Spanish for parents: your child's school in Spain

A note turns up in the backpack, or a notification from a school app you only half set up: tutoría, martes a las 17:00. Twenty minutes with the person who sees your child every day, better spent on questions than on polite nodding. School is where the language pinches hardest: the vocabulary is small, entirely its own, and nobody translates it.

The stages, by name

Educación infantil, 0 to 6, in two cycles; the second, 3 to 6, is free in state schools, the first depends on your region and town. Educación primaria, 6 to 12, six courses, 1.º to 6.º de primaria. ESO (Educación Secundaria Obligatoria), 12 to 16, four courses, ending in the título de Graduado en ESO. Schooling is compulsory to 16.

Bachillerato, 16 to 18, is optional; the other route after ESO is FP, Formación Profesional. Bachillerato leads to the university entrance exam, called EvAU, EBAU or PAU depending on the region. Children are placed by year of birth, not by the level they reached abroad.

Admission and the baremo

Education is run by the autonomous communities: forms, calendar and points are regional, the shape is not. There is an admission period, the plazo de admisión, usually in spring for the following September, in which you list schools by preference. Where applications outnumber places, families are ranked on a points scale, the baremo.

Points come from siblings already in the school, usually the heaviest item; home or workplace inside the catchment area (zona de influencia); family income; disability; familia numerosa; familia monoparental. The figures are set by each community — read them on your regional education site, not in a parents' chat. Ties go to a public draw, the sorteo. Arriving mid-year, the comisión de escolarización assigns a school with vacancies.

• ¿Cuándo se abre el plazo de admisión? — When does admission open?
• ¿Qué documentación necesito para matricular a mi hija? — What documents do I need to enrol my daughter?
• Acabamos de llegar. ¿Puedo escolarizarlo fuera de plazo? — We have just arrived. Can I enrol him outside the period?
• ¿Cuántos puntos suma tener un hermano en el centro? — How many points does a sibling here add?

Usually asked for: passports or NIE/TIE, certificado de empadronamiento, birth certificate or libro de familia, cartilla de vacunación, reports from the previous school. For a foreign bachillerato-level qualification, ask about homologación through the Ministerio de Educación.

Pública, concertada, privada

Pública: state-run, free, places by baremo. Concertada: private management with public funding, concerted places free and allocated by the same baremo, but with a monthly cuota for extras; many are religious schools. Privada: full fees, own admission.

In Catalonia, the Valencian Community, the Basque Country and Galicia there is a second official language, used at school both as a subject and for teaching; how much depends on the region and the school's plan. In Catalonia teaching is in Catalan; in the Basque Country you choose between models A, B and D. Several regions also run language support for newcomers: aula de enlace, aula d'acollida, ATAL.

• ¿En qué lengua se dan las clases? — Which language are lessons taught in?
• ¿Hay aula de acogida para alumnos que aún no hablan el idioma? — Is there a reception class for pupils without the language?

The tutoría

Every group has a tutor, the teacher responsible for it and your main contact. There is a group meeting early in the year (reunión de aula) and individual meetings during it; you can ask for one rather than wait to be summoned.

• Quería pedir una tutoría con el tutor de mi hijo. — I would like a meeting with my son's tutor.
• ¿Cómo va en clase? ¿Sigue el ritmo del grupo? — How is he doing? Is he keeping up?
• ¿En qué asignaturas le cuesta más? — Which subjects does he find hardest?
• ¿Cómo se relaciona con los compañeros? — How does he get on with the others?
• Perdone, ¿puede repetirlo más despacio? Todavía estoy aprendiendo español. — Sorry, could you say that more slowly? I am still learning Spanish.
• ¿Me lo puede poner por escrito? — Could you put it in writing?
• ¿Podemos vernos otra vez dentro de un mes? — Could we meet again in a month?

Comedor, extraescolares, AMPA

The AMPA (asociación de madres y padres de alumnos; AFA or APA in some places) is the parents' association: a voluntary annual fee, and it usually runs the after-school activities, morning care and the second-hand book scheme. Meal subsidies are awarded by the region, so those rules are regional too.

• ¿Cómo apunto a mi hija al comedor? — How do I sign my daughter up for lunches?
• Mi hija es alérgica a los frutos secos. ¿Cómo se gestiona? — My daughter is allergic to nuts. How is that handled?
• ¿Hay ayudas de comedor y dónde se solicitan? — Are there meal subsidies, and where do you apply?
• ¿Qué extraescolares hay y cómo me apunto? — What activities are there and how do I sign up?

What comes home

A circular is a notice to all families; an autorización the slip you sign for an excursión or for photographs; a justificante covers a falta de asistencia, a recorded absence. The boletín de notas is the report card, an evaluación an assessment period, normally three a year, and the agenda the homework diary. Most of this arrives through a platform or app that varies by region and school.

• Firmo la autorización de la excursión. ¿Hay que pagar algo? — I am signing the trip slip. Is there anything to pay?
• Mañana no vendrá al colegio, traeré el justificante médico. — He will not be at school tomorrow, I will bring the doctor's note.
• No me llegan los avisos de la aplicación. — I am not getting the app notifications.

When your child is struggling

Say it plainly, and early.

• Creo que le está costando seguir las clases. — I think he is finding it hard to follow the lessons.
• ¿Sería posible una valoración del orientador? — Would an assessment by the school counsellor be possible?
• ¿Hay apoyo o refuerzo para estas asignaturas? — Is there support or catch-up help in these subjects?
• ¿Se puede hacer alguna adaptación mientras aprende el idioma? — Can anything be adapted while she is learning the language?

Refuerzo and apoyo are ordinary in-school support; an adaptación is a formal adjustment to what is asked of the child. The orientador, or the departamento de orientación in secondary, carries out the assessment that formal measures follow from, with your consent. PT and AL are specialist teachers: pedagogía terapéutica, audición y lenguaje.

One distinction is worth saying out loud: a child who does not yet have the language is not a child with a learning difficulty. In the first year they look alike; the help is not.

Write your three questions in Spanish before you go in, and ask for anything important in writing. And keep one sentence ready: Perdone, todavía estoy aprendiendo español. ¿Puede hablar un poco más despacio? Nobody in a school refuses that.