Caleta School

[Cool Cat]

Hi does anyone have info on the school in caleta are there many English children and were it is what it's like ect any info be good have two children 6&11 really need to find them friends thanks

[Captain Sensible]

There isn't a school in Caleta.

Children either go to El Matorral or Antigua Primary Schools.

[Cool Cat]

do you no what the schools are like? i no there a bus that pick up outside a hotel can remember the name of hotel? are there more english children attending one or the other. thanks

[SheilaW]

Hi does anyone have info on the school in caleta are there many English children and were it is what it's like ect any info be good have two children 6&11 really need to find them friends thanks

I don't really understand. Can't they make friends with the Spanish kids? Do they perhaps already speak fluent Spanish and you want them to keep up their English? If not, for the 11-year-old, it would be a positive advantage as s/he is going to really have to learn Spanish mega-fast: at that age, there's real learning to be done, and in Spain, it all comes from Spanish books and a Spanish teacher speaking Spanish. The last thing English kids need in that situation is English classmates. They're going to be in a difficult situation, with success at school dependent on how soon they can integrate and start studying. Ways of "making their life easier" could really backfire.

My son was a 100% British child one day, then we moved to Holland but put him into the French school. He was 7 and knew precious few French words and no Dutch at all (and we couldn't help at all). Of course he struggled for a few weeks, he even started rocking when he was watching TV etc (a sure sign of stress in kids, I'm told), but the following term he came top in a French dictation test, and by then had made friends with the Dutch kids along the road and seemed to be speaking fluent Dutch, too (I guess it was Dutch!). Of course, at 7, it doesn't matter if they take a while to get up to speed.

[Cool Cat]

Its not spanish children at all my daughters speak some spanish? we just want them to feel at ease knowing that english pupils are there as i wouldnt want to start a school no friends all spanish no english its far to scarey. although they will make friends quick all kids do its that inital feeling of going to a new school and no one to talk to. they no basic spanish but think they would struggle with sentances. so i guess thats why i want to no if english attend all kids are different and my eldest wants to make friends over the hols.

[IsThisForumStillGoingWow]

Spanish only is spoken in both schools. I don't know about the Antigua one but the El Matorral school is very multi-cultural. My grandson is 8 and has lived in Fue since he was 6 months old and Spanish is his 1st language, they pick it up fast..there's a lot of British kids go there though 
You will need a NIE no. for each child, their UK health records and must register them with  a local doctor ..anything else Cap'n can fill you in on as he is a teacher 

[IsThisForumStillGoingWow]

To avoid abyone jumping down my throat about "Spanish only is spoken is schools" I mean in the lessons..not the playground 

[woe10]

I saw on Sky News the other day, a school in the UK where there are 27 languages spoken 

[Cool Cat]

Totally understand spanish is 1st language just wondered if there were english children there? especially at play time till they settle? who is cap'n?

[waggy]

Hi, CoolCat:  I remember moving to N Wales when my kids were 3 and 5 and they picked up Welsh in about 6 months and the following year were winning prizes at the local Eistedfodau for Poetry, etc. They were completely bi-lingual well within a year. We got them extra Welsh tuition from a retired teacher neighbour.
I also retired as an ESOL teacher (English for Speakers of Other Languages) 3 years ago at the local College in Bangor. I taught 16 yrs upwards and obviously the younger ones tended to learn faster. One of the main problems we had with speed of learning was when we had several of one nationality, say Chinese or Latvian for example, who would form their own pecking order and keep themselves to themselves as sub-groups. Only the most able in each sub-group would make any real effort and they would translate, if you weren't careful , for their fellow nationals and learning, for them, took an age.
Learning was much more effective if you insisted on keeping everyone paired up with someone not of their own native language group: they had to try much harder to communicate and work things out.

I would say that your younger child will have no problems in becoming bi-lingual in English and Spanish very quickly but that your elder child will take a little longer and you will have to accept that he/she may lose ground for a year or so but catch up later.
The fact is that learning the Spanish must come first because without it nothing else can be learned, so some extra Spanish home tuition will come in handy too.
I had the job, outside of College, of teaching 2 newly arrived Chinese kids English a few years ago. They are siblings and she was 7, he 11 when we started. She picked it up through osmosis and was soon also tri-lingual in Cantonese, English and Welsh. He however, with more Chinese was a different kettle of fish and was a slow English learner BUT he was mathematically and Science in general, gifted. 

She is now doing famously in Art in College and he is reading Astro-Physics at Manchester University BUT he had to do GCSE re-sits in English to qualify for a place at Manchester.
So, if you intend to make your lives in Spain my advice would be to expose them to as much education through Spanish medium as possible and even out of school, extra tuition and join the Spanish boy scouts and other organisations to get as much Spanish culture as possible to aid their integration and learning opportunities.
It will also help if you have Spanish only half-hours at home so that you can practise your Spanish with them, too. You will be taking Spanish lessons, won't you?

[Cool Cat]

Hi yes we all will be taking lessons ive started. ive been teaching the children basics. colours days week numbers months ect. there pick up quite quickly. thanks for advice ill take it on board. hopefully were making the right choice.

[waggy]

I wish you well with it, Cool Cat.  There are lots of free lessons online in most languages with good-fun spoken and written exercises to do and also pronunciations.
On the up side: there are only about 250,000 words in Spanish and almost 1,000,000 in English. Spanish is supposed to be the easiest language to learn.

[Truncheon Meat]

I wish you well with it, Cool Cat.  There are lots of free lessons online in most languages with good-fun spoken and written exercises to do and also pronunciations.
On the up side: there are only about 250,000 words in Spanish and almost 1,000,000 in English. Spanish is supposed to be the easiest language to learn.

Really? Must be a different Spanish from the one I'm desperately trying to get my tongue and head around which seems to have millions of different words for everything, all of which I don't seem to know! Lo siento, pero no hablo mucho Espanol. My favourite and most often used phrase. 

[SheilaW]

Spanish is supposed to be the easiest language to learn.

Really? I agree that it's very easy to read, and easy to pronounce once you've learnt the basic rules. It really is a WYSIWYG language, like Dutch, but very unlike English. Can you imagine poor foreigners getting their tongues around bough, enough, through, bought...? But all those irregular verbs have got to make it a very difficult language to learn, surely? I thought French was difficult, but my French "Bescherelle" (a book entirely devoted to verbs and all their different endings for different tenses) has 175 pages and covers 12,000 verbs; its Spanish equivalent has 256 pages covering 10,000 verbs. That isn't an entirely fair comparison, because they're both French books (so Spanish is more difficult for them), but I think it gives a fair idea that Spanish is NOT easy. Of course, we have a couple of hundred irregular verbs in English, but that's it, and all they have is three forms: when you've learned "drink, drank, drunk; cut, cut, cut; go, went, gone..." that's it - 2 sides of paper at the most.

No, I think Dutch is the easiest I know. Once you get your tongue around the pronunciation, it's totally regular and logical, and there aren't many words to learn. The only problem is getting practice time: when we lived in Holland nobody wanted to bother listening to our efforts - they'd just speak in fluent English! Very demoralising!

But kids can learn any language they're spoken to in. Just look at all of ours: how did they learn English? And before they even set foot in a school!