Americans coming to the UK with teens - help!

Yes private schools are much more used to taking on students who have moved from another country. It's very common here and the join and leave in all years. So if they can afford it it would be far easier.

I moved late in year 9. My parents had to phone round local schools to find out who had in year spaces. We had to have an address first due to priority catchment areas. I imagine it's still the same. Once I started they sorted my GCSE choices later than others but I still got what I wanted. It would be harder in year 10 but he'll have been studying the core subjects, he will have to slot into the other courses based on his existing skills I guess so if he's been studying French or Spanish that would be good choice. I imagine history would be tricky as the curriculum could vary widely, geography might be easier etc. They may benefit from some private tuition along side school to cover any curriculum differences.

It's not as simple as ahead or behind; you can't make a blanket statement like "2 years behind". The curricula are arranged entirely differently and with different subject matter. For example, in grades 6-8 in the USA, the most common topics for social studies (history-geography-politics) are a geography course and then 2 years of US history. Well, the basic geography information won't vary, but their British compatriots will have studied entirely different history topics. Maths are maths, but depending on where they lived and how it was taught, the style of problems can be very different, and students move at different rates through the courses because they're accelerated differently depending on set. The topic sequence is different also. The science topic sequence is completely different, and in American high schools the sciences are taught one at a time rather than as a combined course, so middle school is likely set up with the expectation that they will be continuing to grade 9 biology.

(DH & I are UK educated, kids American, nieces & nephews in both UK & elsewhere)

If I could afford a £1m house I would not be considering putting my kids into state as an in-year admission in these circumstances. As a PP said; I'd be looking at private for years 9-11 (so 5 years total) and then moving to a decent state sixth form.

If that meant I could only afford a £900k house so be it!

Depends where they are going, in the country. Here is the very north of Surrey, and north-east into surrounding areas eg into London more (friends in Twickenham for eg) say getting a child in mid-year anywhere is so very difficult.

There is actually nothing to prevent an application for a state school place being made in advance of the family having an address in the area (even if applying from abroad), and the application must be processed. However, where there is competition for a place and applicants have to be ranked and 'living in catchment' and / or 'distance from sxhool' are factors in ranking applicants, then naturally the applicant on the doorstep off a school will be ranked higher than one whose address for the purpose is a few thousand miles away.
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/schools-admissions-applications-from-overseas-children#processing-school-applications-from-parents-moving-to-england

is it even possible to find places for a Y10 and Y9 boy?

US kids are two years behind UK kids.

If private is potentially an option, there are some schools that offer US high school route www.acs-schools.com/cobham/acs-cobham-international-independent-school

The main difference between the US and the UK is the US goes for a broad range of subjects / skills and the UK narrows down quite early so children in the UK are 'ahead' because they start school earlier and narrow down their choices earlier but children in the US study a broader range and can usually take college or AP classes. Sometimes things like the ability to swim a certain distance are included in the state's rules to get a diploma.

So for uni a US high school diploma is treated the same as 5 good passes at GCSE.

One thing that might sound counter intuitive is that some of the 'bad' or 'poor' schools might actually be better for children relocating.

I taught (FE college) a lovely girl who had arrived in the UK from Poland age 14 and passed 10 GCSEs, unfortunately for her she did not pass English language so had to resit which limited her A Level choices.

The fact she didn't have English GCSE would (at that time) have brought her school's rating down.

Someone mentioned the CGP books, I agree with that, but I would also say have a look at GCSE papers and the marking schemes.

Just to reiterate, if they're coming from the US and going private, I'd encourage them to consider finding a school that offers the IB.

Yeah to be honest it’s quite lumpy. Some areas are fine and others are abysmal. Grammar in the UK is taken much more seriously, in the U.S. my kids had grammerly installed on their school laptops! Most things are handwritten here, including GCSEs but in the U.S. the standardised tests were all online and my younger children didn’t really learn proper handwriting at all.

In maths we found that the main difference is that you can’t get high grades in the UK without being able to understand multistep word problems, the U.S. also had more multiple choice exams. So an example of a year 9 maths question would be:

Sarah invests £2000 in a savings account for 3 years. The account pays compound interest at an annual rate of:

2.5% in the first year
x% in the second year
x% in the third year

There is a total amount of £2124.46 at the end of the three years. What is the interest rate in the second year?

(ans = 1.8%)

One major benefit of them returning to the UK would be that if they are resident here for the couple of years preceding university, their kids will qualify for the 9k uni fees. It’s done based on residency NOT nationality.

A little bit younger than your friends boys but we spent 2 years in the U.S. and my kids were very behind when we got back (and they were considered ahead in the U.S. in a top school district in Connecticut).

I would buy some CGP (or similar) workbooks to make sure they can familiarise ahead of starting in the UK for maths/english/science in particular.

A year after being back and they are just hitting their stride again and getting moved up into higher sets.

Edit: As summer borns they can be held back a year - definitely something to consider to let them find their feet.

We took the opportunity to push ours back a year when we moved here, but two were September/October, so even younger for the age group than summer born. Academically, they were ahead then, but not so far that it was a nightmare, especially considering there's a lot of adjustment around the edges with such a big move. It freed them up to coast a bit in school and really settle in socially.

If they're going to consider private, it might make sense to look for one that offers the IB, which is a somewhat more seamless transition, and also not a bad idea if the kids might want to go back to the US for university.

That would definitely be a better option for the kids in terms of their education and potential results and May and August should be okay if you can find a school that will agree. But again it will come down to whether they can find spaces.

If they are sporty, worth bearing in mind that being out of cohort could make a big difference in being in sports teams as there are strict age rules.

The parents need to be very clear of how problematic this could be before they make such a big move.

In state schools they're usually expected to join their correct year group for age, private schools are a lot more flexible. But I knew a kid in private who was a year below his age group and when his parents moved him to a state school he had to basically miss a year and join his correct year group. He was a child with some learning disabilities, so god knows how he coped with that.

Oh and one more thing - because they'll be applying for two in-year places and many schools/age groups are full, the DC may end up in different schools. Those schools may also be quite far away and/or in opposite directions. In my city in SE England there are no spaces for Y9 at all, the closest ones are in another town 10 miles away.

It really is a bad time to be trying to get kids into UK secondaries, not least because Labour's introduction of VAT on private school fees has caused enough DC to move from private to state that many LAs are really struggling to accommodate all the DC that need a place.