Your choices for School Education
At present within the San Miguel de Salinas region, you have a choice of schools to send your child to. The Spanish State Education system or to a private bilingual school where the main spoken language is English.
The decision depends upon the age and nature of the child concerned and also how long you intend to stay in the country. If your intention is to make a new life for yourself and your family here, then your children must learn the language to stand any chance of finding work in the future. My children were 7 and 4 years when they started at the school and five years on they are doing really well, they are fluent Spanish Speakers and they have been completely accepted into the community.
Children older than 11 years, will find it much harder to integrate into a Spanish school and I would say this is solely based upon them being embarrassed at not understanding what the teacher is saying to them and not feeling able to join in. If your child is confident and mixes easily then they should be able to cope. Some children I know are doing well whilst others have had to be moved to a bilingual school. As with any school, a lot depends upon how much the child wants to work and if they have help outside of school. We have paid for a private tutor to help our children for an hour a week since we moved here.
When we purchased our property over here we were completely miss lead by our sales representative by being told that our children would be fluent within six months. This is an absolute load of rubbish and I am amazed at how many families are still told the same. Children pick the language up very quickly but to start with this is play ground chit chat and not learning as such. Personally, I would say that it takes two years to be able to actually learn in another language but all the time they are at school they are learning a completely new culture and are being accepted into the community.
Schools in San Miguel De Salinas
Gloria Fuertes School
Primary School 6 – 12 years
The school year is different to the UK and some children find they go back a year, as it is done strictly by calendar year 1 January to 31 December. You will also find that children are kept back a year if the teachers feel that they are not ready to go up. This is general practice and is accepted by the children.
The school takes new admissions in September at the beginning of the school year but will also take children throughout the year. To enroll you will need to collect admission forms from the school, to get this you will need to be able to produce the padron (proving where you live). You will need to take your child to the doctors, with your childs medical book from the UK and the doctor will complete a form for you to take to the school to say that your child is up to date with their injections. Allow a couple of weeks to get all this sorted.
There are no fees to be paid at the state school but you will need to purchase school books each year and as a rough guide it is generally cost around 200.00 euros per child for everything.
School starts on or around the 10th September and runs through until roughly the 23rd of June. School hours are from 9am until 4.30pm with a very long lunch and unlike lots of Spanish schools that close for lunch, Gloria Fuertes stays open – You do not have the option of a packed lunch, as the Spanish traditionally sit down to a three course meal at lunch times. Menu choice can be a little strange but if you can persevere with making your kids stay it will do them the world of good. My kids now eat things that I would never have dreamt they would eat and more importantly things I would not have made them eat.
The school is very friendly and very well run and I have to say that I have never had any problems with bullying between children of different ethnic groups – In fact exactly the opposite. If there are ever any problems it is usually between the English and in general it is usually with the girls, but I think this is girls in general! As my husband tells me boys just play football! The staff are very good, although you always get the exception to the rule at any school. Jose the headmaster speaks very good English and they do run extra lessons to help the English children integrate.
I.E.S Los Alcores,
(Senior School) – (12yrs – 16yrs)
The above ages depend upon weather your child has been kept back a year. School hours are from 8am – 2pm with the emphasis on homework and the child wanting to do well. For more details contact www.ieslosalcores.cult.gva.es (only in Spanish)
A FEW THOUGHTS
You will wonder on many occasions as to weather you made the right choice for your children. There will be days when after hours of going through the Spanish dictionary trying to help with homework, you think you are going to go mad. The School meetings that you sit through for hours and do not understand (you must go to these as it is part of being accepted) and endless form filling in. But, I can assure you that if you go for the Spanish option, your children will make you very proud.
One of my favorite memories about moving to Spain is when we were making arrangements to do our Will. Our daughter had been at school over here for about three weeks at the time and we asked her who she would like to live with if anything happened to either of us. To our amazement she picked one of her new school friends, announcing to us that she had no intention of going back to England and would only live with a member of the family if they moved out to Spain. This was a different child to the one I had left at school crying only three weeks before and made me feel a whole lot better about our decision to move.
 El Limonar International
El Limonar International School has been operational in since 1998. In September 2004 the school transfers to its brand new site at San Miguel de Salinas. The school is situated on the road linking La Zenia and San Miguel de Salinas, very close to the Villamartín Golf Course and complex.
The new purpose built School on 12.000m² of land consists of classrooms averaging 60 m² for Infant, Primary and Secondary pupils aged 3 - 16. The building of 5.000m² houses computer rooms, science rooms, audiovisual rooms, libraries and a dining hall. Playground facilities include a play areas and a multipurpose ground for football and basketball.
Web site address www.ellimonarinternational.com |
