Hi! I've just joined this forum and I was much relieved to find it. My partner and I are planning to spend a year or so in Madrid with my two daughters, from about July 2006. We are all Australians although one of my daughters also holds an EU passport. I know it's a while off yet but there is lots of planning to be done and I am a horribly organised person!! This is the plan: I have just finished a degree in Spanish and am planning to write a thesis while in Madrid. My partner is hoping to get some work through her contacts here (she works in tourism /wine industry development). Over the past couple of weeks I have been searching the internet for information regarding schools. I just linked to a page from this site to El Mundo which talked about the top 100 schools in Madrid - that was VERY useful. But I would love to know more from someone who has been through the process of getting children into schools over there. It might be useful for me to describe the kind of experience I am fantasising about I would like to live fairly centrally in an apartment. We have lots of space, pools etc here and I don't really need to have the same while over there. We would be looking for somewhere fairly nice that was (at least!) air conditioned and heated, with about 4 bedrooms (one to house visitors!!). I lived in Barcelona in Eixample and really liked that, if that gives anyone an idea of what I might be looking for, barrio-wise. There was a nice mix of people there, students, families, night-life, etc. So any suggestions on areas that might suit us and an idea of what the going rent might be for a 4 bedroom apartment would be very useful. Now, on to schools. One of my aims for the year is that the children learn as much spanish as possible. I will try to get them into some sort of lessons about a year before we leave, but I doubt they will be that skilled-up prior to arrival. I did see there is a children's camp in the south of Spain over summer that might suit them for a couple of weeks. After that it would be great if I could get them in to some classes for kids in Madrid, but it is difficult to find classes specifically for children. Anyone have any ideas? I would much prefer them to arrive at school at least able to ask where the toilet is!!! And I would really prefer that they were at a Spanish school rather than an international school. I want them to enjoy learning about the culture, lifestyle and people by making spanish friends. Private school wouldn't be a major problem (but a big expense, but could just manage it), but I would like to know if anyone can tell me about the public system and how one can go about enquiring, what needs to be done with school reports etc to get them recognised (convalidacion?? o algo asi??), etc. Or if anyone has had experience with sending english-speaking children to spanish public schools that have helped the children with spanish.... As far as type of school goes, I would prefer a modern (in outlook) school, I'm not mad on super-disciplined, traditional schools. Plus we are a gay couple and I would hope that I wouldn't have to skirt around that issue if it arose in discussions with the school (never had to bring it up here as my girls also have their dad here, but I wouldn't want to have to hide it to avoid problems). And one last thing (for the moment) they are both very into swimming so a school that had a pool (am I being silly here? I am from a state where almost all schools have pools!) or a training program, that would be ideal Many questions, but any advice would be very gratefully consumed!! Thanks so much everyone Jockm
Posts: 7 | Location: sydney australia | Registered: 19 July 2004
I'm afraid I personally can't offer any advice on schools, or neighborhoods, though I'm currently living in barro Guendalera right by the Plaza de Toro's and see families with young children everywhere and it's centrally located, but not noisy like some barrios closer in to the center.
However regarding the children I can offer some advice on how to prepare them. Have you thought about a natural approach to start? Get plugged into the Spanish community there in Sydney so they become accostomed to hearing the language. If you were to find a native spanish speaking person in Sydney who would be willing to come to your house and play with them, but speaking spanish to them the whole time that would also help. Another tool I've used in the past as an introduction to spanish and have had great success with are the sticker books put out by Usborn books. If you go looking for them make sure that they are the sticker books as the word books look exactly the same. The reason I like the sticker books is that first they see an appealing picture with words at the top but no picture next to them identifing what they mean. Then you have to turn to the sticker page in the middle of the book and find the corresponding picture and put it next to the word. Even when they've done all the stickers it's great to go back and review as you can ask them as they look at the picture "Donde es el gato" for example and they have to find it. Music and childrens spanish CD's for the car also go over well. I would say that the sooner you start exposing them to the language the easier it will be for them. Once they are here though they will be speaking in no time flat so I wouldn't worry too much. Maybe if you have a friend here already with children, or someone on the board has children close to the age of yours (I'm not sure how old your children are though) you could start them corrisponding either by e-mail or snail mail to start feeling like they have a connection to the area before you come.
