Looking for feedback from Brits living in spain

[DeepTraybake]

We are a family of 5 and have the opportunity to move to Spain with my husband's work. We have 3 kids under 5, twins in reception and a newborn.

We love the heat, cannot speak Spanish (but would put everything into learning), husband's work is sorted and I would be on his visa so I would be legal to work too.

So I'm just looking for reviews from people that already made the move and what you think of your life over there?! The good, bad and the ugly please. Also what location you are in Spain?

Thank you.

Near Barcelona. We're fully immersed and avoid the expat community, to be honest.

We've got beach 5 minutes walk away, mountains 20 minutes by car.

Kids can attend "school" from the calendar year they turn 3 (so a child born October 2023 can start school this september, although be quite young). That's P3. P3-P5 school is optional, at age 6 they start 1st year of primary with proper classes. I've no idea what the equivalent is in the UK. There's also kindergarten for under-3s but they're not flexible, eg two afternoons a week or something. Basically as soon as they each the age for P3, everyone signs up cos it's 9-4.30/5 with 2 and half hours for lunch! And it's free. You pay to eat a hot meal at the school, or collect them to eat at home and return at 3pm. No packed lunches.

Teenage DD is currently in third year at secondary. She went to the feeder school from primary, so with 90% of her classmates. Secondary timetable is 8-2.30 with a half hour break at 11. Bar the usual idiots, she's enjoying her time at secondary, there's been minimal bullying or other issues. It's a state school with three classes of 30 per age/year.

After-school classes were plentiful at primary, although we just headed yo the local park for an hour or two yo let kids run around and socialise more, often parents would celebrate birthdays there and load picnic tables with food, easy to organise. State schools don't have uniforms, only private schools up to 2nd of secondary (so at 13).

We've found parents are the same the world over - some nice, some idiots, some rude, some hilarious, warm and friendly! I'm still in close contact with a handful and our kids are still friends.

It's a hot country for the most part, so outdoor activities are the norm all year round. It's been 16°c since Saturday and that's the Catalan coast, not Andalusia.

Oh, depending where you move to, you'll be learning Spanish + another language. I had rudimentary Spanish but now I've got C1 Catalan as well! Kids pick up languages crazily easy!

It's been great raising our dd here.

Thank you so much for this detailed reply! Some interesting points. Is there anything you miss from back home? How long have you been there? And how did you learn Spanish and how long did it take?

Thank you again

I moved to Barcelona in 2001 with no Spanish or Catalan! I took Spanish classes and watched a LOT of TV, which really helps with speed, cadence, intonation, idioms, swear words... We moved down the coast in 2005 to an area where much more Catalan is spoken. Again, classes, TV/news, socialising helped with the language. I don't need official exams in my line of work (eg to work in the public sector you need certificates to prove your level).

What I miss from the UK are my now aging parents, Indian food and charity shops. Nothing else at all. We fly back twice a year and it's nice to see so much green! But once you're out of the country say 2-3 years, culture moves on, so when I flew back and caught up with old uni friends, for example, they'd be talking about TV or annoying adverts (I remember a Halifax one popping up in conversation, something about opera?), celebs, the price of milk...etc, just those connections change. Honestly now after <calculates> 25 years the UK is as alien as going to Canada or somewhere - same language but everything's different. I feel more connected to France!

Spain/Catalunya still has it's problems, nowhere is perfect, but we've got great friends, good relationship with all the neighbours. I know a vast number of people in the city due to my job, so there's always a "hello" when I'm out and about, catching up with people. I guess you can have that anywhere 🤣 but I didn't feel that in the UK.

I will say though that when we moved her we just quietly started our life and people got used to seeing us, we weren't "oh look at this quaint cafe, we shall go here every day, learn everyone's name, chat to all the locals and they'll love us cos we're the newby foreigners' that we have seen so many do, just really patronising.

And.... Barcelona is an hour on the train, what's not to love?! 😄

We’ve been in Murcia for 8 years.
my children are bilingual, 95% of their friends are Spanish, compete nationally in sports.
they love school here, all go to local public schools.
I still don’t enjoy the heat, still struggle with the language, always learning! My husband has his own business.
I used to think we’d stay forever but I’m not sure on that now. But definitely don’t plan on leaving until all children have finished school. For raising children it’s wonderful.

Thank you so much for this detailed reply, appreciated. Some interesting factors. I laughed at the coffee shop part, it's like something off a film haha

I am looking at Murcia!

How old was your children when you moved?

They were between 1 and 10.
We love Murcia, we are about 15/20 minutes drive from lovely beaches, and 20 minutes in the other direction is Murcia City, and Cartagena is less than 30 minutes drive.

Thank you for replying! Very useful information for me here

We moved to Madrid for 3 years when our DC were 5 and 8. Best thing ever. Loved every minute of it. The first year was hard for me, but once I got more familiar with the language, it was wonderful. DC loved it too and are still fluent 20 years later.

We're here in Alicante as per username :) we've been for 20 years now and had both children here, they are now 8 and 12. We all speak Spanish, learnt through mix of language school and own study when we came here.
The weather is making us miserable each summer to be honest. When we semi retire in a few years we will not be spending summers here as it is too warm and too busy.
Apart from the weather, we love everything about our lives here. The food, the people, the lifestyle, how we live more outside, how safe it is for children compared to the UK. Our children are trilingual and will probably never leave Spain, so neither will we. The UK we left has become unrecognisable to us, we feel really blessed to call Spain our home.