# Relocating to spain but dont know about schools



## AshnKate (Oct 3, 2015)

Hello everyone new to the forum.. any help would be grateful

Me my wife and my 2 children and dog are looking to relocate over to spain.. my children are 5 and 9 and will be looking to get them in schools..

what schools would be best? ive looked up everything and need peoples advise who have experienced it 

also which part of spain is there alot of english families so we can get to know them and sort things out..

any help would be appreciated

thankslane:


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## Pesky Wesky (May 10, 2009)

AshnKate said:


> Hello everyone new to the forum.. any help would be grateful
> 
> Me my wife and my 2 children and dog are looking to relocate over to spain.. my children are 5 and 9 and will be looking to get them in schools..
> 
> ...


Look up education, schools and the like on the search facilty here and you'll find a lot of info. Also look at the FAQ's for info about everything from bringing a car over, renting, buying, tax and paperwork. Education is number 3.

If you're asking about which of spain to go to I'm supposing you're not very far along with your plan.
It's usually a good plan to find out what the work situation is, presuming that you need to work, what salary and conditions you can expect, first of all. Before bringing the family out make sure you have work secured.


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## snikpoh (Nov 19, 2007)

Firstly a caveat - I'm biased!

Genuinely, why have you chosen Spain if you want to be in the middle of an area full of Brit families? Many people feel 'the grass is greener' so I am genuinely interested in your thought process.

In my opinion, if you wait too much longer, then your eldest will need an international school as it may be too late to go to a state school and have to learn in Spanish (and Valencian/Catalan etc.).

As stated earlier, we don't know your full situation but if you need employment to live here then I would say that Spain may not be right for you as it will be hard to secure a job that pays enough to support your family.


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## jojo (Sep 20, 2007)

I think alot of the areas that used to be typically "brit families" are dying out now. The generation that first moved to Spain with the kids, the dream et al has now either evolved into becoming Spanish (Their children are now grown and either back in the UK or Spanish), moved around or they've returned to the UK. So, there arent as many of these small pockets of Britishness anymore. But I think anywhere in the costas will have a fair few "expats" of a variety of nationalities dotted around. 

Before you move, you really need to make a few fact finding trips. Google some areas that have the right needs for your situation (near to airport, schools, hospital, sea, shops....) and go and visit. See what its like, and if you could settle there


Jo xxx


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## mrypg9 (Apr 26, 2008)

Good advice, Jo, but as others have said, the priority is work, unless the OP has a job with contract already lined up. 
Fluent Spanish would surely be a necessity for 90% of jobs?
And of course a family of four has to prove an income of 4x 600 euros =2400 euros a month....


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## xabiaxica (Jun 23, 2009)

jojo said:


> I think alot of the areas that used to be typically "brit families" are dying out now. The generation that first moved to Spain with the kids, the dream et al has now either evolved into becoming Spanish (Their children are now grown and either back in the UK or Spanish), moved around or they've returned to the UK. So, there arent as many of these small pockets of Britishness anymore. But I think anywhere in the costas will have a fair few "expats" of a variety of nationalities dotted around.
> 
> Before you move, you really need to make a few fact finding trips. Google some areas that have the right needs for your situation (near to airport, schools, hospital, sea, shops....) and go and visit. See what its like, and if you could settle there
> 
> ...


while it's true that a heck of a lot of British families have left Jávea in the time that we've been here, and that there are less non-Spanish of all nationalities than a few years ago, we've had a lot of new British families moving here in the past couple of years.

many have the father ( a few mothers, but more usually the father) working off-shore somewhere, so they're not reliant on Spain for an income

lots of early-retirees as well as actual pensioners, but most noticeable is the number of new families


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## jojo (Sep 20, 2007)

xabiachica said:


> while it's true that a heck of a lot of British families have left Jávea in the time that we've been here, and that there are less non-Spanish of all nationalities than a few years ago, we've had a lot of new British families moving here in the past couple of years.
> 
> many have the father ( a few mothers, but more usually the father) working off-shore somewhere, so they're not reliant on Spain for an income
> 
> lots of early-retirees as well as actual pensioners, but most noticeable is the number of new families


A friend who has lived in Spain for 20+ years now was telling me. She and her husband moved over with three children and had a forth in Spain. The eldest is now married to a Spanish chap and has a baby, the two middle ones are back in the UK and the youngest Spanish born is in her last year at school. This friend was saying that there are few "proper" British families anymore and those days of upping sticks and moving to Spain to seek the dream have gone. But yes, I'm sure there are others who work away and I know some who work on line. Its not like the "good old days" lol!!!!!

Jo xxx


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## xabiaxica (Jun 23, 2009)

jojo said:


> A friend who has lived in Spain for 20+ years now was telling me. She and her husband moved over with three children and had a forth in Spain. The eldest is now married to a Spanish chap and has a baby, the two middle ones are back in the UK and the youngest Spanish born is in her last year at school. This friend was saying that there are few "proper" British families anymore and those days of upping sticks and moving to Spain to seek the dream have gone. But yes, I'm sure there are others who work away and I know some who work on line. Its not like the "good old days" lol!!!!!
> 
> Jo xxx


maybe not where she lives, and as I said, there are less foreigners here now than when we arrived, but it's noticeable that more British - & Irish - families with children are coming here again, & the fact that so many of them aren't reliant on Spain for an income, hopefully means that they will be able to stay  

it's a different dream maybe - but if one parent is working away anyway, they might as well live here !!


