Choosing a nursery which suits your child can be a tough choice wherever you are - and particularly if you are new to Spain.

Taking care of junior: Guarderias take all forms

Whatever your nationality, expect a few cultural clashes when it's time to find someone to look after your children in Spain.

Giles Tremlett, the Guardian's correspondent in Madrid, had been living and writing about Spain for many years when he first started looking for a nursery for his two-year-old son.

As he writes in his book, Ghosts of Spain, "Our first surprise was that we had arrived late – by about two years. In every nursery there was a room, or two, devoted to rows of cots."

As Tremlett discovered, high numbers of children in Spain start nursery at 16 weeks, the end of statutory maternity leave: "The children at our nursery school were, it was argued, here to learn to socialise. In reality, however, the youngest were here because their fathers would not have dreamt of stopping, or reducing, their working hours, and it was time for their mums to take up their posts at work again."

Since 95 percent of children go to nursery by the age of three here, there is, says Tremlett, "no lack of choice".

However, in many cities and towns in Spain there is a shortage of state-run nurseries.

In April, the Spanish daily El Pais reported that almost 3,000 children in Barcelona failed to get a place – or 56 percent of parents who had applied for one.

Obtaining a nursery place subsidised by the state usually means applying to the Comunidad (regional authority) in good time, providing evidence of low income. Many parents turn to the private sector instead.

Philippa and San Shepherd, who are half Danish and half British, found there were plenty of private nurseries in Madrid, charging between EUR 300-600 a month.

However, they struggled to find one they thought suitable for their two-year-old son.

"There were those which were a free-for-all with a lot of children and the upmarket ones were very strict," said San.

"They had a uniform and were based on creating the triple A child. I want my kid to have fun."

"They were also inflexible about the hours," said Philippa. "They won't let a child go just a few days a week.

Lining up for care: New arrivals start class

In Denmark, my sister can keep her daughter home whenever she wants. My sister can also go into the nursery. Here they don't allow parents to enter."
 
One expensive nursery let parents stay with their children for the first hour, but the nursery they finally chose had a policy of taking the children in at the doorstep.

"We were dropping him off to different people all the time," said San.

The Shepherds finally withdrew their son from the nursery after a month and have decided to try a new one in September.

The other contrast with better-funded childcare in some countries, like the Scandinavian, is the child-carer ratio.

"Whereas my sister's nursery has three adults for just 10 children, here the ratio is 10-15 to an adult," said Philippa. "When two classes are brought together on the patio, sometimes there are actually up to 40 children."

Spanish regulations specify a ratio of 1 to 8 for babies less than a year old, rising to 1 to 20 for 2-3-year-olds.

Nurseries apply to town halls and comunidades for licensing, on the basis of meeting the ratios, as well as other standards, such as having trained staff, proper hygiene and safety and large enough premises.

Fiona Borthwick, a British lawyer with a 19-month-old daughter, advises fellow parents to collect a list of approved nurseries from their town hall and comunidad.

However, she warned: "The big question is, once nurseries have been licensed, how often are they inspected?"

In Madrid last year, the socialist opposition even claimed one in three nurseries were operating without a licence.

A parent's best policy is to ask other parents for recommendations and, if Spanish is limited, to use the English language media or English-speaking institutions like the British Council, which has lists of nurseries, including English-speaking ones.

Other cultural organisations like the German Goethe Institut or the Alliance Française could also be useful to German and French speakers.

It is probably advisable to visit several nurseries to get an idea of what is available. Borthwick visited around 10 nurseries before choosing one for her daughter.

"You need to find out who's in charge and who the other staff are," she said.

"And look at what they are going to do with the children. Some nurseries are just carers and put out a lot of toys and let the children play. Others follow a structure.

"One week, my daughter learns about plants and trees, the next she's hearing about cars. It all progresses their vocabulary. One day they may sing and the next they make models."

Though Borthwick describes herself as "delighted" with her daughter's nursery, its only flaw is one which is common to many Spanish nurseries – although some Spanish working hours are still as late as 7 or 8pm, the nursery closes at 6pm.

That means many parents have to turn to friends, family or nannies to make up the remaining hour or two.

Here not all the fault can be laid at the door of Spanish nurseries.

Borthwick thinks companies could make life easier for both their male and female employees by being more family-friendly.

"The way nurseries are set up isn't the real problem. The problem is that employers here are not at all flexible. One parent could go in later to work and another could leave earlier, for instance. It's a shame, at the end of the day, because I think both parents want to spend time with their children."

[Copyright Expatica]

[June 2006]

Subject: Spain; finding a nursery