Advice needed - moving teens to Geneva

[Purplepumps]

Hope someone can give me some advice - my DH is being posted to Geneva next January, and we need either to relocate or to try to make life work with him commuting weekly. My DDs are 13, 12 and 5, and I am really reluctant to move them from school and friends where they are very settled (as well as unwilling to give up a job I love). I'd rather wait and see if it works, then relocate if we have to, but DD1 will be starting her GCSE courses next school year so there's not really much time to try it and see - we'd have to start the process by March anyway to move before the new school year. There just seems to be so much we'd be giving up (good circle of teenage friends, cherished activites such as lacrosse, sense of stability from living in the same home and going to the same school for 10 years) and I'm finding it hard to see any of the upsides yet, although I'm sure there will be some. Not told the kids yet either. Anyone been in the same position and have any words of advice?

[Anna8888]

The big issue is school. I moved abroad (to a similar sort of location) when I was two months' short of my 13th birthday, and it was late to change school system. I managed, but the first 18 months were very hard.

Look at all the school options in Geneva. If there is a really good IB school the children can go to, and you are sure that you will remain in Geneva until your 13 and 12 year olds have done their baccalaureate, go for it. Otherwise, think seriously hard about the upheaval.

[Purplepumps]

Thanks Anna - anyone else had any experience of this or can tell me what it's like having teens in Geneva?