EducationIf you have children and are thinking of relocating to the Mijas Costa in Spain education and the schooling system is bound to be a primary concern. One of the biggest decisions is likely to be whether to send your child to a Spanish or International school. The advantage to a Spanish school is of course that your child has the chance to integrate fully in Spanish life and to become fluent in the language. The decision is then between state school (where the education is free) or a Spanish private school. Of course when sending you child to a Spanish speaking school the younger the child, the easier it will be for them to integrate. You might however also want to think about how sending them to a Spanish school could affect you, will you be able to understand when meeting with the teacher, reading letters sent home from school and helping your child with homework? If your child is already at exam stage it might make more sense to send them to a school which will continue in their native language and with the same schooling system. Here on the coast there are English, German, Swedish and International Schools, all of these are of course private schools and expenses will be incurred. Classes in the private schools tend to be smaller and often the range of subjects and extracurricular options are greater. If you choose a British international school you will find they teach the British curriculum of GCSEs and A levels. The disadvantage of the International schools is that Spanish tends to be taught as a second language, so it is likely they will be no more advanced in Spanish than if they had studied it back in England (although living in Spain should help). With a wide variety of private international, private Spanish and Spanish state schools the choice can be over whelming, but there are resources available to help in the decision making process… In terms of printed Publications on the Costa del Sol, 1st for schools and Kids on the Costa are here on hand to help. Many of the private schools also have websites (some of which are below) and in regards to state schools you can go to your local town hall for more information. Private International SchoolsAloha College (Nueva Andalucia) - www.aloha-college.com Private NurseriesLa Casita De Silvana (Mijas Costa) - Tel: 620 653 734 |