Homeschooling in Spain

Hello everyone,

Homeschooling your children as an expat in Spain will definitely come with its load of challenges. Here is a special call to parents who are already homeschooling their children or who plan on doing so to share any information they might have.

Should you opt for homeschooling, is it legal in Spain ? Do you require to register your child or do you need any kind of permission / exemption from the authorities ?  If it is not legal, what alternative option/s do you have ?

How do you go about getting all the necessary educational resources (books, syllabus, notes etc…) to pursue your children's education in Spain ? Does it depend on the curriculum ?

What do you add in your homeschooling techniques to help educate your child that might not be offered or available in traditional schooling ?

How do you socialise homeschooled children in Spain by providing them opportunities to interact with other children ?

If you have any interest in homeschooling, could you please share your views on the pros and cons ?

Thank you for sharing your experience,
Bhavna

I heard it was illegal to home tutor your children in Spain. I want to live in Alicante one day, and would be taking my 13 year old granddaughter. If it was allowed, I would sell up and go tomorrow.

I don't know.. I prefer my children go to school and communicate with other kids)

@Margoshka good for you! Why do you think because someone is homeschooled they are not receiving the same social experiences? In my experience, a home schooled child gets 1:1 attention, is taught in such a manner that suits their individual learning style leading to faster and more in depth learning. I'm so shocked at how lacking children in public schools are, especially in Spain. The level of Maths, science and of course other languages is appalling! It's also my experience that a home school child is more confident and a much more social child.

@Bhavna


Hi, my husband and I have opted to homeschool our child, she is still a baby though, so still plenty of time before the textbooks come out. We decided on this after seeing how abismal the public schooling in Spain is. Children are not taught to critically think but instead how to pass an exam.  They also don't get the correct amount of attention needed and they don't get taught in a way that compliments their learning style, it's a one size fits all model here in Spain.


From our research we have found that it is not illegal to homeschool. However, if someone wants to report you for homeschooling your child, your child will have to prove that he or she is at the same level as children in schools via an examination. This is obviously not something to worry about if you're a confident academic, you might even find that your child is preforming far beyond the level of children in public schools.


You will be able to request from a school if you wish their syllabus to reference and build your child's lesson plan on. Alternatively there are organisations that support homeschooling globally and they have all the best resources.


For the socialisation we plan to enrol our child in many clubs, such as swimming, horse riding, archery, dance so that she can make friends that way and not miss out on the experiences I had as a child such as birthday parties, sleepovers and such.

We are currently homeschooling 3 of my 6 kiddos. We are going back and forth about homeschooling in Spain, but we heard the schools are good. We were looking at some concertados. Do you know if those are any better than the public schools?


Thanks!

I just bumped into a bloke who homeschooled his daughter like a ferocious Tiger Mom. She just graduated from Medical University and is now a qualified MD. Congrats to them both. She's 17. (Yes, 17, she passed her A Levels age 12.)

Do you know if those are any better than the public schools?
Thanks!
-@saramarie


Do you mean state schools?

@SimCityAT


Our new member (welcome to the forum @saramarie) is American, so, as you know, "public school" = "state school".

@Bhavna I don't blame you for home schooling. The Spanish state schools in my opinion are appalling, so much so that I had to put my two daughters into private school (international school) to get a decent education in Spain.

@gwynj thank you, yes, state school. I guess my bar is low as the American school system is severely lacking. I would like to know more specific reasons why the Spanish system is not up to par.


Thank you!

The Spanish constitutional system does not recognize the practice of home schooling unless children have special needs not to follow lessons from a classroom (I passed the tests for a dual French Spanish nationality).

They arrested a Dutch couple in Catalunya who lived in the countryside and who for 20 years had forbidden their 2 children to have contact with the outside world.

The school was done by the parents.

The parents were rich, a very nice house with a swimming pool, the father an IT engineer, the mother a psychologist.

Living in Spain also means learning to integrate. We don't come to this country just because it's hot.

Have a good day.

my family and I will be moving to Alicante sometime in spring of 2024. I have 3 kids ages 8,6, and 2


am in the process of applying for the golden visa and if everything goes well, I want to home school my kids for the first year before I Enroll them in a bilingual school or an international school.


i would love to get a house in Calpe. Does any know if this neighborhood has young families with kids? I want to stay in the neighborhood that has easy access to public transportation, schools, kid's activities ( soccer, tennis, swimming, music, gym).