School Exchange

[BudaPesta]

A friend in Germany has asked if I'd be interested in our kids doing an exchange for one term, from September. My daughter will be going into year 10, so starting her GCSE subjects.
In principle, I love the idea of her having such an experience but would it be a bad idea to miss a whole term of GCSE work? She's academically bright though German is not one of her subjects.
I don't even know if it's allowed or the school would accept a foreign student for a term. Just wondering if anyone else has experience of such a scheme with this age group?

A while term in gcse years would be a daft idea... and I expect you'd be told the same by her school. Especially as she isn’t studying German!

Now a few weeks spent abroad during the summer - perhaps they spend the summer together half in each country.... now that would be a great thing for both if their language skills!

Suggest it that your DD goes over after her exams and her DC can come over when works for them?

I can't see this being possible. She would miss too much work. Also I don't think a state school would let another student come in her place like that. Realistically it would have to be a summer holiday thing.

Your daughter would find it hard to catch up if she missed a whole term.
It would be better during the holidays, but I wouldn't send her for such a long time.

A term of year 10 is not worth missing, especially for a subject which she is not studying. Maybe a couple of weeks in Easter or Summer holidays would be a start.

Just to point out that this kind of extended exchange is much more common in Germany than in the UK - in fact a lot of 16-year-olds would go to the US for a school year.
We‘re in Germany and DD1 did a 3-month exchange with a French girl aged 15, and attended the girl’s lycee. It worked well, encouraged her to take French at A-level equivalent, and ultimately lived in France and Belgium. A few weeks wouldn’t have helped her at all - she needed that full immersion for three months to actually absorb the language properly.
It‘s a lot more difficult to integrate a stay of that kind into the British system though…

What a shame it's not possible in term time! I recall, in the early 80s at primary school someone's cousin from
Australia was visiting and he joined our class for a month, just like that!!

Thanks all - I guess it would be disruptive to schooling but it would also be such a rich experience. Seems like it's not really a British thing, my friend in Germany made the request as if it was all quite normal.
I suspect my daughter's school wouldn't be too impressed with the suggestion...

I did a private exchange in the summer holidays between what is now Y12 and 13 - a girl came over to us and then I went back with her to Germany. However it meant we spent about six weeks together which was a lot and it's easy to fall out, so it might be better to split it between summers. It's not as good as a year or even a term, but it is helpful.