If I pull my dc out for one year in prep will this affect them

[bubblywubbly]

Will it affect their chances of getting into a senior school?
I want to go to a country from one year to help them get a solid foundation in a language. I may or may not home educate depending on how my dc feels about it. It would be year 4. I am concerned that if I pull them out though it would go against them when it comes to senior school applications.

I feel like most of the hard graft work at keeping them at top of their class is happening at home not at school anyway so I'm not worried about them falling behind educationally only that it may be held against them for other reasons.

No, wouldn’t have thought so. I’m not a teacher or working in admissions but a parent. Year 4 should be fine, I had friends take children out to move to Hong Kong, came back, sat CE and no issues with senior school. Another friend took children out for a year while divorce agreement was being hammered out, they rejoined and no issues with senior school. Year 7 and 8 might be an issue. The senior schools were well known big boarding schools in S England.

Thanks @Vegtovictory sounds like it could work ok then. Plan to come back for year 5/6 for CE and see where dc ends up going

Bear in mind there's no guarantee you'll get your place back at the same school, if it's popular / oversubscribed.

All the senior school will really be interested in is how they do in the entrance exam; what they did two years previously will be neither here nor there.

No not at all you just need to watch the application process and need to accept they may be in a different school on return.

I don't think it's that unusual TBH. If you wanted to you could put your DC back into Y4 when you came back and just have them go through a year behind. All but the most competitive 13-18s will be open to this.

Good point re will you get a place back at the same prep or not.

Other than the London-type uber-competitive preps, there are generally spaces and in the current climate schools will find a place if they can! It depends where the OP is.

It's a very popular well known U.K. prep however it's currently definitely not oversubscribed due to covid and I can't help but think this will probably stay in place for a couple of years as they've lost a number of pupils from abroad especially Chinese students. I suppose they could return eventually and they undoubtedly will but perhaps not for year5 to completely fill up spaces currently available, who knows though I suppose.
I am thinking to leave a deposit down for year 5 if the school allow for it but they may not.

@HelloDulling do you know this to be true from your experience? I have spoken to admissions for one senior school and they've said that we needed to be on a prep on their list to consider entry so I am not quite sure if a year out would affect this?

I wouldn't assume a year is long enough to establish a second language especially if you home educate and you are not a native speaker. Many children take a while to settle and naturally tend towards expat (English speaking) activities and friends. Do you have residency or a work opportunity which will provide a visa? The senior school sounds as if it has a specific admissions policy, most are more flexible as long as you keep up with their curriculum.

Thanks @LIZS I should have said I speak the language but have been too lazy to speak it at home and it's gotten to a point that my dc ignores me if I try now so it will be a rather intensive year of learning and it's not so much to become fluent more as to help aid the learning so they hopefully have a good grasp of it (perhaps also an appreciation of its existence and use) and then try to keep it up when back in the U.K. it's also planned for year 4 because I will not be pulling them out of senior school due to the disruption it may cause and I had planned to do it this school year 3, but alas. No chance thanks to covid! Maybe not even be possible for next year but I am hoping.

I hope dc can go to a local school but if it's too difficult to arrange or my dc doesn't want to attend a local school, they will go to clubs and other activities for their age.

I have spoken to admissions for one senior school and they've said that we needed to be on a prep on their list to consider entry

If that's true, it's appalling!

Depends which country and school you go to. And a lot of peeps don't take new children for Y5 or Y6 in London (but if you go slightly out, then you are ok again)

@Dahlietta

I have spoken to admissions for one senior school and they've said that we needed to be on a prep on their list to consider entry

If that's true, it's appalling!

The only time I’ve ever heard senior schools recommend ‘preps on their list’, is when a candidate is coming from a school that ends in year 6 and needs somewhere to complete years 7&8 (and sit 13+ CE), so I’d definitely clarify that. All they mean by preps on their list is, any prep that has sent children to them in the past, no matter how long ago, that will mean probably every prep school in your county (if it’s one of the big senior schools).

Op is your current prep school on their list? Like PP said, senior schools really don’t care what you did in between whilst at prep (don’t forget there will be joining prep school from other schools in yrs 6/7 anyway) all they care about is that you are coming from a recognised prep school.

@Shimy that's not the case here but we did actually move to a prep on their list as a result of the advice.

The advice here is helpful. Even though we ideally want a place for dc in one senior school in particular it's so early to tell where dc will actually end up. I don't want them to be put at a big disadvantage though because of this trip but at the same time I think gaining a good knowledge of culture and language from a year out is useful for life in general.

Then that’s really shocking. Did they explain why?.

I think year 4 it would be fine as they still have 4 prep years. We took one of ours out just for a term (did school work set by school while away). He was behind when he got back. Took about a year to get settled back in and catch up.