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Beach days, sun days and school days in Gran Canaria
Good morning class, pay attention because todays lesson is how to find the right school in Gran Canaria. It’s an idyllic island to settle on but before you buy your investment property there is the all important question of education for your children to consider.
There are 2 main systems to chose from, state run schools or private international schools. State schools are free from the age of 5 and build through the age groups towards the Bacillerato diploma, their local equivalent of our GCSE’s. These schools do of course teach in Spanish but also teach English to local pupils. The international schools tend to follow the UK syllabus up to GCSE and A/S leval.With the growing number of ex pats children, it makes for a good mix and what a wonderful start in life for your children to become fluent in a major foreign language. The only downside is they will probably put your faltering language efforts to shame, but for a little extra pocket money, I’m sure they will help to bring you up to scratch.
Anyway Gran Canaria is blessed with a good choice of schools but before you pick one, ask around among other ex pat parents for their experience. There are also a couple of governing bodies that can provide useful advice. The Council of British Schools in the European Community (COBISEC) www.cobisec.org and the National Association of British Schools in Spain www.nabs.org are both a great starting point for basic information.
Here are a few of the international schools in Gran Canaria, most are in the capital, Las Palmas but they do run school buses and you will find that there are many other pupils being picked up from the main ex pat tourist resorts.
Let’s start with the Canterbury School in Las Palmas, www.canterbury-school.com that teaches the UK National Curriculum and covers the age groups of 3 to 18. As required by Spanish law, they teach Spanish language, literature, language and geography from the age of 6. Moving on to the American School of Las Palmas, www.aslp.org which is registered with the Spanish Ministry of Education. Here, enquiring young minds from pre school to 12th grade can study a mix of the American and Spanish school systems. The school has a cafeteria, library and labs on site and is about 15kms south of Las Palmas. One useful point here is the schools high school programme and standard diploma are recognised as the equivalent of the Spanish Bacillerato.
Or how about Oakley College, again in Las Palmas, this is more for the basic grounding as they only take pupils from 3 to 12 years old but of all nationalities. The UK national curriculum is on the timetable here and it serves as a good preparation for English or Spanish secondary education.
The British School of Gran Canaria www.bs-gc.net is split between the junior school for age 3 to 11 in central Maspalomas and the senior school in Las Palmas. The school uses the UK curriculum with the exception of Spanish language and humanities class and covers nursery to University entrance.
So if you are thinking of investing in a property in Gran Canaria, do your homework when it comes to schools and the best days of their lives will give you peace of mind for the best years of your lives.