Relocated to UK: 48 min and 96 min commute to different schools.

[MiniVansAreCool]

First time posting.

We moved over the summer (July) from the US to the UK (SW Herts). Did the required application and rejections to the nearest schools (all self-administering). Then completed the Herts Application for Schools and received the below results.

Our Y7 and Y11 spots are 48 mins and 96 mins each-way by public transit.

We have contacted Herts and submitted a transportation assistance request (do they still do mini-cabs?).

Of course there are a number of schools closer for Y11.

What real options do we have and what would you recommend we start considering?

Thank you.

I am surprised that any school would take a child directly into year 11. In dd's school (private) and ds's senior school (non private) anyone coming from abroad especially would have been taken into year 10. GCSEs are effectively a 2 year course and it is about being taught the subjects.

Have you thought of applying for year 10. They might have places in closer schools

I am in a similar area. Your catchment area might have schools that are too far away to get to under your own steam. I would try ringing up different schools to see if they have spaces.

Have you done the right settings on Google. 96 mins to do under 10 miles seems a bit off.

Do you drive.

Or you could ask for a taxi, or pay for one if you are too far out in an area with no pavements or Street lights

With the taxi you could ask the minicab driver if they would give you a deal if you are a regular company.

Some schools do coaches from local towns and villages so you only have to get them there in the morning and then they get on a coach directly to school

OP if you're still following this thread please do listen to what people are saying

1. You have no right to a year 10 place. You are going to have to fight very hard for it and have good justification. This may involve evidencing what your child has been learning so far etc. As a pp has said, the fact that the US school system starts a year later might help you.

1. Some GCSE courses are almost complete already. There will certainly be courses which only have one term of new content left. Mock exams will be starting very soon. It simply isn't possible to put a child into 10 new exam courses without them having studied any of the content and hope for them to pass. Neither is it possible in most schools for your child to have special/separate teaching.

1. You need to be onto the school and the local authority first thing on Monday. The distance to/from school really is the least of your worries. I would be pushing the local authority for a year 10 place if you genuinely can't afford two years of private school fees for your child.

The reason we are suggesting private school if you're set on GCSEs is that the state system only has to fund one more year for your child. As such it will be very difficult to get a year 10 entrance place. The system over here is completely different to the system in the US. We don't have repeating years or anything like that other than in exceptional circumstances. If you don't keep up then unfortunately you often get left behind. A private school will have more flexibility and may well allow Year 10 entry. You could probably find a place for £15-20k per year.

To be honest I'm quite shocked that you would move your child at this age without checking this out for them. They go back to school in two weeks! It isn't an easy transition and a year 11 entry would be the absolute worst possible situation for your DC. DN did it the other way around (UK to US) but at age 12 and that was tricky enough

As someone has said a Further Education college may be better. Usually they are from age 16 (starting after GCSEs) but they offer GCSEs as subjects - sometimes only taking a year instead of two. Technically your child should be going into Year 11 but a local college may be able to accept him/her at age 15 to do GCSEs there. How long will you be living in the UK? Will you be going back to the US? Does your child actually need a dozen GCSEs on their CV when an average American employer won't have a clue what 'GCSE' means. Could your child not bother with GCSEs and skip straight to a vocational course at a college? I don't actually know if this is something that can be done but could be looked into. Or if your child is fairly academic maybe skip Year 11 and go straight to Year 12 (aka '6th form') and begin A - levels. Again might not be do able but worth asking.

And education is free up until the age of 19 not 16 as other posts have said.

Education is free until 19 but we don't have a system which allows repeated years other than in exceptional circs. So in terms of these exams by asking for year 10 entry the OP would be asking for an additional year of funding.

But I still think this is something the OP needs to do.

OP, the UK is not like the US school system where you have a degree of choice in holding your child back a year if you feel it's the right thing to do. As others have said, it will be very tough to integrate into y11 at this stage and the school are not going to offer you anything off their own back - you'll need to push hard for it. IB sounds like the best option here.

Is there any chance of teaching him at home?

Thanks for the various types of advice and concern.

What do you think you will do @MiniVansAreCool ? I hope it works out for you

Got assignments on Friday. So call schools on Monday, start the official appeal process, and talk to someone at the county, about Y10 vs Y11. But most importantly, stay calm and keep the DCs positive.

Is the reason you are moving back at this time work related? If so can you negotiate a package to include private school fees as it’s very bad timing for your Yr 11 child?

Education is free until 19 but we don't have a system which allows repeated years other than in exceptional circs. So in terms of these exams by asking for year 10 entry the OP would be asking for an additional year of funding

That is key. Y10 entry would be fine if you can get a school to agree (again try a UTC) but those who say do some GCSE this year and then some more at college- that may not be permissible from a funding point a view. It is quite complex, especially if they have english and maths.

