In this post I am going to discuss some of the differences I have noticed between schools in Spain, and schools in the United States. It is not exhaustive, obviously. I am also not an expert in this, but I thought the topic was interesting, so here we go! I have also included some terminology in Spanish. You will notice the words in bold in the regular paragraphs of text or descriptions about each topic, as I have written here for an example :).
The first thing you will probably notice when you approach a school in Spain is that there is less security than you are used to seeing.
Thankfully, this is because it is not needed. From the point of view of the school, there are security measures in place, primarily a locked gate (in some cases), and that some schools do not allow parents to enter without checking in, although this is certainly not the standard in my experience. On more than one occasion we have walked into a school to ask for information, and not really had anyone inhibit our flow of movement. However, we did not take this freedom to mean we should walk around wherever we wanted to, but it definitely felt odd to just walk in the front door and “look” for where to go, due to the lack of barriers between us and any other door in the school. In other cases, we can’t even get past the front gate- our son once went to a school that would not allow us to cross the gate barrier, which was a little bizarre, and honestly a cause for concern for me- but his reporting of the schools activities and relationships was not questionable, so we brushed it off as a cultural difference. As with all things in Spain, there is variance across regions and cities.
The second very noticeable difference is the style of book bags that most students use in Spain.
In the US, a kid is looked at twice if they are using a book bag (una mochila) with wheels, but here it is the standard way. It’s not that it is unheard of to use a regular book bag that is carried on your back, but it is definitely the exception. My son uses a book bag for the back, because he does not like going up and down the stairs with the rolling book bag.
Which brings me to another point, there are lots of stairs in schools, and not many elevators.
Sometimes, the elevators don’t work, but either way, they are not for the students regular use. In my time at schools in the US, the schools were one story or two stories high, but here sometimes kids will have to go up multiple floors to get to their classrooms, so it is a lot of stairs.
My third observation is that schools are very often in old buildings.
This has a few consequences: the architecture can be absolutely beautiful, high ceilings, very old beautiful hallways, lots of character. On the hand, there is a consequence to this, which is lack of heating and air conditioning. It is not unusual at all for class to have neither heating nor air conditioning, so the students will absolutely dress according to those conditions. One winter, I was putting my son in extra thick socks and layers, just to keep him warm IN the classroom, but then in the month of June, it is so hot in the classrooms, that the schools shut down early, reducing the hours kids are in school.
Speaking of hours of schooling, this is also different from the USA, and varies as well within Spain.
There are two standard options for schools, depending on regions and cities- the continuous day (jornada continua) and the split day (jornada partida). Within these two categories, there are some variances, of course :). For example, one schools’ jornada partida may have an extra hour or less. In general, this is how it works. A continuous day or jornada continua, will have the hours of about 9am to 2pm. There will be a break in there for recess (or patio time as it is called), which includes having a snack around around 10:30-11:30pm, varying by grade level. All grades can not take a break at the same time, so there is some overlap and separation within that. This is just an estimate based on my experiences with both of my kids. At 2pm, the children will be able to leave school for the day. They can also choose to stay at and have lunch for two hours, which is paid for by the parents, and leave at around 4pm. Besides this, there will be extracurriculars that may take places from 4pm, to allow for more “school time” if the parent’s need to work longer hours or don’t have anyone to pick up their kids at 2pm.
In the case of the jornada partida, the school day will be split.
Firstly, the children come to school at the same time as above, 9am (can vary by an hour earlier or 30 mins later, in both types of schools). In any case, the kids go to school form 9am to approximately 1pm (with some variance, as always). They would then have lunch for 2-3 hours, in which case they can be picked up from school. This is a big difference from the US, where we don’t pick our kids up from school for lunch. The school may have some extracurriculars to offer during this part of the day, for kids who stay at school for lunch time. After the lunch break, the kids going back to school, which means they have to be brought back to school if they left. This can be VERY stressful for kids, it definitely was for mine (and for me!). I do not like this schedule. Either way, the kids return for about 1.5-2 hours, have more classes, and then get out at 4-5pm. Once again, there will be extracurriculars and/or after school care offered for parents who need it.
School supplies also vary slightly in Spain.
