I have 3 children by my first marriage who went to school in the Barcelona area (Castell d'fels and L'Hospitalet) in the 1990s for 1 year (my daughter 2 years), and have one son with my second wife, and I have 2 stepchildren, the latter primarily attended Spanish public schools. My older children are all grown up, as are the stepchildren and all have attended public schools in both the US and in Spain, all speak both Spanish and English fairly fluently. To summarize briefly, I strongly believe that the public school system is Spain provides a very good education, based on my families experiences. Obviously, it may depend upon schools and to some degree on the neighborhood and group of friends that your children get involved with. In particular, I believe that Spain offers a much more secure environment for teenagers, which was one of the motivations for moving back to Spain from the US when our youngest was in the first year of the ESO (middle school). Although there may be some gang activity or skinheads in Madrid and Barcelona, it s almost non-existant in less populated areas. Drugs exist, but not a drug culture as in the US. Violence is also very infrequent here. One thing that I liked in Spain was that if your child has a good group of friends, the group tends to stay together as they progress through school. My son had friends from all social strata, countries, and religious backgrounds. His best friend is muslim, and he has friends that are Russian emigrees, a black friend from sub-saharan africa, some of them good students and some not. My daughter in the US is 32 years old and still maintains friendships with her friends in Castell D'Fels. As far as academics go, public school prepared my youngest son well with a good science and language background. Because he spoke English fluently, he studied German for 6 years, and now studies Physics at the University of Valencia.
There are a lot of differences between the US and Spanish school systems, not all of them positive (for Spain) from my point of view. In the US, the tendency is to advance children even if they are not performing well. If a student makes a minimal effort in the US he/she is promoted to the next grade level. Not so in Spain. In Spain, if you flunk three classes, you repeat the year. Tests are not easy and I remember my son telling me of tests where 1/2 the class flunked. This may seem like a scary scenario, however, the schools also tend to recognize immigrants need time to assimilate, but you will need to communicate your situation with teachers and the school principal. None of my children or step children have gone to private school but the rumor is that students in private schools are graded less harshly and as such the same student would have a higher grade point average. This is an obvious (but expensive) alternative if your child is not doing well in school. Spanish schools are obligatory (ESO) only through 10th grade, after which the best students go on to high school, and at this point make a choice as to whether to pursue science, technology, or humanities as their study. This may be too young an age to decide for some, however, it s possible to change one's area of study later. Apart from the normal physical education classes, there are no school sports to my knowledge in Spain, at least on the level of the US. There are many alternatives, however. There are private soccor clubs, as well as many other sports, including basketball, in many cities. My youngest son participated in soccer clubs, ping pong, tennis, squash, rowing, wind-surf, skiing, rock-climbing, cycling, judo, etc. But sorry, American football and baseball are probably hard to find. You will need to find out how and whn to signnup for these activities, many at low cost through the local city government. Finally, Spain is a catholic country and as such offers a religion course, but in most places you can sign up for an alternative course.
Recommendations: sign up for APA (the Spanish PTA) and go to meetings. This will save you money on textbooks and get you integrated. I also recommend the scouts (there are catholic and non-denominational scouts). My youngest son partipated in scouts.
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