Hi there and welcome to Madrid.

Your son is the right age to start the 1st year of official preschool (primero de infantil). Although the registration for school was, I believe, last April, all schools must save a few spots for incoming inmigrants.

You can find out your zone and get a list of all of the schools in your zone from the Ministerio de Educaci�n. Its right off of the Castellana on Calle Vitruvio (I'm almost sure that's it as I went a few times). Also, you can go to the town hall in your own neighbourhood and that's where you can register also.

Madrid has some free Bilingual schools now; you can get that list in www.britishcouncil.es in the education section and see if any are on the list you get from the Ministry of Education or your neighourhood town hall (the Junta Munipipal de tu barrio). Also the subsidised schools (concertados) save a few spots for late registers: mainly immigrants. You may also have a good public school that you like.

School starts next week...

Good luck! Let us know how it goes!

Megan...

quote:

Would we first need to go to the big central Ayuntamiento to register (empadronar)? Or is there a smaller branch for things like this in our neighborhood?

the big one in the plaza mayor is the one in your neighborhood.

always a good idea to be "empadronado".

saludos,
jer...

Hey, thanks all.

Yes, we found out that the first step was to "empadronar" (that is, to register our presence and address here with the officials). We did this at the Ayuntamiento in Plaza Mayor. We had to fill out a form, show our lease and passports.

The next step (since we live in the Centro) is to go to the Comision de Escolarizaci�n on Santa Brigida (near Tribunal) to get the school registration process started. You need the empadronamiento, to show your child's passport or ID and see the original.

They ask you to pick five different schools near your house. They have a map and can show you which schools are near you and what kinds of schools they are (public colegio, escuela infantil, private, etc.). At this stage, they can't tell you which schools are accepting students and which aren't. If you go through the regular registration (in May or June, I believe), this may be different.

Oscar is turning three in November, so from what I understand, he is guaranteed a spot in a public school--though not necessarily the ones we choose. The guy seemed to think we'd get something close to our house. Not sure if this is the case everywhere in Spain or just in Madrid.

We did all of this on Tuesday and should find out next Tuesday how it all pans out. They post a list at the Comision de Escolarizaci�n with your placement details.

I'll post back on how it all pans out...


P.S. We don't yet have our residency. The form that you fill out for escolarizaci�n asks for your date of entry and nationality, but they didn't seem interested in looking at the visa or stamps in the passport, so I suppose being illegal wouldn't be an issue.

I understand that in Spain all kids are guaranteed a spot in a public or subsidised school as well as free medical coverage...even if they are illegal!

Good luck! It'll be great for your son's Spanish and you'll get to meet loads of other parents!

Ah, how naive I was back on September 7th! We had several more weeks of fun ahead of us.

This school registration process was, by far, the most difficult process we have gone through here. I'll try to document it here...

Our son is turning 3 in November. This means that we didn't have to deal with any of the craziness of transferring transcripts from previous schools. It also means that he is entitled to free public schooling in Madrid (I think this may be different in other regions). All children turning 3 before the end of the calendar year are guranteed a spot in a public school.

The system is pretty confusing here. Here's what I was able to figure out:

1. There are the state-run public schools (colegios). Most of these also have preschool classes. These classes are totally free. Religious instruction is optional at these schools.

2. The Communidad de Madrid runs its own subsidized escuela infantiles (formerly known as guarderias). Some of these are attached to colegios. They include classes for smaller kids and are generally thought to be hard to get into. If your kid is under three, you might have to prove financial need to get a slot. Totally free.

3. There are "concertadas." These are hybrid schools--run by "the church," but receiving public funds. I think you have to pay something monthly to send your child to one of these schools. I think religious instruction is part of the curriculum.

4. Then there are totally private schools.

Numbers 1-3 all have to follow a similar "curriculum" that is determined by the state. If you want to place your kid in 1-3, then you need to have a permananent address. You'll need to "empadronar" at the ayuntamiento and then go to the Comision de Escolarizacion (on Santa Brigida in Madrid Centro). They do all the placement for publicly funded schools. You can pick up to five possible schools. My advice would be to put only schools that you know you want. You don't have to pick five.

