International school vs local school, when living in UK

[dangirl]

Hi there.
Just asking for your points of view.
We live in West London and have a nearly 4 year old daughter who is due to start school in September.
We always said that we would be long gone from London before then. Now it looks like we probably won't.
It is impossible to get a place in a private school around here since she has not been on the list for the last 4 years. And our local catchment state school is very poor.

This is not a discussion private vs state!!! That has been done to death...

Just wondering what your views/experience are/is with international schools?
My daughter is half Danish and fully bilingual.

What are pros and cons? Price aside.

Thank you very much
Dangirl

[Sassafrass]

Have you checked with the swedish school? I know I can usually understand danish people and they usually understand me so that might be an option for you.

[Shimmers]

Hi , when you mean international schools in London are you referring to ASL or Southbank? These are two schools I know of that class themselves as international. Is there a swedish school in London?

I work at an international school outside of London and I really like the diversity in the childrens' backgrounds. What are you looking for? A good state school will expose the children to other cultures as the norm, others not so much. Does the school you are looking for specialise in a Swedish education model?

[hub2dee]

Do you know ACS Hillingdon ? I went there (16-18 yrs old), my mum taught there. I was one of a very tiny handful of English kids, LOL. An Amazing experience and very friendly crowd.

[tatt]

no experience of international schools but one of my kids goes to a secondary where some of the children have to travel long distances. When it starts to snow and the school closes because so few of the kids can get there you realise this has its drawbacks. Also when children start school they are likely to be ill quite a bit (new bugs about) so it can be handy to know parents who will help you out. Just suggesting that if you aren't going to be here a lot longer practical considerations might matter as much as educational ones.

[foxinsocks]

I don't think it's impossible to get a private school place at the last minute - the schools may give you that impression but we had plenty of friends last year who didn't get into the state school of their choice and at the last minute, phoned around some of the private schools and got a place (one was at the girls Falcons in Ealing).

I wouldn't rule out the Swedish school in Barnes - it has a good reputation.

[LIZS]

Agree don't rule out private schools. dd had been on the list for hers since birth (admittedly not in London) because demand was so high but they still started the school year with one vacant Reception place. Fmailies often put their names down early at more than one to hedge their bets when the decison time comes and all these schools will be finalising their places about now so if you make yourselves known to those in your area you may yet find a space comes up. The population tends to be quite mobile so families do come and go often at relatively short notice.

Assuming you ultimately intend to go back to Denmark is the early years education as academic there ? Our experience of imnternational school abroad was that it provided an interesting social mix and opportunities but wasn't as academically orientated as young as UK schools. Not sure how one based in UK balances this. Anyway you may want to consider how your dd would find integrating into that system and perhaps choose the closest match.

hth

[AMerryScot]

I've been doing supply work in an international school but now work in a prep school with lots of international pupils.

I'd say that the main advantage of the international school is that they offer a curriculum (IB, even in early years) for an internationally mobile child. They may even offer native language classes for your child - ie Danish lessons. On the downside, the kids come and go all the time and it can be quite disturbing when friendships are broken up. Probably related to the short term nature of the school for many pupils, I found that they were all incredibly kind to one another - no evidence of bitchy comments or put downs at all.

I would say that if you are here to stay, you will get a better experience and better value for money at an English prep school. A lot depends on the individual schools that are realistic choices for you, though.

[dangirl]

Thank you all for your comments.

Swedish school not really an option as the 2 languages will pose to be too much to handle in my opinion. I have friends who have their children their and it is supposed to be a very good school.
There is no Danish school in London, unfortunately for us.

We live in Chiswick and there is and international school here ca 1 mile down the road. ISL. Have been and it looks good.

I agree with amerryscot re the friendships being broken up as a problem. But since we will probably leave before anyone else that is not the main concern there.

I think that many of you could be right that there is always hope to get a place in a local private school. But it is notoriously difficult in this area

Any more comments are very welcome.

Thanks,
Dangirl