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## xabiaxica (Jun 23, 2009)

AshnKate said:


> Hello everyone new to the forum.. any help would be grateful
> 
> Me my wife and my 2 children and dog are looking to relocate over to spain.. my children are 5 and 9 and will be looking to get them in schools..
> 
> ...


:welcome:

as others have suggested, the most important thing is that you have a reliable income sorted out before you come, because of the horribly high unemployment here

if you have that sorted out, you could do a lot worse than where I've lived with my daughters for nearly 12 years now  Portada - Portal Turístico de Xàbia - Ayuntamiento de Xàbia

last years figures show a population of around 30,000, just over half of whom are Spanish nationals. The rest are many nationalities, with just over 6000 of them from the UK.


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## thrax (Nov 13, 2008)

Where we are there remains a large number of Brits but we are also seeing a huge increase in the numbers of Danes, Swedes and Norwegians.


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## mrypg9 (Apr 26, 2008)

thrax said:


> Where we are there remains a large number of Brits but we are also seeing a huge increase in the numbers of Danes, Swedes and Norwegians.


We have noticed quite a few Russians have settled a short distance down the coast towards San Pedro.
Sotogrande and Marbella may be too pricey, what with the falling rouble.


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## xabiaxica (Jun 23, 2009)

I've just had a dig in the archives for population by nationality, wondering if my perception of the British population of Jávea was borne out by stats

the freely available figures go back to 2006

in 2006 there were around 6,800 UK citizens here & that figure grew steadily until 2012 when it topped 8700

for some reason there are no figures for 2013, but for 2014 it shows 6176 

of course between 2012 & 2014, a lot were removed from the padrón when there were checks made, who had in fact left the country maybe years previously 

it will be interesting to see the 2015 figures when they become available


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## AshnKate (Oct 3, 2015)

great advice people.. appreciate the help.. this is current situation..

We have a big chuck of money in bank 90k+ that we have inherited. My wife has always wanted to make the move over to spain as she suffers alot from depression throughout the cold wintery months and evrytime we have been over we have met expats out there who have moved out for one of them reasons, and basically had a bad few years and feel like we need time out. Also she cared for her grandma for many years who we sadly lost beginning of this year and she is finding it hard to get over her and feels like she has left us money to do something with our lifes. Our children are 5 and 9, so her plan was to make it a 2 year move as we understand that education can be difficult out there, that way within the 2 year we can get the children into spanish state school, hopefully enjoy the different lifestyle and the kids will meet new people, learn a new language and if the kids really do not enjoy it we would come back in time for her meeting back up with their friends starting secondary school. We genuinely, in our hearts feel like we all need this as a family to spend quality time away from the stresses of england. If we do not do it this year it will be leaving it too late to take our oldest out there. Our plan hopefully is to buy a property over here, rent it out and that is a little income to start with, also budget ourselfs with 20,000 to cover us for the 2 years and if things worked out well and we managed to ffit in, find a job, kids loved there school then that would be a decision to reevaluate but if not when the money runs out and weve had enough, see it as 2 years experience and something we will never look back on and regret not doing. We really need help as we are very sociable people and mu wife dosnt fancy the very tradional white house villages, we are very keen to be in a modern area near alot of tourists and other expats. Also weve been looking into rental properties and think we are going to find it hard somebody accepting a dog in their property and also we are not keen on living with somebodys elses furniture and sleeping in other peoples beds etc. So weve carried on looking and thought the ideal thing would to be buying and living on a mobile home park, that way we have our own home as would buy it out right, we don know there are fees which is fine but the more research weve done there very few that accept children as a lot of them are over 45 retirement parks. we found the grand plaza in alicante which accpets pets and children and allows to live on site but weve found it very difficult to find any information about schools that are close by and also how children would travel to school??... my wife has also been reading a lot of negative comments and is very worried about the whole transition bewtween school over here to school there as it says you need to fill out forms and apply.. and basically we feel like we need to be in 2 places at once to sort things at both ends ??


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## mrypg9 (Apr 26, 2008)

You need work. €90k,isn't going to last two years with all the plans you have.
It gets cold in Spain in winter, you know and life can be every bit as stressful in Spain if you're wondering how to pay the bills.
I think you need to sit down as a family and seriously discuss your options, one of which might be to stay in the UK, not disrupt your jobs and your children's education and use that £90 k to enjoy good holidays and learn more about Spain.


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## bob_bob (Jan 5, 2011)

Your eldest may well struggle learning the language so may need an International School which will cost you ten grand a year per child. Would you move to another part of the UK and put your children into schools where English is not used? This is what you are looking at doing really by moving to Spain.

Unemployment is sky high compared to the UK and you have what specific skills to offer? If your wife has clinical depression she won't have access to the likes of community teams to give support and treatment. Keep your ninety grand and go on a really nice holiday once or twice a year, maybe move to a different part of the UK.


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## bob_bob (Jan 5, 2011)

mrypg9 said:


> We have noticed quite a few Russians have settled a short distance down the coast towards San Pedro.
> Sotogrande and Marbella may be too pricey, what with the falling rouble.


We have friends in Cyprus who are trying to sell up and move, they are surrounded now by Russians who seem short of social skills to say the least... very loud screaming and shouting, parties until three or four in the morning. Friends are looking to move to Portugal.


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## mrypg9 (Apr 26, 2008)

bob_bob said:


> We have friends in Cyprus who are trying to sell up and move, they are surrounded now by Russians who seem short of social skills to say the least... very loud screaming and shouting, parties until three or four in the morning. Friends are looking to move to Portugal.


If I posted my opinions of the Russians I have encountered I'd be accused of racism by the PC crowd.
So I will merely say that you can tell what God thinks of money by the people he gives it to.


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