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Well, we have two daughters who, during our first two years in Porto went to 3 different public schools (first and second cycle). The first shock for us was not the bullying itself, which was actually quite horrific (especially for us coming from Canada) and happened everywhere, but especially the fact that it seemed to be accepted as a matter of fact, as something that doesn't really need to be taken seriously and addressed seriously. It happened in all three schools in various forms from physical or verbal abuse and violence to ignoring and isolating or mocking and name-calling one just because he/she is foreign and/or different. Secondly, we were intrigued by the fact that our daughters seemed to almost never have homework, or had a lot less than we expected based on the amount of information in their manuals. Also, the feedback we got from our daughters made us have more and more doubts. For example our younger daughter told us that her teacher was repeatedly either going through all the questions in the test and answering them on the blackboard the day before the test. Or simply was giving the right answer to questions during the test itself to students who were struggling. Our other daughter told us that some teachers (TIC comes to mind) was just telling students to draw or read something during the class while he was sitting and scrolling on his mobile phone for the full duration of the class. Significant chunks of some manuals were left uncovered until the end of the year (not all disciplines, but some). Thirdly, in terms of extracurriculars, the offer was OK in the second cycle school, but very poor in the first cycle. And finally, we got sick and tired of school-days missed by our daughters because of various strikes by one or another of the various unions of school workers. So we decided in the end to go private, and chose one of the private Portuguese schools in Porto that ranks highest in the national ranking, and now, after over one year of private education we can say that there is no way we'd ever go back to public. Absolutely everything is better, from education (our daughters have very little free time during the trimester, even on weekends, because they have a ton of tests they have to prepare for, but that's good for them, because we believe education starts in school but continues at home), extracurriculars (a lot more variety), lack of strikes, and finally zero tolerance to bullying. Moreover, phones, tablets or laptops are completely forbidden during the classes and frowned upon during recess. So that's that. We recognize that others may have different experiences from ours, but this was our experience with public schools in Portugal.
@cristiantoma4590 Thank you for sharing your experience and perspective. I'm sorry to hear that you had such an horrendous experience in the public system and we are happy to hear that your daughters are going well in the private school ❤️
@@MeetCarolas Thank you. Yeah, it was so bad that they actually had nightmares during the summer vacation about going back to the same school. It took a couple of months for the nightmares to subside once they got into the private school. They couldn't be happier now, despite the huge workload they now have. To this day I blame myself for not realizing how bad the situation was and not doing anything about it. But, as they say, all's well that ends well. Thanks again.
@cristiantoma4590 As Parents, We don't get it right many times but we try our very best with the info we have at hand. We shouldn't blame ourselves when we don't get it right the first time ❤️ its hard but we also need to be gentle with ourselves.
Great summary and break out of how you came to the conclusion why public worked for you. I love how you isolated why the public system works so well in your community. The fact that it’s not a large city means the community is more in line (in my opinion since I come from a smaller town and saw this too). Excellent video that details the input into your decision making. Your research before moving there really paid off! Thanks for sharing! Our kids are in an International school in a large city in the US and we are also concerned about the shock she will have going to public. I was in 3rd grade when I went to public and it was tough and my learning regressed. Looking back, those “traumas” helped me in a lot of ways that I won’t detail here. I went to about 6 different public elementary schools and my family was not in the military :-)
Hello there, thank you for the great video. Can you share which municipality you are having your family at? I ask because I know they change a lot from place to place. Also want to share that I went to private school for many years in Portugal and I also suffered bullying there from students and teachers - I believe each school and each kid need to be taken in consideration in their individuality and we need to be open and aware for them to share verbal and non verbal cues. We learn and keep going and getting better
Thank you for the feedback! I'm sorry to hear about your experience in Private Schools, is a pity people treat each other this way :( We are in the municipality of Portalegre.
Amazing Video , many thx for the valuable info I am about to do this move for next school year and very confused Can i ask which city you guys living in?? I was planning for Lisbon but might be if going little farther would be better Another question if you applied so they will give you a place anyway or their is a possibility of not having a place I have 11, 13 , 16 next year Many thanks once again
Thank you for the feedback :) we are glad this video was helpful. We are in the municipality of Portalegre. We are planning to do a video about a "week" in our lives here ;) to share more about the benefits we've found of living in a small city. Normally if you apply to public school which will open somewhere around April/May time frame you select the schools you like. They will try to match you against your first option if not possible will look in to the other ones. If you are coming to Portugal, you can visit some of the school agrupamentos, talk with the principal and see what would be a good match for your kids. If they don't speak Portuguese it might be a challenge specially for the older one, since he is entering Ensino Secundario and those grades will be used toward a future colleague application.
@MeetCarolasmany thanks for the kind advise I will follow your guide though And waiting for the video as you mentioned!! Many thanks once again And please keep up the outstanding work Ana amazing channel with a valuable content!!😊
@@offshoreworld-broadenyourk4656 Thank you! It makes our day comments as yours :) When our content isn't picked up by the youtube algorithm we already wonder if its topics folks are interested in ;)
Thank you for watching! if you got value of this video please share it :) Join our newsletter for additional resources:
💌 💌 meetcarolas.substack.com/welcome 💌 💌
Well, we have two daughters who, during our first two years in Porto went to 3 different public schools (first and second cycle). The first shock for us was not the bullying itself, which was actually quite horrific (especially for us coming from Canada) and happened everywhere, but especially the fact that it seemed to be accepted as a matter of fact, as something that doesn't really need to be taken seriously and addressed seriously. It happened in all three schools in various forms from physical or verbal abuse and violence to ignoring and isolating or mocking and name-calling one just because he/she is foreign and/or different.
