Schools

[Excited12345]

Hello

Please help me navigate the school sisitem

we are family of 4 moving back to UK after leaving abroad for the last 4 years.
We were Wandsworth residends befoure and my kids attended local primary school prior to moving.

I have 16 year old and a 13 year old.
We are moving back into Wandsworth in the summer.
My question is can i put my 16 year old up for a Sixt form or do we need to find college? I asume he will be allowed to sit GCSe once he starts if his reports from here are not taken in consideration ? He is very academic so we are confident he will manage.
Also my 13 yeard old born 2011 is currently year8 will he have to go into year 9 or 10 uk?

Hope someone can gives us information befoure i embark on this journey

Xx

I would look into whether you will be even eligible for free education after your 16 year old's birthday?

Has your 16 year old not taken some qualifications abroad? College/school would be looking to teach post-GCSE qualifications, but might be able to help with maths/english.

The 13 year old would go into year 9 unless their English was very poor - in which case they might be offered year 8

Hello
Thank you for your answer.
I neglected to say kids are Brits so language is not a problem.

The secondary shooling sistem here goes till 18 years old so(similar to German schools) no official dimplomas yet just end of the year school reports.

Why wont he?

You might struggle to find a college offering a range of gcses post 16 as most sixth forms and even colleges don't do more than resits in English and Maths, possibly Science, or a private "crammar" offering one year gcse courses. When is your dc2 14, if before end of August they will be year 10 and you need to make an In Year application.

Post 16 is generally just maths and English GCSEs for those that didn't pass in school year 11. It's extremely difficult to find anywhere post 16 that offers a broader range of GCSEs. There certainly isn't anywhere near us that do that. GCSEs are also a 2 year qualification so your child would be 18 and finishing their education by the time they sat their exams. You're moving at a really tricky stage because you are obviously moving from somewhere with a very different exam schedule.

All I can think of is private tuition which would very expensive and involve a lot of organisation or a private international school which would again involve fees.

Your 13 year old would probably be in Uk year 9 now. Most year 9s are currently choosing their GCSE subjects ready to learn them in year 10 and 11. Hopefully your 13 year old will have covered most of the basics of the main GCSE subjects already ready to carry on with the UK syllabus. If they only turned 13 after September 2024 they would he year 8 which gives them even more time for the GCSE syllabus.

Easiest thing is to contact a school.
Are you going back to Wandsworth?

You could try South Thames College to see what they might offer. (Their Kingston branch offers a 16-18 GCSE programme)

Wandsworth, like most of London, has lots of people moving in and out from around the world and schools will know what they can offer better than people on the Internet.

What an unnecessarily scary thing to say.

Any college student that doesn't have gcse English and maths will be asked to take them again so he will Be able to get these at a sixth form or college. He will be eligible for a further two years of funded study.

What makes you automatically leap to that? The OP will know their legal status.

If your 13 year old turns 14 before August they will be in year 10. If they turn 14 September onwards they will be in year 9.

It doesn’t sound like a good time to move your eldest.

If you want us to tell you what year group they would start with in Sept, you would need to give us the month and year each child was born, or indicate whether they have had a birthday since 1st Sept.

Families I’ve known to move country with children the age of your oldest tend to leave the 16 year old with at a boarding school or staying with friends to complete their education. Could you consider this? Or an international school that focuses on IB?

I agree, not a good time at all to move your 16 year old. Can they stay in Germany to complete their education? Also you can't delay just a year or two because of your youngest. What is forcing the move?