Yr10 DD's school closing - please help me think it through.

I think in your shoes I would go on to Save My Exams (there’s a free trial) and download the GCSE past papers of your expected board, and the boards you’ll be moving to. Then once you’ve chosen the school which is a good fit for your daughter, employ a tutor (starting now and continuing through the holidays) who can zone in on those gaps and differences. There probably won’t be as many as you think

I would go where the bulk of her cohort are going and where she will have existing friends. That is first priority. Secondly, I’d look at trying for the same syllabus in English language. Then, you have the summer to buy in tutors, get the books and plug the gaps or changes in the syllabus. The teachers at the new school won’t be exactly thrilled about a bunch of new year 11 coming in who haven’t done the syllabus so also get the vibe of the school which is going to do the most and is the most sympathetic so sending resources for the summer, etc. Then I would look at the options offered at sixth form - which sixth form has the courses she may want to follow in the future. Then ensure that any current exam access arrangements she has will be in place. It is doable but for someone with ASC I’d go friendships first and possibly even consider dropping a GCSE option so she can self study in that time as part of catch up.

Pragmatically expect to drop one GCSE so that time gained can be used to catch up content/ order mismatch in other subjects.

They don’t know the numbers of children from term to term that would be affected by the unprecedented move of taxing children and they work on tight margins. Ten children leaving or not joining a small school that needs a 100 children would be enough to cause serious issues. They will try everything to keep the kids being educated, as opposed to the Government who introduced the policy half way through an academic year with no impact assessment and a bundle of other tax increases on the school itself.

The only people with questionable morality regarding these children are those who supported taxing their education, not the teachers who tried to make it work.

Go where all her friends will go

my dc state school had a big influx from a closed down private school last year. The school has made a huge effort to support the new y11 and y13 kids in the middle of their courses. The exam boards matter less than things like the set texts but if lots of other girls are going to the same state school then they might be quite well supported.

(the closed school has been on the brink for over a decade)

That’s not what OP is asking about tho is it? Wants advice on next steps.
my point was merely that schools that knew they wouldn’t survive should have morally declared this earlier if kids were their priority

There’s no maybe about it, they did. It’s actually hard to believe a government implemented this.

To add insult to injury, studies in from Scotland show it’s a net cost to the tax payer:
https://commentcentral.co.uk/the-cost-of-taxing-education

A net cost of 60 million and 900 jobs in Scotland
https://www.thetimes.com/uk/scotland/article/economy-vat-private-school-fees-jvjwc20f9

What a f**king shocker that taxing children’s education isn’t a good idea !

Yes it’s mainly smaller not for profit preps closing, you simply can’t plan for targeted state punitive policies designed to close you down. 20% tax on the kids themselves, business rates increase and NIC cost introduced half way through the academic year. I know it will be reversed when they’re gone, but how many kids will have lost their schools to be turned into flats by then? Utterly unforgivable politics of envy.

To some degree maybe they did. However my youngest DC’s school closed in 2014 due to falling pupil numbers. Independent schools have been closing for several years. My old independent primary school closed in 2019 and reopened as a state school because it was another that was no longer financially viable.
Fortunately my DC was in Y9 when she moved but there as an issue with the language she was studying not being taught at her new school. That was resolved in Y10 when the new school introduced it as a GCSE.

Yr11 is really tough so don’t underestimate friendships. Esp if this doesn’t come naturally to her. I have a yr11 DD who is ND

@GoatsOfNavahoe yes but bigger schools and those who planned for it have not closed. It’s smaller ones which were struggling really anyway as far as I’ve seen. They were barely surviving due to drop in demand for other reasons.
Some clearly buried heads or tried to frantically recruit. All businesses should plan several years ahead and worse case scenarios

Even if the content and exam boards are the same the new school could be doing them in a different order. I'd try to find somewhere she could repeat the year.

I’d look closely at the two schools which can match the specs/all but one, and not worry so much if she knows nobody. What do you mean by ‘We’d have to take her through somehow’ ? Through what?

Well obviously, yes because the kids are now getting taxed 20% on their education.

I agree that if you go state, tutors will help plug gaps. We are doing that for a diff reason as my dd missed a lot of school in yr11

So did schools that continued to advertise for new pupils until a week before they decided to close. Shocking. Happened near me and to a friend on mine elsewhere . They weren’t making enough money

Is it IC? If so I would move to YC, loads of the children will be heading there and they are preparing to manage the transition as smoothly as possible. I would then use the savings from private to state to tutor privately and get up to speed with any changes in the content.

It’s not my experience at all the Yr11 is just revision. Maybe at some privates who do options in year 8 and in effect start gcse in Yr9.

Labour really screwed these kids over.

if you look at other threads for Yr11 you’ll find that a lot are still finishing the content and exams start in 2 weeks.
I think it’s doable as at the end of the day maths is maths, biology is biology etc
you have all summer to sort plugging gaps

As others have said, they learn everything in year 9 and 10 and then year 11 is going over what they learnt. 1st mocks is November of year 11.

I would find out exactly where others are going and speak to senco too. If she has EHCP you could ask for review and repeat year 10

Agree that Lit texts important but nothing that soms summer reading and revision aids/notes can't help

I'd send her to the best fit with all her friends.
Drill the school on what they would do. It should be perfectly possible to map ( maybe with help from current teachers) exactly what has been covered and where the gaps are, and plan to fill them.