We moved to Spain during the holidays
When we found our new home and signed our contract, all schools were already closed for several weeks. We were already told that we could probably not reach out to any department helping us with the registration process. Meanwhile, we were facing all kinds of other challenges such as opening a bank account, getting our health insurance live and registering at this address as well as the freelancer registration. When we discovered everything was indeed quite hard and regarding school info, even impossible, I decided to let go and not stress until it was time to stress, haha.
I started emailing a week before September 1
As I knew that the schools would open on the first of September, I thought there would be a small chance that someone would be reading it that week and could point me out how to start the process in this area. Although at first I did not receive any response, which I found odd because I assumed a week before classes start, the teachers and administrations would surely be working part-time already. Thankfully, after a few days, the administration of the nearest school (the one of our choice) answered me to let me know that school opens on September 1, and that we can come there to start the process plus that classes won't start until September 12.
Relief!
I remember how relieved I felt reading that classes would not start before the 12th, this meant there was a possibility that our daughter would not get stuck waiting due to bureaucratic stuff like stamps from a clerk, but maybe be registered in time to start the classes from day 1. I let go of all the stress that day. I emailed him back that we'd be there as soon as they open on the first of September.
Everything felt good
Just the 5 minutes walk a little uphill was the best option out there, as well as the super friendly man in the administration office, who patiently waited until we got out of our "internal error' when he asked us all kinds of things in Spanish haha. I wish we'd be able to record these moments, they must look funny! He was very patient and waited until we translated our things and then proceeded to explain things. I think after this black out, we understood everything so it wasn't all bad. At some point an English teacher came, she was by the way at least the 5th person to kindly greet us when they saw us. Everyone was friendly and smiling, it felt like we landed in the right school for her.
She helped explaining things
Even though it turned out I fully understood everything afterwards, it was good to have confirmation. We already knew that we don't get to decide on the actual school, we can only give our preference to the municipality and they agree or send you to another one. I decided not to give any other options and explain why all other options are really a problem currently having to walk everywhere. The walking alone is not an issue but the slippery sidewalks in combination with my bad knee (1 is not insured even lol) and the back issue is just not some journey I wish to take twice daily. It may be seriously dangerous when there's a bit of rain for example.
We can only hope
He told us that if she's enrolled in this school, he will call me, if she's enrolled in another, that school calls me. I've been envisioning this school to call me all week but nothing happened. He was clear, they don't control the info neither can they do anything about the decision, so even though waiting SUCKS, we can't do much but sit it out and hope for the best outcome. At first, the best outcome would be starting the first day of school like the rest of the children tomorrow. But now we're moving towards hoping that she can start this first day during the first week of the first trimester. I can only imagine it gets harder the longer it takes, especially being the English speaking kid in between the Spanish children, but on the other hand, she's already proven to handle those things well. So I should not worry too much about this part.
I'm trying not to stress over it
The thing is that I don't know where to get the schoolbooks as well as which supplies are needed for her class because that depends on the school. I would have loved to make sure that was al taken care of but it was not possible as the enrollment is not completed. While I was hoping for some cooler days, now that the school part is not taken care of yet, the predicted rain next week is making me stress a bit more because of having no transportation. I bet it's all not needed to stress over this because I'm sure if I tell them I will order everything online, they will understand. It's just my brain that really wants to get things over with.
I bet it will be only this week tops and then things will be settled, as I assume they understand it's going to be harder to start weeks after the trimester started.
Fingers crossed for better news this week!