Since the paper size in Europe is different from the Americas, you will notice that your kid’s notebooks, binders, printer paper, etc is all of a different size. When you are reading a school supplies list, this will be confusing, since the paper needed will be labeled as an A number: A4, A2, A3, etc. The paper size most similar to the standard in the US is A4. The paper that is included in notebooks is also different- it will be either blank with no lines or have some variation of “graph paper” inside. In the US, we only use graph paper for subjects like math, and other then in the upper grades. In Spain, graph paper is the standard type of paper used, and the sizes of the graph will vary based on the notebook. It is also difficult, but not impossible, to find good pencils with erasers attached to them.
Here is a video I made about the school supplies we’ve needed over the last year or so.
Another school supply that we have regularly needed are page protectors.
They are usually used to collect papers in, instead of using a folder. I have no idea why, I assume they are collecting them at school and keeping them in some sort of a binder. Pencils are also different. It is very difficult to find a pencil here with an actual eraser built into it. Instead, you will find a ton of good quality pencils, with no erasers. You will then have to find, and keep up with the loose eraser (yikes). To this point, kids usually use what is called an estuche to collect there things in. This is a bag, normally with 2-4 zipper compartments, that can easily sit on their desk at school. They keep this out on their desks much of the time, so that they can easily access whatever supplies they need in the moment.
You will also find that the actual textbooks are different.
Instead of hard backed heavy books that are “checked out” from each classroom (is that still how they do it in the US?? lol), you will buy paperback books from amazon or some other private bookseller. To me, this was more like the University way of doing things, than the primary school way, so it is quite different from the US. There is the option of borrowing books from the school, for a fee, but from the guidelines I have seen, this can sometimes be income based and the books can have very limited damage to them upon return. I want my children to be able to write in their books (they are often workbook style) or to circle numbers in their books, mess a page here and there, I don’t care. The cost is not exorbanant enough for me to justify borrowing the books from the book bank and then stressing myself and my kids out all year about damaging the books too much.
Languages offered in schools also vary across regions,
but from a US perspective, there is more offered here. Many schools ofter english from infantil and up (infantil is the equivalent of preschool in the United States). This is not too hard to find. So straight away, you have the standard met that english is being taught in the schools, althought the quality of that instruction varies by school. As an english speaker from the United States, we are more concerned with our kids learning spanish, and also learning a “second language”, which is not english. They have and will pick up the Spanish quickly, quicker than you can imaging if they are in Spanish schools, so then you will have a situation where english/spanish are their somewhat combined first languages. So now, what is the second language going to be? You will have to research the schools to find the ones that offer a third language, and that do so from as early a grade as possible.
What I mean is that it is fairly standard for schools to offer French or German from middle school or high school, but not from primary.
If you want your kids to pick up a third language at school, you will need to look at the schools websites and determine when they start teaching the third language. There are rare ones that begin in infantil, but it is not the standard. Some regions will ofter more languages in primary, especially from the 5th grade. This is not my ideal, but it is better than waiting on high school, especially if you work on language learning at home too.
Now let’s talk about play time (recreo)!
The outdoor areas of many schools are not grassy with wide spaces. The traditional school will have a solid concrete slab of pavement for the kids to play on. This is often referred to as the patio. The kids play all their sports and run around on concrete- even fútbol (soccer). This leads to a lot of scratches and ripped clothes, but they do eventually learn how to fall down gracefully. haha Recess time, or patio time, aka recreo, is also snack time. Kids often bring fruit or a sandwich (aka bocadillo) to school to eat during recreo time. This food is referred to as almuerzo, but it’s not lunch…it’s more like brunch. Some schools will only give 20 minutes of recreo, some will give up to 45 minutes, so you will need to check with the schools if this is an important point for you. This time happens about 2 hours or so after arriving to school, so the children eat breakfast at home, and then a snack (or small meal really if it’s a sandwich) two hours later. Some schools have rules about what types of food to bring, but fruit is a standard. From here, they go back to their classes and will have lunch at around 2pm-ish, which is 2-3 hours later (and also may be at home).
