Schooling in Greece

My hubby is promoted to a senior expat position in Athens, Greece. We'll be moving with our 3 children (boy 10, twin girls 7) from west London in January. We are currently checking out options re schooling and housing and would be grateful for input from expat families in Greece about international/ British schooling options and housing. We heard there were 3 main options in the Attica region, St Catherine's British School, Campion School and the American School. Our children having followed the UK curriculum at a private school here, the US school option doesn't make sense.

What do you think of the other two options? Our main worry atm is that though St Catherine's British School was our first choice, we heard through one of our Greek friends here in London & through an expat family returning from Greece, that there is frequent bullying there and close to no response from the school's administrators or staff to it. Amongst other things, they both mentioned the school taught English at an ESL level having to cater for a majority of non-native children and that tutoring will be needed when we return to the UK to bridge the gap in math also. Have you heard anything about all of this?? Campion we haven't had particular feedback to date, so we'd definetely value input on this school or on any other options to consider and specific details in terms of curriculum achievements and general atmosphere.

Also, we are looking for info on best places to live, we heard Psichiko and Filothei (hubby would be working in Chalandri) are nice and that we could get nice housing with a pool there.

Thank you!!

LIVIA

Hi,why dont you put your children in a Greek school,I would go for the private local schools,they pick up and drop off the children every day,they are not the expensive private schools,just a good alternative to   the state school,more close knit and friendly I believe.And what a great chance for your children to speak and write Greek,it would be wonderful,all the world now wants to learn everything Greek,especially the language.I met an expat who came from Aus and put her 4 year old in the pre school,within weeks he was translating for her when she got stuck.They have yellow pick-up school buses here in Athens.Sorry I meant this for Sapman.

We sent our children to St Catherine's and our experience was horrific. Bullying is a frequent occurrence and management is not responsive to complaints raised by parents or children.

We found the curriculum to be of low in standard and there is a clear gap compared to the UK academic system. It is also hard to leave the school once the children has established friendships within the community so we do not recommend sending children to this school as it does not live to its reputation as a great school.

It would be useful do for research on the credentials of the management staff to understand how are their experience rated in the UK.

We regret very much sending our children to this school, and would encourage parents to avoid making the mistake of having their children bullied and stuck in an environment that is not healthy for the emotional wellbeing of children.