Just interested to know how people feel about this and to hear your experiences. We have been on the Island for 10 months now and our boys aged 11 and 8 went straight into spanish school, how are other families coping with their childrens education? Paul.

very good decision, imho..unfortunately i have come across so many cases where english and even german families started a new life here and would NOT send their kids to a spanish school, because "the poor kids would not understand" ..of course they would not to start with, but i can imagine you will back me up when i say that you can see how much your kids have learnt and caught up within the last few months. if any parent has the opportunity to send their kids to a spanish school, do it! kids will struggle in the beginning, but they will be grateful later when they can look back having learnt another foreign language rather easier and quicker than their peeps back in the UK....

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Thanks for that cinnamon, our boys did find it hard in the beginning, our eldest more so but we were determinded to see it through and the rewards are amazing in terms of how much spanish they now speak and their friends are mostly spanish which we are really pleased about! Our eldest now chats on msn in spanish to his school friends, we are very proud of them both.

exactly, this is what i mean well done to your kids!

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We went the opposite way initially. As we weren't sure how things would work out, or whether we would stick it out we put the kids into English school so that they would maintain the work on the same curriculum as in the UK. That way if we went back they should drop straight back into the relevant year without any problems.

2 years later and now that it would appear that we are here for the foreseeable future, we've moved the kids into Spanish school from September.

That approach seemed the sensible route to us. But everyone is entitled to do what ever they feel is best for their kids.

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Potdog. Fancy a brew?

http://www.lavatrax.com Guided mountain biking in Tenerife.

Regardless of which way you choose to go as a parent you always want what you think is best for your children. My daughter was 6 when she started school here and went straight into the Spanish education system. I did have a few doubts at first but mostly down to my own guilt for putting her into a scary situation. (well i thought it was) Thankfully she settled in straight away and is doing really well. We've been here 3 years now and i don't think i'll ever tire of hearing her flit from one language to another when she's playing with her friends. She makes me so proud.

I don't think there is a single legitimate reason to put kids into an English school here except for fear on behalf of the parents.

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Life from an Outsider's Perspective.

I couldn't agree more. One significant benefit of being in Tenerife is the opportunity to learn another language in school, and finish up being bilingual. What a shame it would be to miss out on that.

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γνωθι σεαυτόν. And on the eighth day, god made the fossils

Hello everyone this is my first post!

We are moving over at the end of August and I would of dearly loved our daughter to go to a spanish school for all of the reasons previously stated, however she is 14yrs old and about to embark on her G.C.S.E.s, she is adamant that she will return to the U.K. to go to college/university

I feel it would be unfair of us as parents to distrupt her education, at the end of the day we do not know if it will work out for us as a family in Tenerife?

I feel that is reason enough to send her to a English school?

Hello Clara - welcome to the forum. My own assessment (from my own experience) of introducing children into a different culture is that this is probably painless up until 12-13, but after that it can indeed be difficult. Added to that, if there is uncertainty about remaining here, there is a lot to be said for playing safe to begin with. Ultimately it depends a lot on the character of the child, and you are the best judge of that.

Just one point, though, if your daughter is interested in studying languages at university, she would get a rocket start in a Spanish school. If she is more interested in sciences, she might find herself at disadvantage in a Spanish school because of the different methods and approaches used which could well be confusing.

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γνωθι σεαυτόν. And on the eighth day, god made the fossils