It was during lockdown that Robyn and Ashley Ethell decided to move to Spain with their four young boys.
The family, from Middleton Cheney in Northamptonshire, already owned a holiday home in Dénia on the Costa Blanca coast.
Even though their youngest son was only 14 months old at the time, they were beginning to think about the strain of paying four lots of UK private school fees for years to come.
After a “terrible time” at school herself, Robyn said state education was not on the table. “I knew I wanted them to have a much better experience than me. And our local state schools were not great.”
Fed up with cold weather and having received an offer on their farmhouse, they decided to try living in Spain full-time.
“If we just had two children we could have coped, but there was no way we could pay for four,” says Robyn, 44, an interior designer.
Most Spanish international schools are more affordable than independents in Britain, and the gap has widened further since Labour applied 20pc VAT to private school fees in January 2025.
For families like the Ethells, moving abroad provided a financial lifeline, as well as an improved lifestyle.
“We took the view that the quality of life in Spain would be more important than a British private school education,” says Robyn. “We know two other British families here that have done the same.”
The family currently live on this luxury estate in the town of La Xara in Alicante
Last year there were around 7,500 British pupils enrolled in British-curriculum schools across Spain, according to ISC Research. This figure is up 16pc over five years.
Robyn’s three eldest boys – Cooper, 14, Aubrey, 13, and Teddy, nine – were already in private education in Britain, attending St John’s Priory School in Banbury, Oxfordshire.
She had heard about Lady Elizabeth School, a large international school within reach of their Spanish home in Alicante. “It had a great reputation and followed the British curriculum, and we managed to get places for all the boys,” she says.
There are 430 international schools in Spain, up by 11pc since July 2020, according to ISC Research. Spain has more British curriculum schools than other EU countries combined, and the choice means that it is relatively easy to find places.
All the children, followed by Morgan, who is now seven, settled into school life easily, making friends with their classmates who come from all over the world.
The annual bill for two boys in Spanish junior school and two boys in senior is €55,000 (£47,656).
If they had stayed in the UK, they would have hoped to go to Bloxham School, in Oxfordshire, or Stowe, in Buckinghamshire. Due to the distance, the children would have boarded.
The current fees for Bloxham are £16,690 per term for the upper school, meaning that the bill for four boys in the upper school would be £200,280 per year. Stowe’s fees are even higher.
“The boys love their new school and the teachers seem high quality and are really good at getting the best out of them,” says Robyn.
The family got Spanish residency just two days before the Brexit deadline, and soon upsized to a larger property in nearby La Xara, selling their holiday home.
Robyn had been keeping an eye on the sprawling country house, which had been on the market for over five years before they bought it.
“The price dropped and dropped and I was able to get the house of my dreams for half the original asking price,” she says. The home is set on 5,000 sq m of land and has a swimming pool, making it perfect for a household with four young boys.
Robyn spent the next three years remodelling and modernising the home, including adding a self-contained one-bedroom apartment for her mother, who came out to join them for a while.
The Ethell’s house is on the market for €2.8m
Ashley, 51, commutes to his printing business in Thame, Oxfordshire, every week. Overall, however, he spends fewer hours commuting than he used to when the family lived in Middleton Cheney.
They have no regrets about their move.
“The boys settled in well and love the freedom here. They still get to play rugby and they don’t miss the UK. With such a mixed range of friends it is more diverse than the private school experience they had back home.”
Robyn is also much happier: “I felt 10 years younger after having been forced to slow down.
“Once you are used to having the shops shut on Sundays and businesses closed in the afternoons, you realise that everything doesn’t need to be instant.
“I speak enough Spanish for the locals not to resent me, and I like the fact there’s no pressure to be more or have more. I could not have done the school run in Oxfordshire in flip flops and ripped denim.”
If they did ever return to Britain, Robyn says they would have to prioritise only sending the older boys to private school or just going private for sixth form.
In the meantime, the family is selling up – for €2.8m through Lucas Fox – and moving to nearby Jávea for Robyn’s next renovation project.
“We’ve had wobbles, like when our dog died, and it’s easy to get overwhelmed when things go wrong in a strange country, but we’ve adjusted,” she says.
“The boys love their greater independence here and would really feel their wings clipped if we went back home – plus some amazing private schools [in Britain] have since closed.”