Moving to Mallorca

[codex]

I know the people on here may be a little biased towards the Pollensa area but we're looking to move to Mallorca towards the end of this year and wanted to know if anyone had any suggestions as to the best place to start looking?

Initially we want to rent for a year, whilst we look for a property to make a permanent home, but currently we're not sure where on Mallorca we need to start looking.

We have two children who will both be 7 years old when we move. Ideally we'd like to all integrate into the local community and learn the local language (or languages!), but our children's education and happiness is obviously important so would consider either state or international schools.

We like living in the countryside and ideally would like to end up in a villa in a more peaceful location, but I suspect whilst we're renting and trying to integrate into the community we may be better to compromise on this. We've been to Mallorca a few times and are visiting again this summer, but living there would be very different from a holiday.

So does anyone have any recommendations for somewhere on Mallorca with great schools, easy access to beaches and other things to keep the children entertained whilst still retaining a more Spanish feel. We love some of the small Mallorcan villages a little off the beaten (if that's possible), so where's you're favourite spot!

 

[alcanadakid]

I know the people on here may be a little biased towards the Pollensa area but we're looking to move to Mallorca towards the end of this year and wanted to know if anyone had any suggestions as to the best place to start looking?

Initially we want to rent for a year, whilst we look for a property to make a permanent home, but currently we're not sure where on Mallorca we need to start looking.

We have two children who will both be 7 years old when we move. Ideally we'd like to all integrate into the local community and learn the local language (or languages!), but our children's education and happiness is obviously important so would consider either state or international schools.

We like living in the countryside and ideally would like to end up in a villa in a more peaceful location, but I suspect whilst we're renting and trying to integrate into the community we may be better to compromise on this. We've been to Mallorca a few times and are visiting again this summer, but living there would be very different from a holiday.

So does anyone have any recommendations for somewhere on Mallorca with great schools, easy access to beaches and other things to keep the children entertained whilst still retaining a more Spanish feel. We love some of the small Mallorcan villages a little off the beaten (if that's possible), so where's you're favourite spot!

I am less biased than most as we don't live in PP. Originally we started looking in PP but couldn't find anything we liked, and so spiralled our search outwards. We ended up in Alcanada just outside Port Alcudia and have never looked back. It is very quiet and virtually all our neighbours are Spanish. This was 9 years ago.

I know I will upset a lot of forum members, but knowing what we do now we wouldn't want to live in PP. The area around Alcudia old town is beautiful and quaint. The Port is "up and coming" and there are lots of good restaurants around.The beach strip is touristy, but it is quite a way from the old town.

The North of the island is good because it doesn't close down so much in the winter, beware of the east coast as it is absolutely dead in the winter.

 

[codex]

Thanks for the tips! We will be staying very near to Alcudia when we head over in the summer, so intend to give it a really good look over. We've been to the old town and the beach before, but only the once.

Be very interested to hear if anyone has kids at any of the schools on the island, or knows of anyone that does.

 

[jonquet]

Hi Codex, I agree with Alcanada and his comments are built on real experience,but when you look at things consider Pollenca town I bought there and no regets!
No kids to consider in my case but Poll is a real family town,its got everything and only 10 mins away from everthing else.
I always say Pollenca is a town where nothing happens but everything does its just a case of looking for it.

 

[andrew711]

On education, while not all schools can be tarred with the same brush, standards of state education in Mallorca are not high. The Balearics are one of the worst performing regions in Spain, and Spain in general doesn't fare that well within Europe.

As your children will be seven, as parents you would be entitled to choose which language they are taught in - Castellano (Spanish) or Catalan. This choice doesn't currently apply to secondary schools but it might do in future (Catalan is currently the main language). How this is working out in practice, as it has only been introduced this school year, I am unsure, but in Pollensa, as an example, fewer than 10% of parents have opted for Castellano, so what repercussions this has for actual teaching and also pupil socialisation are also hard to say. In some towns, there hasn't been any opting for Castellano. A point about this might be that when they are older, the children, if they have experienced Castellano teaching, might then be taught in Catalan. As things stand, this would happen. This choice of language only applies to state schools. International schools operate differently.

 

[codex]

Andrew, thank you, that's really useful information. Obviously from a career point of view, we would probably be better off educating our children in Castellano rather than Catalan, with a solid grasp of Spanish and English their career paths would widen (although switching paths later on would be very awkward). However, I think you've highlighted our biggest fear, taking them from what is currently a very well respected English school to an under achieving school on Mallorca.

We've heard good things about one of the private schools on the northern side of Palma. Our two concerns there are obviously making friends and integrating with the local community, and the potential cost of schooling for two children for ten years. Whilst the first of these is the bigger concern, it's difficult to be confident that you can provide that resource for them, especially when running your own business in the current financial climate. I think the other obvious worry is that the private education is actually any better, we've found it exceedingly difficult to find any sort of comparative measures of school performance for Balearic schools.

Anyway, enough rambling, if anyone has first hand experience, that would be more interesting than my wild musings.

 

[alcanadakid]

Hi Codex, I agree with Alcanada and his comments are built on real experience,but when you look at things consider Pollenca town I bought there and no regets!
No kids to consider in my case but Poll is a real family town,its got everything and only 10 mins away from everthing else.
I always say Pollenca is a town where nothing happens but everything does its just a case of looking for it.

I agree with Jonquet, Pollensa is a lovely town too. We don't have school age children but we know some English folk who have their children at an International school north of Palma, near Alcampo. They live near us but it is quite a trek. almost 1 and 1/2 hours twice a day. They obviously think it is worth it.

 

[lollipop]

Yes that school is in Marratxi and I believe they run a bus.

 

[codex]

Thanks again for all the input. Yes, that's the school I'd heard about. I was chatting to an estate agent, who said their children went to that school and they were very pleased with their education.