secondary schooling

[barbarac2019]

We are currently living in South Africa but should be settling in England in January 2020.
i am British but my daughter - age 17- will be on a dependent visa and i need to know where she will fit in the schooling system and if we will qualify for free schooling

Typically, if she is 17 in January 2020, she will either be in Yr12 (first year of '6th form' which is the two year period during which more academic youngsters take A-levels, and others may do BTECs and others might do apprenticeships or other qualifications) or she might be in Yr13.

So, the school year in the UK goes from 1st Sept to 31st August.
If she has already had her birthday since 1st September, (was 16 on 1st Sept) then she would be in Yr12
If she hasn't had her birthday yet (so birthday is between 25th November and 31st August), so was 17 on 1st Sept and will be 18 before the end of this academic year then she will be in Yr 13.

It would be difficult to join at this point though as people will have already have covered a lot of the curriculum.

thank you .. she is 16 and will be 17 in feb 2020. perhaps if we get there by end january she may have to start a year behind to catch up. it’s so tricky and worrying

Why the visa? Can she not just get a British passport if you are British?
I guess the most important question really is where is she with her education now? Has she sat the equivalent of GCSE? How did she do? What is she doing now? Is she academic or more vocational?

Have googled, I guess the question is, has she matriculated?

she has not matriculated. that is grade 12 here. she has just finished grade 10.
she is more academic .
i was born in south africa but got british passport due to my dad being british. she only qualifies for dependent visa... then 5 years she will get citizenship

That is tricky because she will need to do GCSE really then A levels.. free education continues to year 13 plus one year if the student doesn't have a levels or equivalent at that point
But all schools and colleges start in September here. Where are you going to be located in the UK?

If you know roughly where you are going to live, I would contact sixth form colleges in that area and ask them for specific advice.

If she could start at a sixth form college at the beginning of the two year course it would mean she would be able to assimilate more easily as there will be people from all different schools starting together.

When I moved back to the uk from overseas I kept my head down for a couple of months and didn’t send my dc to school until we were settled.