Schools for short term stay?

Hi All

Due to my husband's work commitments we may be moving to Malta from September 2010 to May 2011. We have three children and want to find out where we stand with schooling. I have contacted St Catherine's who do not take short term registrations. Can anyone offer any advice?

Thanks in advance!

TK

Hi,

I just contacted someone I know who works at San Anton school (where my 2 kids go) and his reponse was:

"Yes that shouldn't be a problem. School is closed this week so they would need to call from Monday onwards."

As a private school there will be fees to pay and books and uniform to buy. You could also try the free State Schools (would still have to buy uniforms though).

Tim

Hi Tim

Thanks very much for your help. I will give them a call next week.

I also notice that you are living in Naxxar, how do you find it? There is a house available in that area that we are interested in.

Regards

Tracey

Hi Tracey,

Glad to be of help. Let me know if you have problems getting through to anyone as I can probably put you touch with my contact there.

Naxxar - it's pretty central so you can get to most places fairly easily. There is the village/town of Naxxar which is fairly built-up, and then there is the Naxxar region (centered on the village of course) which covers a much greater area and includes several other villages - this can be quite rural...so it really depends on what part of Naxxar you are talking about.

We live in a modern apartment on a fairly busy road near the centre of the town - so it's not quaint...but a good friend lives in a "House of Character" just a 2 minute walk away from us in what I would call Old Naxxar and that is absolutely lovely. The Town itself is OK - has about the bare minimum for shopping (a couple of supermarkets etc), but not much in the way of bars/restaurants - we tend to go out to other towns when we want that kind of stuff.

Do you have some specific questions about Naxxar? Everyone has different requirements/values so it's difficult to generalise. We will probably move elsewhere at some point.

Tim

Hi Tim

You answered exactly what I wanted to know. We thought that it might be too rural for us. We are also looking at Swieqi which I think may suit us better.

My husband works in Santa Venera so we need to find somewhere that has a good bus route as we are not bringing our cars.

I am so excited, it's like a little adventure!

Tracey

It'll be a BIG adventure, if our experience is anything to go by!

September to May - you'll just about get everything sorted and it'll be time to move on!

Without a car you will probably need to pay for School Transportation depending on which school(s) you choose and where you live of course.

Others on this forum (notably Sarafima and Ricky) know more about public transportation than I - but I think most bus routes go to/from the Valletta terminus. A work colleague took the bus from St Julians to Paola each day and it got old for him pretty quickly, so he broke down and bought a junky car for €500. Maybe Birkikara or Attard would be good places to look to live also.

Tim

Hi Tracey,

Most bus routes in Malta go to and from Valletta so it could be difficult to get to Santa Venera from the St.Julians/Swieqi/Sliema area without changing bus and loosing time.

Birkirkara could be within walking distance depending on the exact location.

There will be a new bus service working by next year ( so are the plans) with a different route layout which might make it easier to get around to places like Santa Venera.

You can check out the bus routes as they are now at:

www.maltabybus.com

Ricky

Thanks Ricky/ Tim

Very helpful information. I'd love to hear what thoughts there are on Birkikara. We viewed one property in the area but I wasn't overly impressed.

Thanks!

Tracey

Birkikara - sounds like it's time for Sarafima to add some input!

Just to keep your options open, you could do a longer term car rental....an expat family we know who have actually lived here for a couple of years still rent the car they got when they originally moved over here. I can get details if you are interested.

Tim