Help! Moving back to UK Education System (from Australia)

[LondonLauren19]

Hello,

First time posting here so hope I don't make any faux pas!

Looks like a lot of people here have relocated back and forth to the UK so hopefully someone has had the same challenge we are facing...

We are about to relocate to Australia for 2.5 years and we are concerned about eduction upon our return for our eldest child. The choices we make when arriving in Australia could have a knock on effect.

This is because our son is born at the end of August and is in Year 3 in the UK, and is currently the youngest in his class, aged 7.

In Australia the school year starts at the end of January so he would either go into:

• Year 3, which would mean other children in his class potentially 1.5 years older giving us concerns regarding his maturity and ability to socialise or form friendships. However he would be a term ahead...

or

• Year 2, which would mean he would go back 1.5 years and might be bored and unstimmulated potentially resulting in behavioural issues

The first thing we're trying to get our heads around is if we are only going for 2.5 years should we aim to keep him at the same level in Year 3?

Then coming back to the UK:

• If we managed to keep him in Year 3 in Australia then he would go back into the same year in the UK, hopefully in the same school with the same friends, yay!

or

• If in Australia we were forced to put him down to Year 2 then coming back he would now be a year behind and in the year below all his friends.

Our concern is that if he comes back in a lower year this will have a psychological and mental impact on him seeing his friends now in the year above?

We'd love to get your ideas if you've been in a similar situation as this conundrum has been going round and round in our head for weeks now

Thank you!!

Lauren

Our dc came back from Latin America with a skipped year ( because they start a year later there) we weren't allowed to put dc in the equivalent school year even though they are late August born. So they ended up being the youngest in their class and having missed a year of school. They just missed year 2 of school, it wasn't great but school wouldn't budge.

Back in the UK he would be put into the year appropriate to his age, regardless of where he had been in Australia.

@NannyR has managed to put very clearly what I was trying to say.
This is what happened to us and DC lost a year of schooling which was hard at the time.
In the end we got a fantastic tutor and they caught up but we waited too long to do that.

If it's a state school in the UK, I don't think whatever year he is in in Australia will affect the years he gets out in to when he comes back to the UK. The UK works on age. Unless you have a very strong arguement otherwise and the school/LEA agree with you, he will be put back in to the correct year for his age. So with his current friends if it's the same school.

Thanks everyone, really appreciate the feedback.

That makes sense that upon return he would go back into exactly the same year as before based on his age.

@dreichwinter how was missing a school year? Did you use tutoring or did your dc naturally catch up?

In the end we used a tutor, we waited too long to do that though.
If we did it again I would start with one as soon as we got back.
It wasn't helpful that we also switched languages and teaching methods!
( we are overseas again but in a British school to prevent these issues)

Can you find typical curriculums for the state you will be living in? Compare the things they learn with what he can do already? Maths is one of the hardest to shift curriculums in, imo. Although the geography and history subjects are completely different, they dont build on previous knowledge in quite the same way.
If he isnt struggling with the work currently in the UK, I'd go for the higher year. If he's struggling, go for the lower year, and deal with the UK side when you come home.

It's not necessarily the academics that our new English primary comment on but the different prospective and confidence that the boys have. He will learn so much more than just the school work by being abroad for a couple of years.