Choosing a school in Barcelona PRACTICAL GUIDE FOR INTERNATIONAL FAMILIES Choosing a school in Barcelona PRACTICAL GUIDE FOR INTERNATIONAL FAMILIES Choosing a School in Barcelona BARCELONA, Barcelona is a great place to live, thanks and cultures who have chosen to come A WELCOMING to all the business, leisure and cultural and live in Barcelona. They are people who TALENT opportunities here, as well as the local contribute a lot to the city, socially and DESTINATION lifestyle and the captivating Mediterranean economically, and they bring an important character. It is an open and diverse city that human capital of talent. attracts peoples from all over the world and Barcelona has a strategy to make these is among the top European cities chosen by people feel welcome, rooted and integrated international companies. with the rest of the population, so they will Some of the people who decide to make feel proud to be “new Barcelonians”. Barcelona their home come with their The City Council launched the Barcelona family and those with children are faced International Welcome service with practical with the challenge of finding the right information for anyone moving to our city, school. As each family is different, each the priority formalities to be carried out and one will make choices reflecting its own a broad range of free activities to make new priorities and preferences, depending on contacts and enjoy to the full everything many other factors too, such as the age of the city offers to newcomers and long-term the child, languages spoken or how long residents alike. they plan to live in Barcelona. In addition, the Barcelona International This guide is for international families Community Day is organised in October that are searching for pre- and compulsory every year as a major annual meeting point schooling for their children in Barcelona or for international talent. It is an event packed its surrounding area. with talks, workshops, roundtables, cultural The contents of the guide provide key and entertainment activities, as well as a and practical information in order to make fair to make contacts with organisations and this decision-making process as simple as professionals, and to share and exchange For more possible. It gives you optimum opportunities experiences. information: for understanding and navigating your way All these services and activities are open Barcelona in the complex field of the many and quality to foreign families arriving in our city. International Welcome educational options that you will find in Welcome to Barcelona! barcelona.cat/ Barcelona. internationalwelcome There is also a more general purpose Barcelona International for this guide: to welcome and assist in Community Day the personal and professional landing of barcelona.cat/international communityday foreign people from different backgrounds Choosing a School in Barcelona CONTENTS 3 5 Be inspired: Family networks International and communities families share 51 - CULTURE OF 1 their experience COMMUNICATION AND Understanding COLLABORATION 34 - KEVIN’S FAMILY: Barcelona International the Catalan school ON LANGUAGE AND Schools Association (BISA) ACADEMIC SKILLS system 52 - GETTING INVOLVED 36 - ANOUK’S FAMILY: 7 - EDUCATION ORGANISATION Parents’ associations: ON CLASSES AND AFA is the new AMPA AND GOVERNANCE CULTURE Family Spaces, toy 8 - SCHOOLING 38 - JOY’S FAMILY: libraries and open schoolyards programme 8 - TYPES OF SCHOOLS ON INTEGRATION Centre for families with Public schools AND WELL-BEING teenagers (escoles públiques) 40 - HARRY’S FAMILY: International and niche State-subsidised ON ENROLMENT AND community groups private schools (escoles concertades) BEGINNING AT A NEW 54 - AFTER-SCHOOL Private schools SCHOOL ACTIVITIES AND HOLIDAY (escoles privades) ACTIVITIES 9 - STAGES OF EDUCATION 57 - BULLYING AND Preschool HARASSMENT POLICY Compulsory Schooling 4 Upper Secondary Education How to choose the Higher Education 16 - LANGUAGE AND best school for Checklists CURRICULUM your child 17 - SCHOOL LIFE 58 - THREE STEPS IN 43 - SELECTION PROCESS: SELECTING A SCHOOL The school day STEP BY STEP 62 - THREE STEPS TO The school calendar 1st step: Consider the needs of your child and you family ENROLLING YOUR CHILD 2nd step: Gather information about any relevant schools 3rd step: Visit relevant 2 schools School provision 44 - ENROLMENT PROCESS: for international STEP BY STEP 1st step: Prioritise your families options 2nd step: Submit your 19 - LOCAL SCHOOLS application (pre-enrolment) Aula d’acollida 3rd step: Confirm by registering (enrolment) 19 - INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION 48 - OVERVIEW OF THE International Schools ENROLMENT PROCESS AND WHEN YOU NEED International Baccalaureate HELP Batxibac Dual Diploma Choosing a School in