Our daughter changed schools this school year as we moved to another home and didn't want to keep commuting by car to the school uphill constantly. At first it seemed that she was stuck there for another year because until the very last week of school, she was asssigned to the old school, unfortunately. It was in the very last days of the schools being open before a 3 month closure for the summer that we received a phone call that they had a free spot for her. I was so happy, it would save so much time and we already learned by living here that this school has many events. We can follow it all from the balcony and hear the music all day long.
Some days we don't really enjoy these events because their sound system sucks and often they have the same music on repeat all day long but it's fun for the children at least. We already know that for Halloween they repeated the same music two years in a row, lol. But I have to say that this school uses the money that parents can pay for voluntarily much more efficiently than the previous school.
Where the fee was 25 euros a year per family at the other school, here they ask for 30 euros but you get so much more for that money as they keep organizing events and school trips. The children who are members pay less for the trips as well as for the entry tickets of events but no child is excluded from these events, they just pay a little more.
On top of the regular events, they also have a lot more options for after school activities such as paint classes. We had to pull out our daughter from these recently sadly because the time slot wasn't doable for us anymore due to work, which sucks but hopefully next year this is handled a bit better in terms of timing.
Recently they celebrated Dia de Andalucia (Day of Andalucia) as they do on every school in the region and it usually means the children are allowed to come in a flamenco dress and hair flower. This year the school asked the parents to bring a white t-shirt which they were going to paint for the events that day. They painted "Andalucia" at the front and all children wore the same shirt that day. It was pretty cool to witness from the balcony that the whole school wore these white shirts and they even had the kids sit in the shape of Andalucia on the map, which was quite an achievement I think.
The school year is coming to an end already because these final 3 months usually fly by because of the Easter holidays (Semana Santa) and then a few days in May where they are not in school either. The end of June is the kick off of summer for the children here and they won't return to school until halfway through September.
This year our daughter's grades have not been as high as the previous 2 years but the difference is that this year she had to do most learning on her own, with some assistance of me where possible and just a few times tutoring in total compared to seeing the tutor 3 times a week most of the year in the first two years.
Her tutor is still great and tries to help when possible but is overloaded with her own school work this year so I'm trying to not bother her unless really needed. I think for a non-Spanish native girl who just learned the language she's definitely rocking it, even if her report card isn't only 9's and 10's anymore. We're still very proud and the best thing is that she has much more fun at this school as well, so there's a better balance in terms of learning and having fun.
Just one more trimester and then she can relax for three whole months!
The picture is my own and was taken on Dia de Andalucia 2025..
