Moving abroad with teenagers and declining uk political env

[Spacecow123]

I’ve been wanting to move abroad for a very long time, so long in fact that my kids are now teenagers 16 and 13. I’m now thinking should I just let the dream go or wait till the next point when my eldest is in university and youngest doing level? If we did move would they ultimately need to come back to the UK for uni anyway? I wouldn’t mind the Middle East, Singapore but I feel really stuck now that I didn’t do it earlier and it’s crunch time in terms of majors academic milestones. The declining political environment is also a major factor for me, I always thought the uk was a tolerant place to live but farrage and his cronies lied to us about brexit and now are doing the same thing with reform. Beggars belief, how do people forget so easily? What future will the next generation be living under?

Yeah I'd agree with a Year 9 cut off. We had that deadline, albeit in the end it was brought forward to Year 7 (for oldest) by Covid. I think moving older teens (14+) is tricky, especially if they're not coming into a natural "entry point" at a school or they're not used to frequent moves (moving a 16 year old to Singapore when they've previously lived in 5 other countries and never for more than a few years at a time is different to moving a 16 year old who has always lived in the UK and has a very established life there). I lived in HK for a long time and the newcomers with primary aged kids generally settled quickly - the schools had a fair amount of churn so friendship groups were fluid. By Year 9, it is much more settled - many of the frequent movers go to boarding school in home countries and so for those that remain, who are often either long term expats or not expats, friendship groups solidify and it's harder to break in. It's also harder for parents to broker friendships as parental involvement at school all but disappears.

Agree with the point that moving a child who is used to moving would be very different to a child who has lived in the UK all their lives. some kids are serial expats and that’s their lives, but for others it would be far more daunting.

if It ends up happening for you do your research very carefully about international schools. Some are excellent eg the not-for-profit established British schools (in Singapore Tanglin for example, and also UWCSEA). But some are profit making copies of UK schools which aim for the wealthy Chinese market as their main student population - these schools would be harder for your DC to fit into.