They tell you that they can't guarantee placement, but if you are very close to a school, they really seem to give you a strong preference. If you live in a neighborhood with an "undesirable" school (whatever that means) then you will have a harder time getting assigned to a school in a different neighborhood, unless you work there. I would be careful about sending your kid to school where you work, because they won't reassign him/her if you change jobs and work in a different neighborhood. They will only reassign your child if you change your residence.

I think that this whole process is fairly straightforward if you are able to register in the spring for the fall semester. I think the registration process starts in April or May and goes through June.

It is quite a different story if you have to register in the summer or fall. At this time, they really don't know where the slots are. When you go through the first round, I think that they just place the child in a school near your house. Then they send you to the school and see what happens.

In our case, the school said that there were no slots (plazas) and sent us back to the commission. The Commission then said it would put us through the process again. The next week, they sent us back to the same school, assuring us that this time their decision was final. Again we were told that there were no slots. The principal himself went to the commission to ask them to reassign us and the other children they were trying to place at the school. His decision was final. He said they just didn't have the physical space for any more children or classes. The guy at the commission said that they had made a mistake the two previous rounds and that our son would get reassigned somewhere the next week.

Now this is where things get a little fuzzy... Because, if I've learned anything, it's that nothing is ever "final" here in Spain. It's best to be like water... just keep beating against the rock until it wears away. So we kept going back to the commission. They then sent us to talk to someone across town. This man was actually part of the group that met to decide where children were placed. Each person we talked to said something different with an equal amount of conviction. It is then that we realized we were right in the middle of a big pissing contest between the school and the "funcionarios."

We went back to the principal and made an empassioned, last-ditch plea and promised to be active parents at the school. He said his hands were tied, but in a slightly less direct manner than before. Then we were referred to the President of the Comision de Escolarizacion--Sr. Delfin Garcia (love that name!). He agreed to meet with us. At this point, I had given up all hope, which is probably the key to success in this process.

The day that we went to meet with Delfin, he told us that we were, indeed, going to be placed in our school of choice. A space had "opened up" and the principal had agreed to take our son, but not the others on the list. When we were leaving, we saw the principal. He had met with the Delfin just before we arrived. There were two other kids that were also trying to get into the same class and they ended up somewhere else. All of our persistence paid off, I suppose.

I don't know how anyone with a real job could successfully navigate this process, as it was our full-time job for three weeks.

After we were told that our son could go to the colegio (Nuestra Senora de la Paloma), we were sent back to the school to pick up a bunch of forms to fill out. At this time, they ask for a DNI/NIE (though I think you could still use a passport number). They also ask for a copy of your passport with the entry stamp (though I still get the impression that being illegal won't be an issue). And they want to see details of the child's health insurance.

During the month of September, the three-year-olds have an abbreviated schedule. They phase the kids in five children at a time over the course of two weeks. They start out going from 10 to 12:30, then expand to 10:00 to 1:00. Eventually they go from 9:30 to 1:30. And then from 3:00 to 4:30. This varies somewhat from school to school. You have the option of dropping your kid off as early as 7:30. You have to pay for this service and they feed him/her breakfast. This service is run by the Parents' Association. You also have the option of leaving your kid there during lunch (comedor), which also costs extra.

The classes at public school are pretty big. Our son's class will be twenty children. I'll report back more on how it goes...

Congratulations!

Like us, you are now permanently in a "colegio concertado" with cheap and excellent education for your son!

Let us know how it goes!

Thanks Val--it was quite a bureaucratic ordeal, but well worth it.

Despite it's very catholic sounding name, his school--Nuestra Se�ora de la Paloma--is actually a public school, not concertado. It's just a three minute walk from our apartment, which is great since we'll be picking Oscar up for lunch.

He loved his first week at school. The teachers really seem to know how to work with his age group and have a good system to follow. At his age, they stress play and socialization above all else. The classes are big--twenty kids or so, but there is a teacher and a helper (apoyo) in each class.

He'll be going to school from 9:50 to 12:50. You can have your child stay at school for lunch (comedor) or come pick them up for lunch. Then they go back from 3:00 to 4:30, though at first we're going to skip this part, since Oscar is still napping at this time.

P.S. He does get to wear one of those adorable little smocks (previously mentioned in the thread). The word for it is "baby"--pronounced bah-bee. Every kid has one with their name embroidered on it, with the exception of poor Oscar. With no capable abuela within sewing distance, his graphic designer parents used a permanent marker to write his name on the front...