LA is bulling me to put daughter in lower year

OP you've definitely left out lots of important information here.

There's a lot of good reasons for this choice. Your dd will have chance to study full gcse courses and won't have to catch up.

Snap their hand off. Your child's education has already been screwed - don't make it any worse. And it's not public humiliation, don't be so bloody ridiculous. It's the best chance she has right now of some sort of decent qualifications.

If you are the lad who moved to Wales then please take the place! Your daughters mental health has been impacted by the school situation and she needs her education! It’s not a humiliation, it’s the best of a bad lot!

As term has now ended, did they contact you before term ended and therefore she would start year 10 in September? if so then I would accept so that she can start her GSCE course from scratch with full options over what courses she will take. If they are asking her to start year 9 in September then that is different and surely there would be another school she could join into year 10

Looks like the dd was supposed to start y10 in September 2018 so she should be about to start y11 but school have offered y9 so she's going to be 2 school years behind.
It presumably means she'd have a reasonable chance at passing GCSEs rather than struggling to do it all in a year. If it's an academy and do their own admissions have the LA made a different offer such as tutoring or another school?

OP, back when I was at school, I moved schools several times in Years 9 and 10. Ended up missing a lot of work, GCSE coursework etc. I repeated Year 10 at a new school. Turned out great.

An extra year really doesn't matter in the scheme of things. And look at it this way - your dd is getting an extra year of education for free!

So if she doesn’t do a science it is s 2 year course.

Dd and ds has only 2 year courses, or 18 months given the last term was study leave and exams

If they have not done year 9, then they have not had the opportunity to select which options they wish to take for GCSEs.

Hoppinggreen Ah, I see

Why do they want her to repeat Year 9 when what she has missed in the Year 10 content? Surely she should be going into Year 10, being 1 year behind her peers, rather than redoing Year 9 and putting her back 2 years. Strange!

If I am remembering correctly ( entirely possible I’m wrong) this child hasn’t done a lot of Y9 due to several moves so even starting Y10 might be tricky, never mind Y11

At my daughter's school there were two students who started in the January of Year 10. it worked very well, they just did 8 GCSE's instead of the usual 9 and spent the extra time catching up on the science syllabus they had missed.

At least half a dozen others started there at the start of Year 10.

If I was the OP I would want my child to stay in their age year group if at all possible, however I would not have a child start a new school at the beginning of Year 11, so would put them back to start at the beginning of Year 10. I see no reason for them to go back to Year 9 unless there are significant SEN involved.

All GCSE courses start in year 9 here, some exams are taken in year 10.

If you mean starting Y9 in September, that is a two year delay and would be frustrating since (if I've read your OP correctly) she had already completed Y9 and started Y10 before her move.

Also, a two-year delay might in the future potentially affect funding for A-levels (or Level 3 BTEC), as I think the funding only goes up to age 19.

If they are suggesting a two year delay, I would ask if they can find a space somewhere for her to start Y10 in September (but not Y11 with her original chronological group, for the reasons I mentioned above).

Doesn’t the gcse syllabus start in year 10 anyway so going into year 9 is doing work that predominantly is irrelevant.

At my son's school, they start the science GCSE courses in year 9 due to the high content.

If my daughter had missed that much of a school year I would want her to start a year below. I know it’s frustrating as you’ve been fighting to her her in. But she’s missed so much. It might be better for her academically in the long run

If this is the lady who moved to Wales for a while it was a very complicated situation
I know I’m not a teenager (but I do have one) but the LA will be more interested in her getting the best education than being in a class with her mates, and if she’s been living someelse for a while anyway they might have moved on so she will need new ones anyway

Personally, I'd snap their hands off. Far better to go back a year and do the course properly. My OH did this after several months of no school due to moving and says it really helped. Why would you want to risk her getting low/poor GCSE grades (which will hinder her future) rather than let her do the course properly???

I think "public humiliation" is putting it a bit strongly.

If you're the poster I'm thinking of then your DD has missed a lot of school and this seems like a really good opportunity

Do you mean join Y9 now, and start Y10 in September? If she has been given the opportunity to join at the beginning of the GCSE course (rather than halfway through) why would you not take them up on this?

Joining a new school at the end of Y10 / beginning of Y11 would be a last resort. The new GCSEs are difficult enough, even when you have learned the whole course.

It's a new school, so there wouldn't be the stigma of going down a year and seeing your peers continue in the year above. Even if she were staying at the same school, any embarrassment of retaking the year would be short-lived, and preferable to the difficulties of joining a two-year course half way through, the effects of which will be long-term.

We usually see the opposite dilemma on these boards, e.g. child moves here from abroad aged 15, parent wants them to start Y10 rather than going straight into Y11 and is trying to find a school who can accommodate this.

Doesn’t the gcse syllabus start in year 10 anyway so going into year 9 is doing work that predominantly is irrelevant.

Maybe something like Maths she would have to catch up on but otherwise most other subjects it is year 10 and 11 that is the most relevant

Don’t understand why you would be prosecuted. If your dd isn’t in ft education wouldn’t you just apply for her to be HE

Any reason that she can’t be HE

It could mean her teaching herself but it could be done successfully if she puts her mind to it.

Buying the books and with so many resources on line it isn’t quite the same as being in a classroom but given your circumstances then unless you can find a school out of the area you can get her to and will take her in year 10 then it is the best option.

So they want her to join year 9 when she should be joining year 11? That's a 2 year gap and more significant.

eddiemairswife
If this is the situation some of us think it is then there were no year 10 places within a set area, the school places weren't applied for until a few months after the 'forced move' and the child has missed most of a year of school during ks4.

I hear what you're saying if there are places available, though for September entry OP would be looking for entry to y11 if her DD stays with her age group. Most schools have already got a full year group by then.

If the school has a place in Y10 they have to give it to you, however inconvenient it is for them.

Not if the kid hasn't done enough of year nine. Do try to read the thread. It's not overly long.

If the school has a place in Y10 they have to give it to you, however inconvenient it is for them. It states this in the Schools Admission Code. Also they cannot refuse to let you appeal.