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Overseas student joining a UK school just before GCSEs

51 replies

Grevillea · 02/11/2018 04:07

Hi there, we're moving to the UK from Australia at the end of the year.

My DD is 15 and is in the last term of Australian Year 9 (school year Jan-Dec 2018). Because her birthday falls at the end of July, the UK schools (and County Council) we've contacted have told us she needs to go into Year 11 - thus skipping Year 10 entirely, plus one term of Year 11.

She will have followed a different curriculum, and although bright, will probably struggle to cram in the new syllabus in just a few months. For example, she's been learning Mandarin as a modern foreign language; she's studied Australian history ...

If we fail to win the argument (and we're running out of time), I'm wondering whether, if she sat GCSEs in Year 11, would she be able to retake any in Year 12? She wants to study law at uni so needs 3 decent A Levels. Does anyone know if students can do three years at 6th form: 1 year for GCSEs and 2 for A Levels?

OP posts:
Peridot1 · 02/11/2018 05:22

That’s bonkers. They really can be so inflexible.

I do know that some private schools offer an accelerated Gcse year. A friend’s DS did it at Sherborne which is an independent boarding school. So he did the full two year gcse course over one year.

I’m not sure any 6th form colleges would do GCSEs.

Have they said she definitely couldn’t go into year 10 or that they would expect her to go into year 11?