Schools

Hi! I personally recommend Hamelin-Laie International School in Montgat, Barcelona. We have relocated there 5 months ago. The location is increible and the beaches are great. Hamelin-Laie is a very good school, for students from 0 to 18 years old, and offer National Baccalaureate and International Baccalaureate. My concern was that my daughter doesn't speak Spanish, but the school has also a Language School and they offer extra spanish lessons, and also for parents! The school has a really international feel, there is more than a half of international students for sure. Good luck!

Actually, lessons are in Catalan but they study Spanish too. After a public Spanish language school in Catalunya, it is very rare. Catalans are very "nationalisits" and their official and "regional" language is Catalan, even if Spanish is understood and spoken everywhere, but at school, it is Catalan (even in University).

Hi Melanie,

While it is true that the critical period for language development is between birth and 7 years, a 10-year old will still pick up the language much faster than an adult.  Many of the subjects will be teaching similar curriculum (i.e. math and science), so she wouldn't have any issues in those classes.  She would be delayed in a regular school for about 3 - 6 months and then should be able to understand the basics to integrate in the language courses.  After about 2 years, she should be completely up to speed.

I don't have children, but I have a Master of Science in Linguistics with specialization in Child Language and I'm working on my doctorate in second language acquisition right now.  Also, I was both an exchange student to France and then to Germany.  I only had 1 year of German studies before attending a German High School.  My experience was that Math was very easy to understand (English even easier, but I had to translate some of the work into German).  The most challenging subject for me was French, because I couldn't directly translate from French to German (or vice versa).  I would have to go from French > English > German and then German > English > French.  After about 3 months, I could understand the teachers and the assignments with no issues.

Hope that helps.

Marni