I found the local colleges wouldn’t consider ds for anything once he was passed year 9 or 10. Can’t remember which. But that was for vocational courses. Don’t remember seeing anything about GCSEs.

I think it might be easier to get in year 10 just purely on the fact someone going cold into year 11 is not going to do well in any GCSEs so screwing up their league table

We looked into that but maybe might be different

OP what is the rationale for wanting your DC to do GCSEs with Year 11 entry? Were you aware that they are 4.5/5 term courses and the courses are already 3 terms in? You are setting your DC up to fail. It is highly unlikely that any state school will have the resource available to try to bring them back up to speed even if you restricted the exam courses down to 5/6 (which in itself would limiting your child in terms of further education options). Many of the courses will be subjects which build on prior learning earlier in the course (or indeed at KS3 in years 7-9) eg maths, english, sciences. The way in which some subjects are taught (and the content) are very different in the UK to the way they are taught in the US.

There are lots of people on MN with significant expertise re appeals etc. If you gave a bit more information about the rationale and your thinking and also about your potential options (eg is two years of private education completely out of the question financially - is there a reason you won't look at IBAC, do you plan to stay in the UK etc ) then you could get some very helpful advice.

Speed really is of the essence, your DC has a couple more weeks of the holidays to do some real cramming. I would as a starter be paying for conquermaths and making him/her work through the KS4 section. In two weeks working flat out (good practice anyway for the massive amount of cramming they will need to do if they do have a year 11 entry) they could cover a lot. Maths and English need to be the focus.

My plan would be:

-contact the local authority urgently first thing to find out about year 10 entry
-contact the school urgently first thing and explain you need year 10 entry. As a fall back you need to know what exam syllabuses the current year 11 class are working to. get a list of subjects and a list of exam boards and find out key things like which texts have been studied in English literature so that your DC can start reading those books.
-Review the options locally for private schooling

• Review the options locally for International Bacc.
• consider home schooling

You can go on waiting lists for as many schools as you like. So get yourselves on waiting lists for all schools within reasonable reach (I agree, 96 minutes is ridiculous and 48 minutes not that great).

Appeal to any school you apply to that turns you down. Make a case as to why that specific school can educate your child better than the one you have been offered. In terms of subject or extra-curricular provision as well as distance / travel time. Arriving from another country, they need local friends, not ones that live 96 mins away, etc.

Simultaneously tackle the Yr 10/11 thing. I agree with a Pp that it may be easier to get a place for Yr 10 than Yr 11 because any family settled here would do everything possible not to move schools at the beginning of Yr 11.

Oh, and check admissions criteria, because once you have a good place for one, there may be a sibling priority criteria that bumps you to the top of the waiting list.

Update and Closure for DC1. Still nothing for DC2. More help needed for DC2?

DC1 sorted in a nearby school Y10. Thanks for the advice to ask for Y10.

DC2 assigned to a school 48 mins away via public. Communication with school at start of Term was confusing, people out, fill out more paperwork, do a tour, etc. It seemed odd, but that was the school we were assigned. Well, school finally came back and told us that DC2 was not given a spot, but was placed 7th on a waiting list and the school was going to need another 2 weeks to confirm if it will be offered to DC2 or not.

At this point, the next available school is going to be even further away. I've proactively reached out to the 7 schools that are within the same distance as the next nearest school and got their PANs and Overage. 5 of the 7 schools are at PAN, the other 2 are over by a few each.

We seem to be stuck in limbo and DC2 is still not in school.

Given all of the above, do we appeal for a closer school now? If yes, how do we pick the closer school to appeal to and is there advice or resources to look at for making a proper appeal?

Good work on getting the Y10 place - that's excellent news!

You can appeal for all the closer schools you want. You don't have to pick a single school. As for how to do it, read the appeal threads on here and ask for advice. There are a number of experts on here who will be happy to help.

Great news about DS1
I would start complaints at the council about incorrect information if you were told he had a place and then ask them to reallocate a place - even if he has a long commute atm and you put your game on every better waiting list - at least he is at school.
I think 48 mins isn’t that huge if he does get in there. I was semi rural and had school provided buses and it took over an hour (to travel about 6 miles into a city). I understand he’ll need public transport but that sort of commute is pretty standard.

Also you might jump up the waiting list at the school DC1 is now at, as DC2 is now a sibling. It's worth checking.

I would also get back to the LA which should sort out if they have awarded you a place that the school says isn't there. The LA can force a full school to take an extra pupil under the fair access protocol.