Before making the decision to move out from the city, there is a number of questions you need to ask. One of them are related to the access to public facilities and their availability away from the city, especially to the foreigners. By public facilities we mean: schools, kindergartens, healthcare, banks.

Education

Each gmina (municipality) in Poland has at least one primary school and kindergarten. These are usually small schools with nice atmosphere, where the classes are not overcrowded so the teacher has more time for each child. I attended to such a school for the first 3 years and this was a value for my entire life. Usually the schools may not be so well invested in as in the cities, but sometimes it might be the opposite and in a small school your kid may have a lot of oppotunities. Parents are more engaged into the school life – they often take the initiative before the events and support the teachers and kids. Bear in mind that the tradition related to Christian religion, especially Roman Catholic Church is still very vivid in Polish rural area and this definitely will be hard to avoid at school.

If you choose to live in a village where there is no school, then you may take need to drive the youngsters in but normally there is a school bus that picks and collects them from the busstop in your village. They may ride to the bustop on bike, which will teach them the responsibility for themselfs. Sometimes in the nearby towns you got more primary schools to choose from and at least one secondary school.

If you wish and there is such a possibility your kids may attend to the school in the city. But if you decide it is too overwhelming, you may want to consider the home-education where your child officially attends to a school in a city (like Szkoła w Chmurze – School in Cloud in Warsaw) but he/she learns at home under your guidance and only passess the exams each year to get the promotion to the next class.

Home Schooling – Why Not?

I strongly recommend nowadays considering home education, especially for children who have special talents or have any issues in normal school, because the standard education system cannot offer them much and in fact only ifluences badly their sensitive mentality. If you are interested in such an approach, you may find some materials related to this on youtube channels or I can recommend you my friends who educate this way their children and can explain how it works in practice and why there is nothing to fear of. On YouTube I can definitely recommend Therapeutic Mama & Family – channel run by Davina who is not Pole and teaches her kids at home.

Healthcare

In Poland, when you are legally employed, you are entitled to public healthcare. There is no obligation to sign up for the family doctor in the place where you live. You may live in your village and have your family doctor in the town or in the city. The basic public health care clinic (pol. przychodnia, PZOZ – Podstawowy Zakład Opieki Zdrowotnej) which does not require extra payment – it is financed by Narodowy Fundusz Zdrowia (NFZ – National Health Fund) from your insurance related to your employment. In each municipal village or town you may find at least one such a place where you can arrange basic health care and nurse service. Also the pharmacy should be located in such a village. There is usually no private healthcare like Luxmed or Medicover ouside the cities, so if this is not too far, you may want to keep your subscription there. Usually you may also find some private doctors in your area which you may call to arrange a paid visit. It may cost 100-300 PLN depending on the specialization. In nearly each county town there is a hospital with Emergency Room.

It is hard to say how does it look with the English speakers in the public health care – I would assume that young doctors should be able to communicate on a basic level. Nurses and other personnel – I doubt they will be able to speak other language than Polish. But I guess that in the era of Internet and AI, you should be able to quickly inform of your needs and get the answers. As I always say – when there is a will, there is a way 🙂

Banks

For sure outside the cities the offer of bank branches melts down but in the county towns for sure you will find nearly every bank branch and cash machine. The most popular bank in the villages in Poland is called Bank Spółdzielczy – it is an old Polish bank which targets the farmers, so it is undestood that you may find at least a partner branch or cash machine in every municipal village. Often, if there is a supermarket like Biedronka or Dino – there are cash machines next to it. In the bank branches in the county towns I am pretty sure you are able to find at least one worker who speaks English who will be able to support you. If not, I can only recommend online services or visit in the city.

I hope that you find the above information practical and useful. If you would like to be always up-to-date with the news on page and also get the special offers and discounts on my product, please sign up for a newsletter. For those who decide to trust me, I prepared a gift – a free e-book 🙂