Relocation with 2 kids, 10 & 13 - thoughts?

[onehappyguy]

Hello Everyone,

My wife and I have travelled alot with our kids but we are ready for a change of pace and doing an extended stay with our kids, probably 6-8 months.

We are thinking of the Belgrano area... any feedback regarding BA lifestyle with kids and getting them into a school? Also any suggestions for either public or private reasonable cost schools (can do about $600 us per child).

Thanks
Jessie

 

[2GuysInPM]

You might find some answers reading some of BAWithKids threads:

http://baexpats.org/search.php?searchid=336682

 

[random]

School is starting now. Were you planning to be here for this academic year? Where are you living now?

 

[onehappyguy]

Thanks @ 2guysinpm... was just doing that

@ random... I'm aware school is starting now... we are in california, moving in June, so kids will probably start late for most BA schools... we are looking at living in Belgrano.

 

[random]

Michele and Tom are two Americans who did the same thing that you're planning to do --- they came here with their two kids and lived for about a year, just to get the experience of living here and having the kids experience going to school abroad. You might check out their blog posts:

http://www.micheleandtom.com/

Sure, the posts are over a year old now, but you should still get some useful info. The posts from BsAs go from October 2008 when they first arrived until December 2009 when they returned to Portland.

Belgrano is a nice neighborhood (expensive, though).

 

[Aerodynamite]

Belgrano is probably your safest bet, I wouldn't put my hands on the fire for any neighborhood but Ive lived in Belgrano and it's one of the nicest neighborhoods.

One of the best schools you could take your kids to is St. Catherine's School, I don't know how much it is per month there anymore but it's one of the highest rated schools. I went to that school, they have like 3 different schools in 3 different areas of Buenos Aires and they have one of their schools in the UK. They've got a club, a pool, polo, hockey, tennis, and the study level is just the same as in the states, which will be quite hard for you to find here in Argentina as the pacing is different as far as education goes. It also has a choir, an outstanding building, a very good cafeteria, and they teach Spanish, English, French, Italian and German.

The only downside is that it's a catholic school so if you ain't catholic you might find this not suitable for your kids, if you don't care about this at all or you are catholic then I'd highly suggest this school, you wouldn't want your kids grades to drop when you get back into your homeland.

Statal schools aren't very good unless it's the Lenguas Vivas, which they will need to first pass an exam to join. Although they will need to pass an exam to join St. Catherine's as well, Lenguas Vivas is the best state school. I wouldn't recommend the other's, the English level is poor and if they know no Spanish they will be subject to being bullied and having a really bad school year.

People here are very accepting but kids will forever be kids and you want your kids to have a good year, so I'd highly recommend against state schools unless it's the Lenguas Vivas in which they speak English fluently and have actually quite an amount of people from other countries studying abroad (they even got an exchange program).

These are my 2 cents, I hope it helps.

Btw, if you'd like to know which parts of belgrano are the nicest lemme tell you the area around the train station ''Belgrano R'' is the nicest and most residential-quiet yet comfortable area you could live in. It's really chilled, it has a beautiful park called Plaza Castelli, tons of restaurants and even though it's so suburb-ish like it's 30 mins from downtown, nearby about everything.

=) cheers.

 

[soysanti]

Lincoln schools, accredited in US
http://www.lincoln.edu.ar/
I don't know how much they cost, and I think they are in San Isidro which is a little further up the line from Belgrano.

 

[BAwithkids]

Hi Jessie,
As someone above mentioned, I've been pretty actively looking into many of the same issues - living in Belgrano, schools (my kids are younger, though). We're coming for a year, starting July/August...

I received multiple recommendations for Islands International through the forum here and elsewhere. We've communicated a little with them, and they were very helpful. For primary grades, the fees are A$R2320/month, so right in your price range. Some of the "bigger" name schools are somewhat (Belgrano Day) to much (Lincoln) more expensive.

If you enable PM, I may be able to answer some more questions directly.

 

[marksoc]

But those schools would not give you too much of a cultural challenge. In those schools is not Argentina, is Park Ave., Alma, Palermo Parque, etc etc. Of course going to a public school would mean more of a shock,and it is because it would be an Argentinian school full of Argentinian children with Argentinian parents.

I am sure that there are good public schools in Belgrano were local people send their children (and not only *gasp!* their cleaning ladies), but of course it will be only half day,and probably without bridge and polo clases Lastly: bullying is not common in Argentinian schools at all.

 

[Ashley]

I think the new term starts in July/August so I'm sure it wouldn't be a big deal starting half way through the academic year.
Belgrano Day school is a great school - I think they spend half the day in English and half the day in Spanish (like a lot of bilingual schools) so it's a good balance. From what I've heard, Lincoln is more geared towards a child's level of Spanish with all classes in English and then extra Spanish lessons on top of that so a child with 0 spanish would be less likely to struggle.
I have nothing against public schools (went to one myself) but if your children don't have any Spanish, it could be very difficult.