Barcelona / Understanding the Catalan school system If you arrive in Barcelona with children, you EDUCATION de Barcelona) was created in 2002. This need to understand the education system. consortium is a public body jointly promoted 6 This can be a daunting task, which can feel ORGANISATION AND by the Government of Catalonia and 7 even more difficult if there’s a language GOVERNANCE Barcelona City Council as an instrument for barrier. co-management and decentralisation. One of the main characteristics of the So in this chapter we give you a brief education system administration is The Barcelona Education Consortium is, introduction to the Catalan School System. decentralisation, as educational powers are therefore, the sole body for education in The aim is to present the general structures shared between all levels of government in the city of Barcelona, while for the rest of to help you get an overview of how the Spain: Catalonia it is the Department of Education system is organised and the different options of the Government of Catalonia. • the State, through the Spanish Ministry you have when choosing the best school for your child. of Education, works to ensure a there is uniform education system that guarantees 1Understanding equal access for everyone exercising their For more information: basic right to education. Barcelona Municipal Education the Catalan • the Autonomous Communities (or regional Institute governments), through Departments of (Institut Municipal d’Educació de school system Education, which are responsible for Barcelona) – Barcelona City Council implementing and developing state laws ajuntament.barcelona.cat/educacio and aspects of the education system (only in Catalan and Spanish) • the local authorities, focused on barcelona.cat/en/living-in-bcn/studying educational management Barcelona Education Consortium • the education centres or schools (Consorci d’Educació de Barcelona) edubcn.cat (only in Catalan) As this guide is focussed on Barcelona and its area of influence, we will refer to Department of Education the Catalan school system. This system (Departament d’Educació) - falls under the framework of the Spanish Government of Catalonia Education Act (Llei orgànica d’Educació) ensenyament.gencat.cat and other education regulations and laws (only in Catalan) approved by the Government of Catalonia web.gencat.cat/ca/temes/educacio (Generalitat de Catalunya). Ministry of Education and But to understand the governance of the Vocational Training local education system, you should also be (Ministeri d’Educació i Formació aware that Barcelona City Council has been Professional) Government of Spain involved in education renewal and innovation educacionyfp.gob.es/en/ for decades and committed to dignifying and improving public education, by building and managing schools and implementing educational projects. As a result of this determination and long tradition, the Barcelona Municipal Education Institute (Institut Municipal d’Educació de Barcelona) was set up in 1993 to manage all the schools and education centres owned by the city. Later, taking into account Barcelona’s importance and in line with the vision of improving educational management to make it closer to ordinary citizens, the Barcelona Education Consortium (Consorci d’Educació Choosing a School in Barcelona / Understanding the Catalan school system SCHOOLING education”. Families who practice home- State-subsidised private schools STAGES OF EDUCATION schooling refer to this article, but as it has 8 (escoles concertades) 9 All children living in Barcelona and in the not been developed, it is unclear whether it The education system is broken down into includes them or not. rest of the country are entitled to a place in These school are privately owned and stages, levels and years. This is illustrated in the public education system that guarantees managed and may or may not be secular. Figure 1 (page 10). them a free education. They voluntarily participate in the subsidy TYPES OF SCHOOLS programme (concert educatiu) of the Catalan Below, in Figure 2 (pages 12-13), you can Compulsory education spans ten years from Government by complying with established see a comparative chart showing the 6 to 16 years of age. It is the child’s year of In Barcelona’s education system there are requirements to receive subsides that cover equivalences between the local Catalan birth that will indicate which school year/ schools owned by public authorities and the cost of basic educational needs. system and selected foreign school systems. class they will attend, with the cut-off date schools owned by private institutions. being 31 December. These schools do not charge for tuition but Since this guide is mainly focused on the Some private schools are financed with any other