moving to UK from US

[USUK]

I'm a longtime British transplant to the US considering a move back to the UK after 20+ years away. DS, who has been in US public schools, would be enrolling in UK state school. He will have completed 8th grade in the US (Y9 in the UK) by the time we move. (He would be starting school in the UK in Sept 2019.) Two questions:

1. how likely is it that any given school would allow him to repeat Y9, so that he can have a year to adjust to a different system before having to choose GCSE subjects? Is there ever any flexibility of this sort, and how would I go about navigating it? His birthday is in June, so he'd be young in the UK cut-off.
   
2. more generally, I would love to hear experiences of families who have made this move. How have your children adjusted to the different educational system? Has it proven to be more challenging academically than the US? What considerations should we bear in mind? DS is pretty socially comfortable, so I am less concerned about him adjusting in that respect.
   We would be moving to London, though where, and to what school, is another question entirely...
   Thanks in advance for any thoughts/advice.

[prh47bridge]

It is up to the school but most will want him to go straight into Y10, I'm afraid. You will need to talk to individual schools to see if you can find one that will allow him to go into Y9. If it is a community school the local authority may also have a say in the decision. Things are a little better for you than they were a few years ago in that they are now required to consider each case individually rather than apply a blanket policy, but there is still a lot of resistance at many schools to having pupils in the "wrong" year.

[titchy]

You'd also need to bear in mind that many schools start the. GCSE syllabus in year 9.

Private schools will be far more flexible, and you could probably keep him on the same curriculum.

[3boys3dogshelp]

Most high schools near us start teaching gcse lessons in some subjects in year 9, so you would need to be very careful where you applied if starting in y10.

[Allthebestnamesareused]

Is there any chance you could move him to an international school over there to start in September 2018 so that he can follow the National Curriculum if he is going into state education here. Then he'd be better equipped to go into year 10 in 2019 assuming you find a school that covers the gcse syllabus in 2 years.

[poisonedbypen]

Yes, since the new GCSEs came in, a lot of schools do them in 3 years, so choose the subjects in year 8.

[USUK]

Thanks for all the guidance. We are thinking it may be better to make the move in summer 2018 rather than 2019 so that he can start in Year 9. Private school not an option, or at least not a first resort.