Good luck with all your preparations, it sounds like an exciting adventure that you'll be undertaking. I may even still be here when you arrive and am happy to help in anyway I can.
Besos,
Bonnie
Posts: 435 | Location: Italy | Registered: 25 November 2003
since you did just join the board, you surely have not had time to look around and do research on your questions.
i am afraid that your post here may be overwhelming to many board members
also, since most of your questions have already been discussed (some at length and some touched upon).
you basically asked about...
� neighborhoods. � schooling. � children.
... and all of these topics have been discussed here on the board.
also, the board members who would be able to help you most (tonytorero, Val, etc...) have already posted about their kids in schools, spanish schools -vs- international schools, etc... on other threads and are most likely too busy to re-post here.
it is a good thing that you have about 2 years before coming over, that will give you a lot of time to do research here on the board and become a very active member
Hi! Unfortunately I'm not as familiar with Barcelona as I'd love to be, so I've checked what the Eixample 'barrio' is about and after doing so, it sounds as though Chueca would be the equivalent Madrilenian barrio to it, but also Malasa�a and Alonso Mart�nez and maybe Opera, would be urban but pleasant barrios for you to live in, and of course I must always recommend my very own barrio of Las Cortes (o 'barrio de Las Letras') :l:
This is the link to the Ministerio de Educaci�n's site:
Thanks very much to those who have taken the time and made the effort to give me some info - I really appreciate it. I had already done a search on the site, about schools in particular, but your links led me off to some more. So thanks Specifically, (and I don't want to overload anyone!) I would be interested to know if there are any non-EU people out there who have enrolled their children in a spanish public school in Madrid. (Sorry, I should have said, my daughters will be 10 and 14 when we are there). Rather than just turn up I would like to be sure I had the correct paper work to hand, their reports translated if necessary, etc etc. Any advice on this would be much appreciated Thanks again everyone for your time and interest. Jockm
Posts: 7 | Location: sydney australia | Registered: 19 July 2004
a quick ps, I had already read through "the best places to live in Madrid", but as I said in my post, I am also interested to know about more central barrios (we are all about space and gardens here in Oz!!) so thanks Pim, I will do some research on the barrios you mentioned. It's a start! Thanks
Posts: 7 | Location: sydney australia | Registered: 19 July 2004
remember, if you got the time, we got the threads :cheers:
not sure about that non-eu with kids in public schools here. hope someone can help ya with that one.
as far as i know, if you are not a legal resident here, your kids will not be able to attend the public schools (i could be wrong )
as for central "barrios" and other places to live, each person has their own taste. i think one needs to live here in a temp. place for a while and get a feel for the diff. areas, then make a decision on where to settle in. i think living in a neigborhood has a very personal feeling to it and one can not make that decision from abroad before they arrive and expect it to be a perfect fit.
Just so I don't put anyone on the wrong track, we will have the appropriate paperwork to apply for residency, whether through my student visa or my partner's (possibly) work visa. Plus at least one of the kids will have no probs at all with a British passport. I wouldn't turn up in Spain with family in tow without everything being kosher! If anyone is interested in this convalidacion process, the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science web site (http://wwwn.mec.es/mecd/jsp/plantilla.jsp?id=61&area=titulos) web site has some info about it. It's about getting recognition for studies (pre-university) undertaken outside of Spain. The Australian Embassy web site says it only applies to studies Grade 10 +, but it's not quite as clear on this site - anyway, fyi if anyone is interested
Posts: 7 | Location: sydney australia | Registered: 19 July 2004
You will surely see my posts around when you look up school topics.
You will probably want to stay away from the Catholic Paroquial schools if you want a more liberal type education style.
I don't know for sure, but think that the kids will be accepted automatically to a public school in the neighbourhood where you end up living. The "concertados", private but publicly funded are more difficult to get into as they are reasonably priced and tend to be full.
Good luck and I'll write more soon
Posts: 144 | Location: Chicago, USA (living in Madrid, yeah!) | Registered: 05 September 2002
- rent or buy a cell phone from me for your stay in spain, more info at 
- already have a cell phone, get a spanish SIM card for it at 
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