9 or 9:30 am is more of a suggestion than an actual rule Spanish parents (and sometimes teachers) abide by. Life here in Barcelona specifically is very relaxed. In America, you might be charged extra for being late at pick up or given the side eye for being consistently last at drop-off, but in Spain, you just don’t worry about it (or anything else for that matter).
Unless your preschooler is in daycare or enrolled in a private school, your bundle of joy will be sent home for lunch, Spain’s most important and staple meal of the day. An average preschool/kinder day starts at 9 am with a break from noon-3pm then back to school from 3pm-5pm as opposed to a traditional American school which reserves 1 hour for lunch with a 25-30 minute recess. This does vary and in big city preschools and grade schools going home is an option, but children are still expected to have a large meal for lunch alongside their peers.
Children are exposed to many, many languages in Spain. Although our son isn’t in an international school, we looked into one as an option where the Kinder coordinator casually told us the children speak English (60%), Spanish (20%) and Catalan (20%) with an option at the ripe age of 3 to begin lessons in French and Chinese. These are offered at the attractive price of 0 Euros. Yes, you read that correctly, your three year old can be semi-fluent if not totally fluent in five languages at the end of the school year if you deem necessary.
In fact, don’t expect much as far as dress code goes for anyone at all. Teachers don’t comply with a specific dress code and often dress in playful, colorful outfits you wouldn’t expect a teacher to wear on a day to day basis. I find that it brings down boundaries between teachers and students and I’m sure saves the teachers quite a bit of money on business casual clothing expenses.
It is almost uniform across Spain to hear children from kinder to high school call their teachers by their first names. Some teachers (often foreign) complain about the informality, but I find that it creates a sense of warmth with the younger kids.
Speaking from experience, you might map out the preschool for a visit; walk around aimlessly for twenty minutes only to find that the preschool was located on the fourth of fifth floor of a seven-story building with no easy or obvious way inside. Everything here in Barcelona seems cloaked in old world building structures which are just as beautiful as they are confusing. Count on the American parents to get lost on the way to take a tour, and also rely on the Spanish teachers not to care one bit that you are late.