Cyprus-Forum.com

[aphro]

Am looking for the good English Private school in Limassol. Please any advise which one is better. Thanks.

[Niki]

Hi aphro

Do a search for'schools' on this forum where you will see many comments.

English Curriculum schools in Limassol are:-

Foleys (very academic)

American Academy

Pascals

The Grammar School

The Heritage

St Mary's

Logos

St Johns (forces school)

Mabe others??

Also look at

http://cyprus.angloinfo.com.cy/af/250/c ... oling.html

http://www.cypruseducation.com/

You need to visit schools to get an idea on what your child may like.

Hope this helps

Niki

[Smiler Brian]

As a lateral extension to the question might I pose another? What is the position regarding enrolling my daughter (11 Year old), who speaks not a word of Greek, into a state run school in Cyprus? In Britain the education authorities go to quite ridiculous lengths to accommodate non English speaking pupils, often (IMO) to the detriment of local children. Do the Cypriot authorities have the PC bug or are they still in the real world?

[Niki]

As a lateral extension to the question might I pose another? What is the position regarding enrolling my daughter (11 Year old), who speaks not a word of Greek, into a state run school in Cyprus? In Britain the education authorities go to quite ridiculous lengths to accommodate non English speaking pupils, often (IMO) to the detriment of local children. Do the Cypriot authorities have the PC bug or are they still in the real world?

Hi there

Again it will be worth you doing a search on this site, Angloinfo and Cyprus Living.

There are many opinions about this and I have to say my own is that although young children settle in to Cypriot school with no problem (6 and below) at 11 the child would have to back back at least 1 year, maybe 2 while they learn Greek as they cannot learn normal lessons. They have to 'observe' only and this can create issues as they are 'different' to other children and can take a long time to settle in.

If you and your daughter are happy with this no problem and Cypriot schools I've heard are generally very good and will cater for English speaking children! Especially the schools that are not in the smaller villages. They are not as PC as the UK - no surprise there!

My own are 11 and 13 and I have chosen not to disrupt their education when moving to a different country alone is such an enormous change for them.

[juliesewell]

Anglo Info is a good place to start as suggested but Cyprus Living is Paphos based. For a website aimed at Limassol residents - best place is http://www.bfctradingpost.com/clboard/index.php

There are a number of people on the forums with kids in private English schools and also local Greek schools. A lot depends on the age of your child as to which is most suitable. The younger they are, it's probably better to put them straight into the local schools. The language barrier becomes more difficult as your child gets older as the fear of being the odd one out sets in then.

Good luck with your search.

[joanna]

When we first came to Cyprus i was 9, i couldnt speak a word of Greek even though my parents are both greek , but they were taken to England as babies. I was put back a year, and even though i was at a village school i had the good fortune of having a teacher who spoke quite a bit of English aswell as obviously Greek. Of course the fact that i was in a village was a good thing, in that as there were not that many pupils, she had more time to devote to me. I wouldnt suggest it as obviously it was stressfull and your daughter is 2 years older than i was. On the private school front:-
Foleys is very expensive, i have a friend who went there and said it was vv nice, but a bit pricy.
American Academy by far has the lowest educational standard, i have friends again who went there and say it is a lovely school but havent achieved a lot academically. The Juniors is near my mother in laws house and i always hear them playing, i think they must place a lot of emphasis on fun and PE, as they always seem to be outside laughing and making noise.
St. Marys school is very good and very reasonably priced, my younger sister went there and liked it but they are a little strict and are very academically minded, with an emfasis on languages. They all learn Greek, English, French and Italian.
As for Pascal and Heritage, i dont know any details about these 2, appart from that Heritage have built and enormous new building on the road towards Troodos, Pascal have a nice centrally located building in Mesa Yeitonia in Limassol.

[Smiler Brian]

Thank you all for your replies. My experience of Foleys makes me shall we say reluctant to even try to put my daughter there - the children I have met are proper little madams. (Mark Foley though is a worthy drinking partner!) American academy, as you say it has apparently low standards. Pascal looks as though it warrants further investigation.

[Smiler Brian]

Thanks for the PM Niki, I will have to get admin to enable my reply.

[Niki]

Sorry I mixed you up with the other post about having an 11 year old daughter, it was late!

[miltiades]

Thank you all for your replies. My experience of Foleys makes me shall we say reluctant to even try to put my daughter there - the children I have met are proper little madams. (Mark Foley though is a worthy drinking partner!) American academy, as you say it has apparently low standards. Pascal looks as though it warrants further investigation.

My brother has been at the American Academy , as a teacher , since 1991 having taught previously in the UK at a South London school. I know that he is and always was a first class teacher , and may I say that he is highly respected by parents and students alike at the American Academy in Limassol. On numerous discussions that we had he always praised the achievements of the AA students and has always respected the Academy for its high standards of education.