Secondly, we were intrigued by the fact that our daughters seemed to almost never have homework, or had a lot less than we expected based on the amount of information in their manuals. Also, the feedback we got from our daughters made us have more and more doubts. For example our younger daughter told us that her teacher was repeatedly either going through all the questions in the test and answering them on the blackboard the day before the test. Or simply was giving the right answer to questions during the test itself to students who were struggling. Our other daughter told us that some teachers (TIC comes to mind) was just telling students to draw or read something during the class while he was sitting and scrolling on his mobile phone for the full duration of the class. Significant chunks of some manuals were left uncovered until the end of the year (not all disciplines, but some).
Thirdly, in terms of extracurriculars, the offer was OK in the second cycle school, but very poor in the first cycle.
And finally, we got sick and tired of school-days missed by our daughters because of various strikes by one or another of the various unions of school workers.
So we decided in the end to go private, and chose one of the private Portuguese schools in Porto that ranks highest in the national ranking, and now, after over one year of private education we can say that there is no way we'd ever go back to public.
Absolutely everything is better, from education (our daughters have very little free time during the trimester, even on weekends, because they have a ton of tests they have to prepare for, but that's good for them, because we believe education starts in school but continues at home), extracurriculars (a lot more variety), lack of strikes, and finally zero tolerance to bullying.
Moreover, phones, tablets or laptops are completely forbidden during the classes and frowned upon during recess.
So that's that. We recognize that others may have different experiences from ours, but this was our experience with public schools in Portugal.
@cristiantoma4590 Thank you for sharing your experience and perspective. I'm sorry to hear that you had such an horrendous experience in the public system and we are happy to hear that your daughters are going well in the private school ❤️
@@MeetCarolas Thank you. Yeah, it was so bad that they actually had nightmares during the summer vacation about going back to the same school. It took a couple of months for the nightmares to subside once they got into the private school. They couldn't be happier now, despite the huge workload they now have. To this day I blame myself for not realizing how bad the situation was and not doing anything about it. But, as they say, all's well that ends well. Thanks again.
@cristiantoma4590 As Parents, We don't get it right many times but we try our very best with the info we have at hand. We shouldn't blame ourselves when we don't get it right the first time ❤️ its hard but we also need to be gentle with ourselves.
Wow
You scared me 🥹 i have 3 kids moving next school year
Great summary and break out of how you came to the conclusion why public worked for you. I love how you isolated why the public system works so well in your community. The fact that it’s not a large city means the community is more in line (in my opinion since I come from a smaller town and saw this too). Excellent video that details the input into your decision making. Your research before moving there really paid off! Thanks for sharing!
Our kids are in an International school in a large city in the US and we are also concerned about the shock she will have going to public. I was in 3rd grade when I went to public and it was tough and my learning regressed. Looking back, those “traumas” helped me in a lot of ways that I won’t detail here. I went to about 6 different public elementary schools and my family was not in the military :-)
Thank you for sharing your experience Alexis ❤️❤️❤️
Thank you for the video. We are moving to Mafra from North America, and your videos really help.
Thank you for your lovely comment! We are glad to help :)
Hello there, thank you for the great video. Can you share which municipality you are having your family at? I ask because I know they change a lot from place to place.
Also want to share that I went to private school for many years in Portugal and I also suffered bullying there from students and teachers - I believe each school and each kid need to be taken in consideration in their individuality and we need to be open and aware for them to share verbal and non verbal cues. We learn and keep going and getting better
Thank you for the feedback! I'm sorry to hear about your experience in Private Schools, is a pity people treat each other this way :( We are in the municipality of Portalegre.
Amazing Video , many thx for the valuable info
I am about to do this move for next school year and very confused
Can i ask which city you guys living in??
I was planning for Lisbon but might be if going little farther would be better
Another question if you applied so they will give you a place anyway or their is a possibility of not having a place
I have 11, 13 , 16 next year
Many thanks once again
Thank you for the feedback :) we are glad this video was helpful. We are in the municipality of Portalegre. We are planning to do a video about a "week" in our lives here ;) to share more about the benefits we've found of living in a small city.
Normally if you apply to public school which will open somewhere around April/May time frame you select the schools you like. They will try to match you against your first option if not possible will look in to the other ones.
If you are coming to Portugal, you can visit some of the school agrupamentos, talk with the principal and see what would be a good match for your kids. If they don't speak Portuguese it might be a challenge specially for the older one, since he is entering Ensino Secundario and those grades will be used toward a future colleague application.
@MeetCarolasmany thanks for the kind advise
I will follow your guide though
And waiting for the video as you mentioned!!
Many thanks once again
And please keep up the outstanding work
Ana amazing channel with a valuable content!!😊
@@offshoreworld-broadenyourk4656 Thank you! It makes our day comments as yours :) When our content isn't picked up by the youtube algorithm we already wonder if its topics folks are interested in ;)