Entering British school system after moving from abroad

[Galmik]

I am looking for some advice from anyone with suggestions or similar experience. We have been living abroad for a long time, and my daughter is currently in 6th grade (born in December 2013). We are planing to move back to UK in a few years (we are citizens). One option is to wait for her to finish "middle school" here (8th grade). I assume that in that case she would start 9th grade in the UK. Alternatively, we can move in two years time, after she finishes 7th grade here. In that case we can perhaps consider having her start from 7th grade in the UK. I think that might make the transfer easier on her, even though she would not be with her cohort. For work related reasons we cannot move before she finishes 7th grade. So I guess my questions is: Should she just start from grade 9 with her cohort, or should we consider moving earlier and have her start from grade 7, effectively loosing a year? How hard would be it to adapt if she starts at grade 9?

Her English is good, even though not native level: she might have a bit difficulty with English subject, but I am sure that other subjects would be fine.

Also, another thing to keep in mind is that since we will not have an address in UK until about 2-3 months before our arrival, we will not be able to apply to middle schools 11 months ahead. We are not considering private schools.

To answer a few questions raised:

• We live in Turkey.
• Here grades 1-4 is elementary, 5-8 middle school, and 9-12 is highschool.
• My daughter is now 10, will be 11 in December. She is in 6th grade. I think in UK she would have been in year 6 as well at this time.
• Hence, if we were to stay here till she finishes grade 8, that will allow her to "graduate" middle school with her friends here. Kids here then move on to different high schools depending on their academic success, interest, private/public, etc. Moving on to a different school, getting "new" friends, etc., is a "rite of passage" at that point. Moving earlier would be a bit more problematic from that point of view.
• We are planing on moving to England, probably Cambridge.
• Language wise, at this time she is B2 in speaking and listening, and B1 in writing and reading. Her current school has very intensive english program (12 hours a week), but all other classes are in Turkish. It is NOT an international/British school. I am confident that by the time we move she will be in B2-C1 range, which is good enough even for University education in UK.
• I appologise for not being familiar with the system(s) in the UK.

I want to thank everyone for their suggestions and comments. As I understand from your comments, the main problem with moving to start year 9 in England would be getting the hang of everytihng in time to pick GCSE's, but not impossible. And as far as I understand, we do not really have an option to "ask" to start in year 7 (effectivaly repeating a year), if we move after she completed grade 7 here (she would be age 12 at that point). Since we cannot move earlier, that means that end of her grade 8 would make more sense, so that she can start 9 in England. Issue with finding a place: nothing really we can do. We cannot rent 10 month in advance of being able to move, it makes no financial sense. I guess we can just hope to be lucky.

Anything else I am missing?

Where are going to live in the UK?

Probably Cambridge

Perhaps there are Mumsnetters on here who live in the area and can advise.

Lots of schools start teaching some GCSE curriculum in y9 and some schools even start slimming down the GCSE options at this stage too. So kids choose in y8.

@Galmik, why would it make more sense for her to start in year 9 than year 8? Better to have a year to settle in before starting GCSEs.

She'd be in year 6 if she were here (last year of primary school). You would be best advised to get her into a UK secondary school within the next two year period as the GCSE exam syllabuses start in year 10 and some schools start the material in year 9 (that's age 13-14 e.g. the year your daughter will turn 14).

Cambridge is very tight on school places (population growth). This needs careful planning.

I'm a Cambridge parent and know quite a lot of the schools. Happy to help if I can.

I would say ideally you would move at the end of year 6, so when she is 11 by August 31. If you can't do that I would do it the year or two years after that as some schools here do start their GCSE options in year 9.

Quite a lot of schools are oversubscribed so you may not get a lot of choice in where you get a place.

This is helpful additional information. Yes, it sounds like Turkish grades and English school years are the same. She would be in her last year of Primary school in the UK. Starting here in Y9 is a good idea, as it gives her a year to get settled before GCSEs start, but if you were delayed by a year it would not be a problem, as long as you work on improving her English before she gets here. Y9 would be ideal.

Even though schools start the gcse style syllabus in Y9 they should not make children choose GCSEs before the end of Y9 for timetabling in Y10. GCSEs are a KS4 qualification and KS3 children are meant to have a more wholistic exposure to a wider range of subjects before making their GCSE options. Treating GCSEs as three year courses that force 12-13 year olds in Y8 to make subject choices is extremely bad practice and schools should be pulled up for it.

That's an opinion. There are several schools round here where the children make their choices in the summer term of year 8 ready to start the options in year 9. One school recently went back the other way and now make the options in year 9 for year 10 but for many years they did it earlier.

