im thinking of moving country but i need alotta help!!?

Question

im thinking of spain, any part that is good for kids ages 13 and 7. i need to find out what schools are good. primary and secendry that is either english or spanish speaking but i would rather have english and i also need help on how im going to get started and stuff. please if you live in spain or ever moved ther help me or anyone oh and if you give me a really good answer i will vote you best answer every time i see you on yahoo answers thanks

Answer 1

I always start with Wikipedia and move on from there:
"According to the World Bank, Spain's economy is the eighth biggest worldwide and the fifth largest in Europe. As of 2005, the absolute GDP was valued at $1.12 trillion, just behind Italy and ahead of Canada. It is listed 22nd in GDP per capita, just behind the United Arab Emirates and ahead of Singapore.
Spain's mixed economy supports a GDP that on a per capita basis is 90% of that of the four leading West European economies and slightly above the enlarged European Union average... Unemployment currently stands at 7.6% of the labour force (October 2006) having fallen from a high of 20% and above in the early 1990s. It also compares favourably to the other large European countries, most notably, Germany with an unemployment of approximately 12%. Perennial weak points of Spain's economy include high inflation, a large underground economy, low productivity and one of the lowest rates of investment in Research and Development, also an education system slated in OECD reports as one of the worst in Western Europe.
On the brighter side, the Spanish economy is credited for having avoided the virtual zero growth rate of some of its largest partners in the EU. In fact, the country's economy has created more than half of all the new jobs in the European Union over the five years ending 2005. The Spanish economy has thus been regarded lately as one of the most dynamic within the EU, attracting significant amounts of foreign investment." [1]

"A peaceful transition to democracy following the death of dictator Francisco FRANCO in 1975, and rapid economic modernization ... have given Spain one of the most dynamic economies in Europe ... Continuing challenges include Basque Fatherland and Liberty (ETA) terrorism and relatively high unemployment.
The Spanish economy boomed from 1986 to 1990, averaging 5% annual growth. After a European-wide recession in the early 1990s, the Spanish economy resumed moderate growth starting in 1994... The administration continued to advocate liberalization, privatization, and deregulation of the economy and introduced some tax reforms to that end. Unemployment fell steadily under the AZNAR administration but remains high at 8.1%. Growth averaging 3% annually during 2003-06 was satisfactory given the background of a faltering European economy... Despite the economy's relative solid footing significant downside risks remain, including Spain's continued loss of competitiveness, the potential for a housing market collapse, the country's changing demographic profile ... [2]

See also the Spanish government's site at:
http://www.sispain.org/

See also the excellent but dated information (education, etc.) from the US Library of Congress at:
http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/estoc.html

Fifty years ago, when I was in elementary school, my family moved to southern Mexico. I was way ahead of the local public school education but didn't speak enough Spanish to matriculate at my level. My father arranged for me to have a private tutor (using the Calvert System, now a homeschool outfit at: http://www.calvertschool.org/ ). Or the Catholic Church runs very high quality schools throughout Spain, if you can deal with the religious aspects). If you can figure out the education thing, I say absolutely - GO FOR IT! It will be a wonderful experience for the kids to see the world from a different perspective & interact with folks from a different culture. Living abroad is an education in itself. Of course, you need to be able to support yourself, so I assume you either have or can get a job. Best of luck!