does anybody know whether a new pupil enroling at the state school with out any knowledge of Portuguese suffers so much in the first year that he or she probably has to repeat the year.I understand that the kid probably could do it if she/he was very bright but what about an average english speaking kid. Would he/she battle tremendously to cope?

My personal opinion, and it is just an opinion as I have no experience here, is that any child (or for that matter any adult) immersed in the language of any country they are residing in will soon pick up that language!

I think it depends on the age and the school to be honest!
My son started state school at age 6 and he's picking the language up and keeping up with the others, but the teacher helps, she speaks some English and there's at least one other English child in his class.

It gets harder for them as they get older as the work is harder.

The big problem I can see is that the child needs extra help at home from parents and if their Portuguese is not brilliant! A possible solution would be to get together with a Portuguese family and trade languages.

Yes, the best way to learn any language is to be amongst local people, get to know them. Im sure my son, who became almost fluent, learnt just as much from the people he mixed with, specially our workers who really helped him, as from his Portuguese tutor.

A friend of mine whose son went to the local state school in Carvoeiro, had to drop back a year...think he was about 9 /10.