I wouldn’t prioritise her ‘graduating’ from her current school in turkey. Sorry to be dismissive, I know this would be a big deal for her.

You ideally want her starting secondary school with her cohort next September, to allow a couple of years to get settled in and get the English up to fluent level.

Some schools will start GCSE content in year 9. Her joining in year 8 is not setting her up for success.

The thing is, some schools do ask children to make choices for Y9 - or even earlier. For example, a school offering a choice of languages may start with 1 then add a second in Y8 (with there being a choice of language B or C or some children directed towards SEN support at that point). It’s not so much a ‘narrowing’ as ‘giving a choice between 2 equal extras’.

There was a fashion for it after the Gove modifications to GCSEs, because schools worried about how to fit more content in. However, it isn’t an opinion. GCSEs are specifically a KS4 qualification. Schools relying on curriculum content covered in Y9 (KS3) three years before the exams are going against exam board guidelines and disadvantaging their pupils. They can, instead, be introducing children to GCSE style assessment, but KS3 children are meant to have a broader education, before making GCSE choices when they have the experience and maturity to do so. Any school that has not reined in the post-Gove shift to Y8 options should be challenged by parents, as it is bad practice.

Ofsted has come down HARD on 3 year GCSE courses in schools, as too many schools were gaming the league tables by narrowing each child’s curriculum towards 8 or 9 GCSEs, intensively coached over 3 years.

A choice between second MFLs in Y8 is fine. Starting the GCSE Science curriculum or one GCSE English text for all students in Y9 is OK. Asking students to drop all but their GCSE subjects only 2 years into secondary school - not ok.

In all honesty I would try and get her into the school system as soon as you can. It will be an in year transfer so you need to take whatever place you can get. The city itself is very expensive but there's more affordability in some villages and the rural schools may be easier to get a place. The younger she is the easier the transfer

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/school-inspection-handbook-eif/school-inspection-handbook-for-september-2023#evaluating-the-curriculum

In particular If a school has shortened key stage 3, inspectors will look for evidence that the school has made provision to ensure that pupils still have the opportunity to study a broad range of subjects, commensurate with the national curriculum, in Years 7 to 9.

In practice, this means that the vast majority of schools now run normal 2 year GCSE courses after choices made towards the end of Y9. Those that still do not (may be historic ‘outstanding’ schools who have not kept up with changes) will need a good reason to justify a 3 year GCSE course.

If you were to move for year 7, you would need to be applying this autumn. If cambridge or even cambridgeshire, I would look on the website now and look at the school place movement. I would also email admissions and ask them. I would also think about moving for year 8. It would be wise to have 2 years settling in and language familiarity before starting gcses.

Echoing other posters and having seen a lot of international pupils make the transition, absolutely don’t wait until y9 to move her. It’s far too late especially if she’s not fully fluent to native level in English. It’s way too late. And it makes no sense to prioritise a rite of passage for a country that she won’t be living in!

Move her as early as possible. And between now and then focus a huge amount of energy on her English language skills to enable her to start a bit further ahead on that journey.

Nevertheless it is happening!

I agree with many people here @Galmik - the earlier you can move her, the better.

I do see why you want her to "graduate" from her current school with her peers, but you need to look forward to what lies ahead. The sooner she is settled into a school in England, learning the curriculum, maybe picking up new subjects and ways of working, improving her English, the better for her long-term prospects.

Yes Ofsted do not like schools choosing GCSEs in year 8 and starting in yr 9 - I'm not a fan of it at all myself - but it does happen, and even if it's not as big as choosing all options, a lot of schools have DC dropping a creative, or an MFL, or choosing a preferred humanity. And even if the school you end up in doesn't do this, it's surely best to be there, working towards the GCSE curriculum, which in many subjects is linear so it does in effect start in KS3 (or even earlier) - maths, English, MFL, science - as soon as possible.

I would say if you could possibly move in summer 2025 - she would start in year 7 though you would not get the same preference options as those applying this autumn. Failing that I would be keen to get her into a school for the start of year 8 which for her would be September 2026.

The housing and schooling situation in Cambridge is expensive/oversubscribed and only going to get more expensive and more competitive (due to vat on fees pushing more parents into state sector in year 7 and expansion of housing in Cambridge attracting families to the area). I would investigate housing and move as soon as you can.

July 2026 is the earliest we can make this move, due to my and my husband's work obligations. So year 8 for her.

In which case you have almost two years to get her ready linguistically, academically and culturally. It’s doable if you put your mind to it.

I can’t comment on getting her into a school except to say that when we came home from being expats in Asia we ended up having to go private even in Y2 because the school places offered in the state system on an in year application didn’t work for us at all. The school offered by the time we had an address for application was a very long journey away and not workable given our circumstances.