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France is making schooling compulsory from age three and in Spain, where I am, my now 12-year-old daughter started when she was three and a half.

Not compulsory but I felt it was better to start her off when everybody is in the same boat.

It gave her a fantastic chance of learning Spanish early, the young brain is like a sponge for soaking up knowledge!

She is now fluent, especially in local Andalucian dialect, gets excellent grades and is regularly top of the class in Span­ish, and she is the only British child in the class. It was very informal and a great way of integrating.

Hilary Walker, by email