Aliyah soon - what about the education?

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Forum -> Inquiries & Offers -> Israel related Inquiries & Aliyah Questions

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amother

Mon, Sep 10 2012, 8:24 am

We plan to make aliyah next spring. We choose Maale Adumim and even find our new home, hope so!
We have two kids, for now - 4 years old girls and 2 years old boy, the third on the way.

So I`m triing to understand the education system in Israel and espacially in Maale Adumim.

At what age children goes to kindergarden?
I knew that the maternity in Israel is only 3 months and it seems to me horrible (here is 1 year and you could take another 1yr). I dont plan to send my kids on this age, but is there some age that children must enter into the education system? For example around 3yrs? Is kindergarden paid or free?
And espacially for Maale Adumim which are good kindergarden and which - not so? Or there is no such a difference?
And what about the schools?
And on what age children goes to preschool and school?
When they start to learn alef-bet, to learn to read, to write? Into preschool?

I hope that our girl will have enough time to learn hebrew befor the real school starts!
Have so many warries about this big step and the most are about her - if she will get use to the new place, new people, new language.
Our son is still a baby, he even didn`t start to talk yet, so I thing it will be not a problem for him, hope so.

(And if it is significance we are orthodox)

TIA

grace413

Mon, Sep 10 2012, 8:33 am

Welcome! There are several of us here from MA, a wonderful place to live.

Gan is now free for 3 and 4 year olds. It is free and compulsory for 5 year olds.

Generally you are assigned to a gan near where you live.

Most kids coming at age 5 pick up Hebrew relatively quickly and easily and integrate into society.

I'll leave the details for people who actually have gan and elementary school age kids.

Hatzlacha.

RachelEve14

Mon, Sep 10 2012, 8:43 am

Hello and congrats on your new home in MA.

Preschool here is 3 & 4 year olds, and kindergarten is 5. Which gan you are in is assigned by where you live. You may or may not have a choice between a couple of different ones (how full they are, if you want dati or not and there are different types in the neighborhood, age of child). The cutoff here is Dec, so your current 5 year old would go to school next year after a few months in gan.

They talk about letters and learn how to write their names in gan, but real reading starts with first grade. In first grade they start from the beginning, but move pretty fast.

We live in Mitzpe Nevo and my kids are between 8 & baby, so if you want to PM me for more information or have any other specific questions, feel free to ask.

Rachel

Marion

Mon, Sep 10 2012, 9:38 am

Welcome! From the 1 year mat leave statement it sounds like you are Canadian...I am also an expat, so feel free to PM me any questions you have.

Depending on her birthday (cutoff here is 30 Kislev) you may have the option to leave her in 4 y.o. gan an extra year if you're worried about the language, but you really needn't be.

Last edited by Marion on Mon, Sep 10 2012, 11:34 am; edited 1 time in total

RachelEve14

Mon, Sep 10 2012, 10:17 am

Yes I see I misread, I thought you had a current 5 year old.

Your 4 year old will be in trom chova (preschool), unless she going to be 5 by the end of Kislev. The two year old can enter gan next year (or this year if his birthday is before the end of kislev), but neither is required to go. There seem to be 2 cuttoffs, the end of Kislev and the end of December. The real one is kislev, but if someone is born in December but also in Tevet, they will be allowed in numbers permitting.

DrMom

Mon, Sep 10 2012, 10:52 am

I actually think the preschool in Israel is pretty good. The downside is that it is more crowded than AMerican (and probably Canadian) preschools. But in general I have been satisfied with the pre-school education here.

Marion

Mon, Sep 10 2012, 11:36 am

Oh, and mandatory schooling starts at age 5, kindergarten/gan chova (chova meaning mandatory). A lot of 3 y.o. ARE out already, mostly due to necessity (if you're a working mom you need daycare, or preschool, and if you're a SAHM you might choose to send out mornings simply because there are not a lot of SAHMs and therefore not a lot of kids around to play with).

ilya

Tue, Sep 11 2012, 1:59 am

Thank u, ladies!

