for all of us but after about a month he was practically soaking up the language. If your child is timid and shy she/he may need some extra support. The school offered the foreign kids 2 private hours a week on a one to one contact with a language teacher. I do not know if that is common to all spanish mainstream schools. My son continues to benefit from these classes and he is nowing throwing around subjuntivos much to my annoyance!!!! he is also very happy with his new language and prefers to speak Spanish more than English.

I am not sure you will be getting value for money by sending you children to a private school. There are quite a few good schools ...well atleast in malaga and the standard of the mainstream schools is not bad at all. These kids start main school at 6 years old, my son started a lot ealier in England and he is not that ahead of his peers. You could perhaps pay for spanish tuitions untill the kids are upto speed with the language.

[landlady]

I agree with what Olivia says about the International schools Cody. We personally have had a lot of problems in our area with the private schools and state schools, but that could be because we had such an influx of foreigners emigrating here over the last three years, and it has overwhelmed the schools. We moved here 5 years ago and the first year here was ideal for us in our local village school, but overcrowding and 60% of foreign speaking children has put a great strain on local headmasters - it became such a problem for us at one point that we took our daughter, who had settled in well at the age of eight, and put her into a new private International school which promised the earth and seemed absolutely wonderful-worth it for us even though the €600 Month fee plus extras seriously strained our budget. However, it was all a con, and 9 months later the school was closed down by the police for not being legal and having the correct licences. It happens in Spain that businesses, including schools! can open with a temporary license whilst waiting for inspections and final licenses, can advertise broadly in newspapers, billboards & the like and get a lot of families paying loads of money for matriculation, school fees, uniform, buses etc. and stay open for business for as long as they can get away with it >:D

Its a very long story, and one I don't want to go into again here, but the crux was that over 100 children were left high and dry 3/4 through a school year having to suddenly find other places and having difficulties because they were considered as being un-schooled for the time they were in this establishment (so not having the correct paperwork). We ended up putting our daughter back into her original state school as the headmaster knew what had gone on and took pity on us.

Things have improved a little over the years as the Spanish teachers have adapted to the needs of the foreign speaking children, and extra help is given to them in extra Spanish language lessons - but at senior level they do not have the resources, (or the Town Hall spends the education budget on other things >:D)so any child who doesn't already understand and speak Spanish and so cannot follow some fairly difficult technical lessons such as science, maths etc taught totally in Castellano. has very little chance of doing well. Many families with older children have returned to to the UK because of the problems with their older children's education here. This may be different in other areas, but as far as I'm aware, true of the Costa Blanca. That is why I suggested you look into a private school for your 10 year old, as he/she would be probably going into the senior school (aged 11) by the time you move to Spain.

Told you I could write a book on it :eek: