Barcelona Mum

What is your name, age and where do you live?
Melissa Boddy – 50 years old. Olivella.

How long lived in Olivella?
7 years

Do you work and what do you do?
I am a qualified primary teacher specializing in pre-school education with 20 years experience. Currently I am establishing a day nursery/crèche working with small babies/pre-school age.

What nationality are you and your partner and do you have children?
My ex-partner and I are British. I have 2 daughters, India Boddy (16yrs) and Isabel Boddy (12 yrs)

How did you find the process of relocating to Sitges?
I had lived in Castelldefels with my parents as a teenager so understood what it felt like to emigrate/go to a new school. With this experience I was able to support my daughters in the process, especially my eldest, who is shy. We came from a small village in Nottingham and my eldest had been at the small, local primary my school for 10 years.

How well integrated are you and your children?
I would say that myself and daughters are well integrated as far as foreigners moving to another country can be. BUT we are not fully integrated as I chose to send my daughters to the British School and in order to be integrated I think they would have had to be at the Catalan schools.

What language do you speak to your children?
I speak English to my daughters, unless we are in company of Spanish friends, who don’t speak English.

What has been your impression of childcare and education in Sitges so far? Have you any advice for anyone moving here in regards to education? Are you happy with it?
If we are discussing only Sitges then I think there is a great need for a good international school. I feel Escaan provides a service but only up to a certain level and age. Also definitely more day nurseries / kindergartens which are run on a similar system to the UK and rest of Europe. I don’t agree with sending children to primary school at 3 years old, which the Catalan/Spanish system does. I feel the children are too small/young to cope with a large institution. Its different if we are talking about purpose built nursery units that are separate but attached to the local first school. I chose the children’s school that they are at now by making a short list. I had an unfair advantage in that I had spent 5 years of my educational life at International schools (one year at the British School and four years at Kensington Barcelona) but after looking at St. Peters, Escaan and Kensington we decided to choose the British. The headmistress used to be a mainstream teacher whilst I was attending and the History teacher, who taught me at 13 is now teaching my daughter! I am very happy with the school, my daughters are also and have many friends and like the staff who although seem to be very transient they have now got used to seeing differing teachers and forming relationships with the new ones.

What is your children´s level of Catalan?
My daughter’s level of Catalan is basic and once my daughters started to study French, I agreed to them dropping the Catalan subject.

What is your children´s level of Spanish?
My daughter’s level of Spanish is fluent.

Why did you decide to send your children to an International school?
I sent my children to an International school because my daughter was ten. I felt it was the only way she could cope with the emigration. Now my eldest has achieved great GCSE results and is doing A levels. She has no desire to go to a Spanish university so will return to the UK for her higher studies.

Do you feel the level of education of education your children are receiving is of a similar standard to the UK?
I think for the choice we have I believe my daughters are getting a better level of education if I were to compare it to the state schools in the UK. So non-academic subjects are fewer. My daughters are studious but there is a lack of subjects such as drama, cookery etc and that I would like to see as part of the curriculum. In comparison to a private school in the UK, all I know is that the expense and fees are at least double and the advantage here is that children leave school with second and third languages. I am not so sure of the language prospects in the UK.

How do you rate the amenities in Sitges?
The amenities are good but still sometimes do need to travel to Barcelona for special items but on the whole not too bad. I think we need another supermarket in Sant Pere but between Sant Pere and Vilanova I do believe they are developing more shopping centres with cinemas.

What do you think are the main advantages and disadvantages of being a parent from the international community?
Talking of advantages of being a foreigner in Sitges is that its quite exciting to see and hear your children developing their language skills, mixing with children from other nationalities not only Spanish – as Sitges has developed into a very cosmopolitan town as is Barcelona. Although we are not fully integrated I feel as foreigners we can take the best bits of the Spanish/Catalan culture and enjoy various fiestas and celebrations. Living here you meet so many interesting people from various backgrounds with differing histories. There is also so much choice for parents to give their children and for children to experience i.e. skiing, sailing, tennis etc. The disadvantage is sometimes a prejudice against foreigners, the bureaucracy is sometimes mind boggling and you can have a good idea but to put it into practice sometimes seems impossible and doubly so when you are foreign.

Is there anything you think would improve children´s lives in Sitges?
To improve anything would be to educate the Spanish community into cleaning up their dog waste which sometimes can be quite dangerous with small children in public play areas. Also it would be good to provide free Catalan lessons for children to help them integrate.

What do you wish you had been told before you came to Sitges?
I had lived abroad before I came to Sitges so I understood a little of the transient way the people live here but I wish I had explained it more to my children who make friends only to find two years later their parents contract has finished and they move on.

What advice would you give for anyone thinking of relocating to Sitges with children?
If you have small/young primary age children I would advise them to apply to the local primary schools to give the child access to the culture/language of the country. Older teenagers I am not so sure as it depends on the child. If you are looking at International Schools make sure that you go to visit when the children are working so you can see the environment as it is on a day to day basis. Hook into extra Spanish lessons to help and support your child when they first come here. If your child is at an International School make sure all their extra out of school activities are done locally in Spanish/Catalan – as when they have the language they will be able to integrate better.

What couldn’t you live without in Sitges?
I couldn’t live with the sun and living so close to the sea. I couldn’t live without the relaxed pace of life and the culture here of accepting children everywhere (restaurants, theatres etc) and enjoying the presence of having children around, which I am afraid to say having brought up two children in the UK does not happen!

What could you live without?
Have had to think long and hard….abandoned dogs, especially after the summer vacation.

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