I don`t know way I`m posted anonimously, maybe because it was my first post embarrassed

We are not Canadian. We are from SE Europe. It`s not so good place to live if you are dati.

So, my daughter`s bday is in Cheshvan, actually she is still 3y.o.. When we arrive in Israel she will be 4 y.o..
So whe will have at least one year to be in gan and to use to hebrew. That sound perfect!

And a friend of mine told me that we have to enrol her in the gan list in May, thereby she will have a place for the next year, from august/sept . That`s right? Or she could start whenever we came/want?
The son`s bday is in Tishri so it`s the same outline with him, right? Go to gan at 3y.o. and so on.

And another question, if it`s not too much embarrassed

What`s the difference between dati and not-dati schools?
Usually people (not-dati) told my that in dati-school they do not learn so much.
Isn`t it the same school programme for the both type? It seem to me a little bit strange to have any essential difference refered to the basic science? I suppose there is some government programme about schools, isn`t it?

And something for me - is there ulpan in MA?

That`s for now! Smile

Tanks a lot!
P.S. We are going to live in Avnei HaHoshen.

DrMom

Tue, Sep 11 2012, 2:38 am

ilya wrote:

And another question, if it`s not too much embarrassed

I think I can speak for everyone when I say that questions are welcome -- that's the whole idea of this particular forum!

ilya wrote:

Are we still talking about pre-school? If so, there is not a lot of academic learning in pre-school, aside from learning the aleph-bet and simple math (both dati and non-dati pre-schools do this). A dati preschool will also conduct their day consistent with a Torah lifestyle (they will learn brachot for different foods, netilat yedayim before eating bread, bentching, mini-davening each day, maybe with one child appointed as the "chazzan", parshat hashavua, learning about chaggim, etc.).

If you are talking about elementary school, then it depends on the type of dati school you are talking about. A mamlachti-dati (mamad, or state religious) school is obliged to teach the core academic curriculum, in addition to religious subjects. The differences in secular academics between an ordinary mamad and an ordinary secular will be negligible, although there are more specialized magnet schools in the secular system that they simply don't have in the state religious system. There are also "torani" mamad schools, with extra hours of religious instruction. In general, school quality may also be a function of how much the parents push for extra classes (which you pay for) and other goodies. In well-off neigborhoods, the local public school (dati or not) is likely to be better than schools in less well-off neighborhoods. There are exceptions, of course.

I general, religious schools teach subjects having to to with yiddishkeit (Torah, Mishna, etc.), daven in class, and in general expect the students to be observant, so the school curriculum and atmosphere is consistent with that expectation. Students daven, dress tznua, wear kippot/tzitzit, etc. In a mamad school I don't think they can prevent anyone from enrolling, so the entire studnet body may not be observant, although they are expected to stick to the rules in school. Semi-private schools (torani schools, Beis Ya'akov, other charedi schools, etc.) can create enterance criteria based on religious observance.

Depending on the "sub-species" of religious school, the balance between secular and kodesh studies will vary.

There is a lot of useful information contained here:
http://www.nbn.org.il/aliyahpe......html

Edited to add: I am not charedit, so I can't supply you with sufficient details about the charedi school system, which is substantial. I'm sure others who know more about it will pipe in to help you.

RachelEve14

Tue, Sep 11 2012, 4:16 am

She is almost 4 now, so she's a "4 year old" as far as gan goes. Next year she goes to "gan chova" so anyway she would switch gan (from the pre-k one to the kindergarten one).

You are moving into the older area of MA, and I don't know anything about the ganim there (the area is very pretty, and an easy walk to the big park and the mall). The ganim are local, so when you get here you will go to the city and register for next year, your daughter for gan chova, and your son for "trom." It will depend on space, and hopefully they will be able to put you in 2 ganim next to each other (there are usually 2 or 3 in a building). Your daughter will have a solid year of gan before going up to kitah aleph, so she should have plenty of time to learn the language.