Regarding food and snacks,
it is fairly common to see parents picking kids up with a sandwich in hand, so that they can feed them right away while headed home. Remember that many many people walk or take the bus to and from school, so you are basically standing outside, waiting for your child at either 1 or 2 or 4 or 5pm (depending on the school and their hours), with other parents, and with food that you have brought to give your kid as soon as they leave school, because they are usually hungry. Maybe this counts for their lunch (culturally, this is called comida in Spain) in some cases, I guess it depends on the family. If the child is picked up at 5 pm, then the food you give them is no longer comida, but more like merienda, a snack.
There is no doubt that I am getting some of the terminology wrong, and I will make those corrections as people see this post and tell me about them haha. TIA (Thanks in advance).
Of note, for those families from the US, you will notice that your child’s school day might be ending at your traditional dinner time back home. OOPS. Shall I even broach the topic here? Ok, I will.
The traditional spanish dinner time is not 5pm like it is back in the states.
At around 5pm, many people are just getting off of work (maybe), out of school (maybe), etc. Families take their kids to extracurriculars, they might have a snack (merienda), and then they will have dinner as late as 10pm, or later. I am saying 10pm because I think it is an average. I have heard of people with small kids eating at more like 8pm, but also some eat as late as midnight. Don’t shoot the messenger (lol). It is a very strange thing to make sense of when you come from a totally different culture! As for us? Our normal dinner eating time is still at around 5/6pm. On a rare occassion we will eat a little later. When my kids went to a school that got out at 5pm (I loathed it), I would have dinner ready when they got home. They would sometimes eat a little, then go outside down the street for their fútbol class, then come back and eat some more. Other times, they would have a small snack, go do the activity, then come back in and eat a little later. Our routine is very different from the native people we live around, but it’s how we do things.
The grading scale is different as well.
Here they grade on a scale of 1-10, with 10 being the highest and 1 being low. The numbers also have labels, which you can see in the video below.
10 Sobresaliento (SB is the symbol) or an A
9 Sobresalient (SB is the symbol) or an A
8 Notable (NT is the symbol) or a B
7 Notable (NT is the symbol) or a B
6 Bien (BI is the symbol) of a C
5 Suficiente (SU is the symbol) or a D
0-4.9 Insuficiente (IN), or an F.
Anything that is a 5 or above is passing, even though in the US this is 50%, and F, and a definite FAIL. Some people say this is because Spanish school is tougher, so they grade expectation is a little more flexible. I’m not sure if I believe that or not, but we are still in the primary years, so we will see how that goes! So far, my oldest son has had no problems achieving grades of 7 or above in all subjects, except for Lengua (which is expected). I have given the US equivalent grade in the chart above, based on my own research and experience. Other people may have other opinions about the equivalents.
The use of uniforms, once again, varies among schools.
In general, this is how it works: private schools use uniforms of some type, rarely they may not. They will had a daily uniform and a PE uniform, which will be worn on PE days. Concertados (aka charter schools), are a mix- some use them, some don’t. In either case, the kids will almost always have a uniform to wear on PE day (physical education). Public schools usually don’t have uniforms for any day of the week – not for PE days or regular days. For the private or concertado schools that use uniforms, some of them have restrictions on the types of shoes that can be worn, jewelry, haircuts, etc, so you will want to check on that if it matters to you. Some schools will offer girls only a skirt option, while others will offer shorts or pants, so you will have to check on that variance if it’s important for your family. My children have been to one of every type of school at this point, except for a private school with no uniform, but I do know they exist out there.
Handwriting differences was something that really surprised me.
I was shocked the first time someone hand me a piece of paper with a series of numbers on it, and I couldn’t correct repeat it back to them. Quite a few numbers and letters have different shapes, especially the number one. Kid’s are also taught to write in cursive from kindergarten, and those letters have some different shapes as well. Here are a couple of small examples of some numbers and letters being different. I will add more examples as I come across them.
Religion is taught in lots of schools in Spain
These days, it is unheard of for a school to teach religion in the United States, unless it is specifically a private religious school. In contrast, religion is often found being taught in a variety of schools in Spain, from public to private schools. It can be difficult to find a non-private school without religion. If this concerns you, you may be glad to know that Spain has a law now that public schools can not have religious objects out and they also must offer alternatives to religion classes.
I will add to this post as more differences come up. If you have something you’d like me to add, please share! I love hearing from you.
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Thanks for reading,
Ashley