Telling school we are moving abroad

Hi ladies,
I’m living in UK with my family for the past 2 years. I have a 9 year old daughter who is in year 5 in one of the girls only private school. She has been struggling to fit in there despite of having good hold on English language and her inherent smart nature. Now we see her loosing her confidence day by day because of mental bullying by other girls in school. I have seen myself other girls in her own class treating her badly. All the girls in her class are either pure Brits or Indian origin Brits. They seem to be so cold and distant and at times rude towards her. We approached the school for help and they send my daughter to counselling sessions instead of advicing other girls. My daughter is very sensitive and is not brave enough to react to the mental/ passive / often aggressive torture by herself and this had shattered her confidence level.

We really want to try sending her to state schools because we hope the environment and students to be more inclusive. But my daughter is so scared to change because her experiences and she believe all the girls are mean and rude here.
If you are a mom of 10-14 year oils, Will you be please able to share your/ your daughters experiences in state secondary schools? Do they feel respected and confident? Can a sensitive girl survive in state schools? Do they have good friends? Do they face any kind of racism?

Thank you for all your upcoming suggestions.
Will be grateful for this forever.

Kind regards,
tulsininuk

We did this. You do need records from the UK and you're going to have to pay a translator here in Brazil. We're in a different state but Brazil requires results every semester. My children had to take entrance exams to place them in the system, it took a while and lots of phone calls to the education department to discover this, so tell the school this to save yourself some time. The school also has translated copies of their school reports. They were not really happy with this as there are no grades. National curriculum grades don't really translate well. We're still smoothing it out, but at least they're in school.

Your daughter with be in 8° Ano, going into 9° ano in February. We've lived in a big city and a small town, I would pick a small town. There's some really good private schools in small towns. Do some research, look at how the schools did in the ENEM last year, also look at the system they use. Some are really really good and others less so. The systems that I think are good are Bernoulli, Positivo, Objetivo and Anglo. My children's school recently changed from Positivo to Bernoulli and it's much better. Small town life for Brazilian teens is really good, my 14 year old is free to ride his bike around, go out for burgers or pizza with his friends or hang out at the sports club. In big cities you'll be a taxi and worry more about crime.

Also my children didn't speak a word of Portuguese when we came, my 12 year old just got 100% in her last Portuguese exam. So that's no problem and they've never repeated the year, which can be a worry until they are more competent in the language. Private schools are usually more accommodating with students from abroad.

Good luck, PM if you have questions, I'm happy to help. We've been here 5 years now.

Good luck with your adventure!

When we moved overseas we just filled out the forms to say that we were moving, gave the reason as "overseas move" and that was it. Once you leave the UK you aren't covered by the UK laws regarding education for your DC, though you will be for the country you are moving to (if they have one - it's very strict here about school attendance, can't leave the country without permission from the education ministry during term-time )

my heart says it's the right decision for us

Then every step in the right direction will get you there. See yourselves as a team. I think Candyflip is right and the immersion in Portuguese will be the quickest way for your daughter to learn Portuguese. Are you fluent? You need plans for you too.

I’m strangely excited for you. Takes me back to our own move but not a new language for us. Having said that I’ve taken a basic Te Reo Maori course and am trying to remember what I’ve been taught.

I think that would be better, my kids did have language lessons after school, but nothing really compares to being with their peers. I know it is different being in a large city to small towns and my daughter was always very much a part of the international community. My son, however, only had local friends and his Portuguese came on quickly and is still really amazing (we left a long time ago) I think you may be pleasantly surprised.

Year 9 is what? 13? Why would she not pick up the language within weeks like other 13 year olds? They are very resourceful you know. I can’t think of anything more miserable or slow-paced than intensive language lessons at home. Nothing compares to complete immersion with peers. We lived in São Paulo and my kids went to local schools and were accepted immediately and were speaking Portuguese fluently much quicker than your time frame.

Wow, then you’re all equally in the adventure! Your DD sounds like an amazing young woman being ready to make such a big change in her life. Your decision to go shows where she gets that from.

So hard to balance choices up. I used to rely on what my head told me but now I find that my heart is a pretty good indicator. I’ve never regretted a decision made with my heart although it is happy to have a few facts to guide it!

What do you have in prospect in your new life in Brazil?

It might be worth thinking about how to get a British school record translated into Portuguese. Same goes for lots of documents.

I think leaving your DD in school until you leave is a good idea. It maintains her social and support networks, keeps her engaged with her education in a school environment which is what your are planning for Brazil, and importantly gives you more time to do all the myriad of things needed to make the move a success. If you are spending time in home educating your DD too then you have less for everything else. Don’t forget your daughter is going through a big change in her life, at your choice, and as a teenager. She will need friends and support just as much as she needs Portuguese.

She'll be fine if she just starts school straight away. Will learn the language that way.

You will be covered by the Country you are in's rules on Home Education. There is nothing the UK can do once you've left.

You have a right (or your DD does if she is 12) to see and take a copy of your DD's education file - but you can be charged for photocopying. However how useful this will be is a mute point. Lots of places overseas ask for a "transcript" expecting something like a US school transcript - but UK school records are not like that, and will often need "translating" (into something understandable, eg. what does 5.4 in Drama mean?) for an overseas school to use.

Hope you enjoy your new life in Brazil!

I probably wouldn't homeschool here - she'll miss her friends etc (I know she can still see them outside of school but school life is a big part of friendship groups) But I would use that time to boost her Portuguese language skills? What MFL is she doing at the moment - if for example German could she drop that and do some private study (Portuguese) during those lessons (if the school were amenable.... no idea if they would/could be!)

Could you home school here but in Portuguese, so do maths in Portuguese, food tech in Portuguese etc. Use some You tube videos in Portuguese to review for an 'English' assignment etc. Depends on whether your dh could mark it. I would ask on the home ed board for advice on how to keep the authorities happy.

I'm thinking of the other end - you will have a gap in reports from July to Jan. If you can get a partial school report in Dec, there isn't 6 months of education unaccounted for. But, this is biased towards one region, and you are going elsewhere. The poster in NZ had no issues. Id look at the requirements for the school you are interested in.

Hmm, I have half a feeling home schooling isn't recognised in Brazil. Check the legal status of it before withdrawing her at the end of y8.
And look at the admissions requirements of the school you are interested in.
Do you normally get a part year report at Christmas? That might be worth getting if Brazil work an academic year as a calander year.