Hatzlacha with your move and b sha tova!

tizunabi

Tue, Sep 11 2012, 10:00 am

My husband knows a bit about the ganim in MA, I can ask him if he has recommendations. Do you have any particular wants in a school (do you want chareidi, dati leumi, not religious etc...?)
Also, I don't know MA so well with regards to area, where is OP moving to? So I can describe it to DH so he can say what's near it/what's good.

catonmylap

Tue, Sep 11 2012, 10:30 am

My son was in a gan in that area for the Pesach Katana. It seemed pretty nice actually. We are in the Nachalim area (one neighborhood over). My husband also often davens at the sefardi shul next to the park for shabbat mincha so ds can play in the park.

Are you Sephardi?

If you are already living in a place, you can start registering the winter before, but if you move in mid-year, they find a place for you. We moved to MA chanukah time (couple years already), and they let us choose between 2 ganim.

Marion

Tue, Sep 11 2012, 10:49 am

Registration for the FOLLOWING year is usually January, but if you come April/May (you said springtime) you can still register...and she could start right away if you want.

Also, in terms of dati/not dati...there IS a difference, even in gan. Even between mamalachti dati (mama"d - public religious) and Torani (public religious, but with a little bit extra "oomph" in the religious). I've had one in mamlachti (public, run as mama"d) and one in Torani and they just soak it up. There are also Chabad ganim run by the city (I'm thinking Savyon is one, but it's not near Avnei haChoshen).

How's your Hebrew? This is the English MA website, but the Hebrew one is much more complete, including this list of ganim...last year the list was colour-coded by dati/not dati and also split by chova or trom...this year it's not. So in Avnei haChoshen I see Gan Charkom and Gan Chartzit...and there are Gan Narkis and Gan Irit at the edge (I guess right next to the Mamlachti Gimmel school?).

ilya

Wed, Sep 12 2012, 2:27 am

Quote:

Are you Sephardi?

Yes, we are. And I knew that we will be next to the one big sefardi synagogue. I`ve never been in MA. My husband was there some weeks ago, loved the area and find a house. Ane we just start to plan. It sounds a little bit frivolous but we made the decision about aliyah in one night, talking on the phone.
That`s way I`m a little bit disoriented and just triing to prepare myself somehow what to expect. We even didn`t go to the local shaliah yet. LOL

But thank you all. I got it!
That`s good that she could start immediately because she is so impatient to go to school in Israel!
Now she goes to the local community gan but it`s not dati, they even work on chagim! So she is some kind ot black sheep and in the beginnig of the summer she just refuse to go there and stay at home alredy 5 months! So I hope she will be happy to be among the other dati kids!

My husband will be in MA next month so he will look around the area and will check ganim from the list.
Thanks again!

catonmylap

Wed, Sep 12 2012, 10:57 am

ilya wrote:

Quote:

Are you Sephardi?

Yes, we are. And I knew that we will be next to the one big sefardi synagogue. I`ve never been in MA.

That's good. I was thinking it would be longish walk to an Askenazi shul, there are lots of Sefardi shuls in the area. MA is more Sephardi in general..

tizunabi

Wed, Sep 12 2012, 11:49 am

My husband said that he would ask his co-workers about the specific ganim in Maale Adumim, if you want. He wants to know what "type/flavor" of school you would like (chiloni, dati, torani....), What level is your daughter's hebrew at and what is your level of hebrew? What is your native language (what do you speak at home?)?

He also said that they will most likely offer you to keep your daughter back a year (so she will do gan chova 2 times) especially if her hebrew is weak. This is a decision that you don't need to make now, and have plenty of time to think about, but just so you will be aware. Of course, if she picks up hebrew really quickly and has no problem adjusting, it might not even be an issue.

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