Moving from Ireland to UK with 12/13 year old

[Bristol07]

Hi all

just looking for a bit of advice if anyone has done this before - we moved to Ireland from the UK in January of this year with our just turned 11 year old DC. DC was educated in UK system from 4-10. DC is now in 5th class but would be Year 7 in secondary school if we had stayed in the UK.

Unfortunately, things haven’t worked out with our jobs here in Ireland and due to the cost of living we are now having to reconsider moving back within the next year or so.

my question is has anyone moved their DC around this age from an Irish school to UK school - into either year 7 or year 8. How did the DC find the change - was there much catching up to do ? Did it impact their GCSEs?

any help is much appreciated.

thank you

Our youngest was a similar age, moving from Dublin back home to NI. He was good academically, had some excellent teachers (top Dublin school), and the transition was OK for him. Socially not great initially, but he likes sports so was able to make the transition OK.

I'd be very concerned about such a change closer to A-levels or the Irish Leaving Cert. I work in software area (some maths, physics, etc). The way those subject exams are marked, you need not to just understand the material but also the way to answer to get very good marks for A-levels.

@DonnaHadDee hi there thanks very much for your reply. Moving to NI was also an option but I wasn’t too sure about moving into grammar schools without doing 11 plus . Did your DC have to do the 11 plus or was it an in year application (assuming DC is in Grammar school?).

yeah I hear you about the a level / leaving cert - we want to be doing a move long before we get to that stage. Hopefully

@Bristol07
If you were coming to NI with a view of your dc starting in sept 23 then they wouldn't need to to the GL / AQE. You request special provision. In year transfers to grammar are a bit different and think depends on space in schools.

You would really want to have selected a school or two, and have a discussion with them. Our DS did an entrance exam type of assessment. Today it's actually a bit complex, can be different for fee paying, not to mention the whole religion/school mess here. However, a quick call and they'd discussion options. It's what I did, since I'd went to boarding school in England originally, and had not lived back "home" for a long time.

We were constrained by location, need to be near "home". We didn't really have a great choice, and I was/am unimpressed with the quality of science teaching compared to "reference" school for older kid experienced in Dublin.

I think you are moving at the right time for your child. Best wishes for the move.

5th class is equivalent to yr 6 not 8.
Best get on with it sooner rather. than later.
I prefer the secondary system in the UK.
Good luck!

@DonnaHadDee thanks for all the info. If we were to move to NI (where I am from) we’d hope to get oldest DC into a grammar school so it’s interesting to hear about the entrance exams . Do you mind me asking if you needed to have tutoring for your DC - my DC wouldn’t be used to timed exams. She’s capable but lacks the exam training as we took her out of the Uk just before she was due to sit her 6th year SATs.

@SoyMarina thanks for your reply. I don’t think I appreciated 5th class was equivalent to Year 6 (and not Year 7/8) until we started to get the work this year and I realised it was a couple of years behind what DD had been doing in the UK before she left. I must admit I too like the UK system more and it seemed to have suited my DC more, too. But then again maybe it’s because that is what they were / we were used to before we came to Ireland at the start of the year. It’s definitely more relaxed here which has its pros and cons, I think. Do you mind me asking if your DC were in the Irish education system and then moved to Uk? If so how did they find the move over?

@Bristol07, our experience was a good few years ago. For NI, I'd strongly recommend speaking to two or three possible candidate schools, you really should do that if it is a serious possibility for you. The grammar school would tell you their entry specifics, and give some advice, and discuss and share sample papers. The possible gotcha with that, and it might be a big one, is availability of positions, and match with school ethos/religion if that was a factor for you. I'm in a strongly Unionist area, so not much mixing there!

Our DS is very strong academically, and his Dublin school was very good in retrospect, and they did regular exams. No tutoring, but we also knew there were places available. Our DS also did not feel any pressure, in that he wanted to stay on for boarding school where he was already attending in Dublin. In fact, he's back in Uni in Dublin now!