Relocating back to the UK

[GreenYellowTurtle]

Hi, I'm moving back to the UK on my own with two children, aged 12 and 14, after 12 years of expat living. My budget is around £300,000, for a 3 bed house or flat, but I am free to move anywhere. Although my family all live in the south and near to London. Ideally I am looking for a town in the countryside sort of life (but my kids want shops!) but that also has good secondary schools for my kids. The biggest issue I have is my son who is due to start GCSEs, in September but has only been homeschooling, and may need some help catching up. He was diagnosed with dyslexia, dysgraphia, dyscalculia, hyper mobility, ADHD and sensory disorder. He's not autistic but just needs extra time, blue paper for exams, typing on computer instead of writing etc. Does anyone have any advice or can recommend good secondary schools where they are flexible or can provide more support for kids? Or a nice place for families where we can make new friends. Thanks x

She thinks they are at a very good level for Maths, English and science, but that's only 3/4 subjects. They also did project work around geography in their own time. Ideally I would like them to do 7 GCSEs, but I would need to discuss that with a school and see what they say. It seems to be 9 GCSEs in the UK. My friend has managed to get her daughter out of doing a language GCSE so it might be possible

Maths, English and Science would be 5 or 6 gcses. Do they read widely, have any interest in history, religion or philosophy/ethics? Don't underestimate the social differences between them and their peers in UK, it could take a while to settle and orientate themselves. Have they visited UK for holiday periods?

Children who have been homeschooled often suffer culture shock when they try school.

English secondary mainstream school in particular, if you are joining at a non standard time and they are not coming from another secondary school they are likely to struggle socially.

A lot of the friendship groups will be very well established. There is very little tolerance for students who don't have the right uniform/PE kit on the right day/have not got their pencil case either from the teachers or from the other students.

If your children have never studied any subjects other than maths/english/science they are likely to flounder in a Spanish/history/textiles class.

Are you really sure this is what you want to do? It doesn't sound like they are well-prepared for a range of GCSEs and while secondary schools are sometimes amenable to dropping one or two and letting the student access additional support in maths or English this sounds more like you would want a part time timetable which is going to be much more difficult to arrange.

You might be better off looking into home Ed collectives that you can access. Cambridge, for example, has a strong home Ed community and many classes that you can access.

This might help give you some things to research https://www.senschoolsguide.com/find-sen-schools