standard grades - moving from Scotland to England mid course. Thoughts?

[persephonesnape]

My DD is 14 and has started her standard grades - just finished her first term. I will need to move to London to work at some point in the next couple of years - preferably sooner rather than later. I had thought that we would stay in Scotland until she has finished her standards, but she is keen to move and is not enjoying the school she is currently at. Is it possible to move from the scottish to English education systems mid examination course (probably!) and what do I need to think about? Obviously any upheaval could be problematic, but career wise it is better for me and the family to be in London.

I also have two DSes aged 11 and 10, who are fine to move whenever, but if i stick to the original plan of moving in June 2011, DS1 will have started high school and then have to move when he has finished first year of senior school.

any thoughts appreciated!

[roisin]

It is a tough time to move. Whether it proves successful does depend on the commitment of the school to offer extra support.

For anyone moving mid-course it can be tricky to get the information from one school to the other to ensure pupils are put in appropriate sets.

Many schools in England now do modular Maths and Science courses, and many start GCSE courses in the last term of yr9. So by Sep when they are 15 some students may have already taken exams for 50% - 60% of the course. The 'modules' already taken may not overlap with the areas your dd has studied in Scotland.

We have a student who moved down from Scotland at the end of yr10. (Half way through Standards). As a result she has not been able to take as many subjects, because of timetable clashes, but also to enable her time to catch-up. Fortunately in Maths and Science her yr-group are not doing the modular course, and mostly the Scottish/English boards have overlapped. The school allocated me (Learning Mentor) to work with her 1 hr a week to teach her the material for the 5 pieces of English GCSE coursework, and she has had to complete these in her own time. (These are normally done during yr10).

So - in brief - it's certainly not ideal and as a parent I would urge to avoid it if at all possible.

If you moved in August 2011 then dd could go straight to A levels at a college or school, and ds into yr7, 8 or 9, depending on when their birthdays are.

However you may find it tricky to get places at good schools for your children. When is your youngest ds's birthday?

HTH

[CardyMow]

I did this in reverse at the same age, moving after the first term of Y11 (from England to Scotland) Your Dc will find English GCSE's a piece of pish very very easy compared to the level of work done for Standard grades. Standard grades are soooo much harder and involve more work than GCSE's. When I moved up to Scotland, I actually PERSONALLY requested going down a year as the work was so much harder (and I was in top sets for everything). The only problem would be, as roisin says, the fact that not all schools do the same courses, and it would involve a very short time to submit quite a lot of coursework, and there may well be timetable clashes. When I moved I went to a school that taught Gaelic (a language I'd never studied before,) and technical drawing. But not the Drama, German and ICT I'd been doing at GCSE. I'd think long and hard about it, as it's not you having to do all that coursework in such a short time, it's your DC.

[persephonesnape]

blimey! gaelic!

thanks very much for responses so far. she is having a stage of not enjoying school at all at the moment - possibly a change would be good, but i think it might be one of those playing russian roulette with DDs future things - very difficult to know how she would cope - she does buckle down when she has to and I'd have no problem with extra tutoring (of course, she might!)

DS's are 19.08.99 and 02.04.1998. my back up plan was moving as soon as her last exam has been taken....it is a very difficult decision as the job opportunities are SO much better fpr me in London, so we would have much more cash, I'd be near relatives etc - it's a delicate balance, isn't it?

thnks so much for taking time to respond. I do apprecaite input.

[CardyMow]

Sooo DS2 would currently be in Y6 and DS1 would currently be in Y7 same as my DD. So DS1 would already be in Secondary down here, still in primary up your end IIRC? So moving in July 2010 would mean missing one year of Secondary for DS1, a year later in July 2011 would mean DS1 missing 2 years of secondary and starting Y9 here, and DS2 would then have missed the first year of Secondary and be starting Y8. That's another thing to consider, they go up a year earlier here...

[roisin]

The reason I asked about birthdays was for school applications. Because your ds2 is the same age as mine, you have already missed the boat for the standard application process for September 2010. So you would just have to run the gauntlet of trying to find places by moving early.

Generally in the UK I would try and avoid moving students into our out of the system from Easter yr9 (when they choose their options) through to the end of yr11.

[micheleredmond]

Hello All
We moved to Scotland from England last year and my son who was half way through his first year of his A levels had to go back a year but only because he wanted to get straight A for med school. He said that it was probably the best thing he could have done. Now though we have to go back to England he's ok because he will go to uni but my daughter who is in year 3 here which equates to year 10 in England is really going to struggle. I had thought to contact her old school for advice but wondered if anyone had advice as to who to speak to for the best???

[itsawonderfuldarleneconnorlife]

When is your DD's birthday. She may end up going up/down a year because the Scottish cut off is Feb/March instead of Aug/Sept.

Scottish pupils do a good fewer S Grades than english pupils do GCSEs which may make her seem not as capable as she is if she cant take up these extra subjects. Also in Scotland the sciences are always seperate subjects but AFAIK the English often do 'double science' which is a mix of all 3.

TBH I dont think going straight to A levels without doing GCSEs first would be a good idea either. On the other hand if she did highers then moved south for A levels she would be at a distinct advantage.