Im Thinking of Moving to Marbella but what about Schools

Hello Jo

I hope you don’t mind my contacting you but I wanted to ask a question about schools in Marbella re your article about Schools and returning to the UK. It seems the main point you make is that the private system, Aloha College, EIC etc. do not offer a true bilingual education. But what about the general standard of education – is it as good in the private system in Marbella area as in the Uk? And do you think people are returning primarily because the education standard is better in the UK or is it more a question of not having the money to pay for private schooling in Spain?

Thanks in anticipation of any comment you can make on this.

Best Regards

Mark

Btw – I’m asking because we are thinking of moving to Marbella with children.

Hi Mark,

Thanks for your email. This is one of the main reasons which stops me from changing schools. The English Side of the Curriculum is very good. They do seem to push the children here, they get quite alot of home work even at 5 & 6 years old.

However, I havent lived in the uk for 7 years now and not 100% of what the systems are like there, although have friends and family that are teachers and think what my daughter is doing is maybe slightly more ahead than their uk state schools. I dont have a favourite at all regardless of what the other comment says. If you are coming to Spain and want to continue your children in the English Curriculum then you wont have a problem at all getting them into a International / British School. But you have to be happy paying. Whether what you are paying for is really any better than free state in the UK - I dont know.

Re Bilingual - some they say they are bilingual but they arent really because there are not enough hours in the day. But they do teach Spanish and there are many many Spanish Children at these schools too. There are also spanish assistants all day long in the class for 3 & 4 year olds but this normally stops at 5 / 6 years. Then its Spanish just 3 times a week. Some to follow both curriculums and at around year 3 the class will get split i.e spanish subjects for spanish - then spanish as a language for the english and other nationalities. If your child is very good at spanish then you could get them in the group with for Spanish for Spanish (if this makes sense). Re Spanish Schools there are Private & State. Im no way against these at all. Unfortunately because of the Point System (i.e where you live, siblings and earnings) here in Spain we couldnt get our daughter into the Spanish School we wanted where her friends were going. Then we started to become unsure if we were staying and felt that the best scenario is the keep our options open and all over the world are English International Schools.

Also Spanish School years go from Jan to Dec so with my daughter being born the end of Dec she would have been the youngest in the school and this would have been a struggle we felt and also many others including our Spanish friends felt too. People are leaving for many reasons, education is one of the reasons or sometimes just the extra reason to go if you have no work etc. But if you have 1 2 or 3 or 4 kids, private school is alot of money. Many people have taken their kids from Private to State - saying they were not happy with the education - some cases its because they couldnt afford it anymore and some genuingly were not happy with the Level of Spanish.

Then theres some people who cannot beleive you live in Spain and send your kids to an English School. I thought this when I was pregnant and up until my daughter was 2/3 years old she was only going to a Spanish School - but then you start to look around, open your mind and circumstances & things change.

I hope this isnt too negative but more realistic.

Regards

Joanne

Hi Joanne

Thank you for such a comprehensive and informative reply. We’ve met some teachers from Aloha and our own feeling is that the school provides a good education – so I was just checking that your blog wasn’t highlighting something I was aware of re educational standards. We’re still debating whether to make the move. On the plus side it’s a beautiful place (we had an apartment for 7 years which we sold last year – so we know our way around really well.) The real issue that my wife has is making new friends all over again and that our kids 14 and 10 will find new friends aswell.

Anyhow, thanks again for your really helpful reply and maybe we just have to be brave and make the move.

Cheers Mark