US Middle School to UK Secondary School

[Spree]

Hi

Not sure if I should be posting this here or in the Living Overseas section. My DS is in Yr6 at a British International school (we live abroad). Next September, he will move to secondary school and I had hoped we would be back in the UK for this but it doesn't look like it's happening (yet).

We have an American curriculum school very near us so he could go into Middle School (but in a different system) or he could go a British curriculum International School a bit further away.

I have visited both schools and prefer the American school but I am worried about the differences in curriculum and how DS will fit back into a UK curriculum when we move back (probably in a couple of years). It is likely that he will go a selective grammar school in the UK when we return.

I'd like to hear from anyone whose children have moved from US Middle School to UK curriculum and whether there were gaps, if they were behind etc as this would really help me decide.

Thanks

I strangely have knowledge of both the US system and the NI grammar schools. I strongly advise that you stay out of the US system. It lacks the rigour that you will find in the NI system which still has emphasis on discipline and hard work. Look at any University entrance statistics and you will see that even some secondary schools in NI perform favourably.
It will be hard for your child to make the transition for social reasons alone without making it harder for academic ones.

I agree with Amerryscot's assessment of the science aspect of US middle school curriculum and with 7to25's take on the NI system, which is a different kettle of fish from the rest of the UK.

Geography isn't taught as a separate subject but instead incorporated into both social studies and biology/earth science, where it is really only briefly treated.

my sister and i went from uk to the us for ages 8-11 (me) and 10-14 (her), when we came back the uk I went straight into 1st yr secondary with no problems at all. She however went straight into her first year of O levels and struggled quite a bit with the transition. She did fine though all the same.

7to25 - So glad to hear from you. I only have knowledge of the NI grammar schools but not of the US system and I am aware that NI grammar is rigorous which is why I started this thread... just to see if it would be a feasible move. Thanks for your input.

Also thanks to the posters who raised the admissions criteria, I know the Yr7 (Yr8 in NI) criteria but will check for the later years now.

MFL = modern foreign language
modules = many GCSEs are taken in chunks - this gives the chance to retake which the Govt does not like so the talk is that it is being phased out.
Agree with the above posters that you need to speak to some of the grammar schools you are interested in about how many places they have out of the standard admission time and their policy for admissions.

Take a look at private schools in NI too.

Hi, I'm only 16 but I really do hope this will help, as I'm still struggling with the problem between American and British secondary education systems. I grew up in a small town in America, and I was a relatively high achiever, receving all As until I had to move to England in the middle of my freshman year. I went into Year 9, and I found it appalling how little British pupils were taught (at a relatively good state school in London). However, I completed my GCSEs and then had to move back to the US. I am now a junior in high school.

Having experienced both education systems, I can say that British education tends to get very rigorous in the last two years of school (A levels), and probably more rigorous than high school. However, aside from the academics, I personally find the British education system values understanding and depth of knowledge. In American high school, it is all about grades and points and extra credit, whereas the essays which take up most exams in the UK test actual understanding and depth of knowledge. Your child, I feel, will have more of an opportunity to be a free thinker in the British education system.

never understood the names of american grades thing
what grade is freshman , junior and sophmore ?

Freshman = 9th grade, 1st year of high school (same age as Year 10)
Sophomore = 10th grade
Junior = 11th grade
Senior = 12th and final grade.

thanks

Then you start in university and go through the whole freshman, sophomore, junior and senior thing all over again...

Stick witht he British system. A US HS diploma is roughly equivelant to 5 GCSEs, at US universites students with A Levels skip the 101 college courses.

That's a bit unfair. While a high school diploma is closer to GCSEs than it is to A-levels, I would give it the full range that students here do, ie 9 or 10 subjects, not just the five headline subjects.

I would imagine that an internationally mobile student would, had they stayed within the US system, just gone for the high school diploma. They would surely do AP courses, which would bring them into line with A-levels.

*not just have gone for the diploma.

The DDs are in an American school. I think the curriculum is pretty rigorous (but they tend to kick out non-achievers before high school to keep their results up), and also like the breadth of it. They do IB or AP at 18 - just the high school diploma is not an option. As well as Ivy League, they also get a significant number into UK universities - last year Oxford, Cambridge and LSE featured in the list as well as other RG universities. So I think it depends on the school, as much as the system.

And joining from a UK primary school, both were behind in maths, and had a significant amount of work to do to catch up - eg they were expected to have known all of their tables up to 12 x, multiplying and dividing, by the first term of year 4 equivalent - DD2 was still fannying about with 3x and 4x in the UK.

True about the AP courses, and even true about honours courses. The HS the oldest DCs went to also sends a fair few every year to Oxbridge, Univ of London, St Andrews, a few RGs, Heidelberg, Sorbonne, Univ of Toronto, McGill, and also the Ivy League, leading midwest and west coast universities, etc. Students were very rigorously streamed through the four years of high school and the number of courses available was staggering (200 plus available so everyone, even the least academically inclined, came out prepared for something by age 18).

They were expected to have the basics of arithmetic down by the end of 3rd grade including long division and multiplication (age 8-9), do fractions, percentages, ratio, etc., in 4th grade, and moved on to pre-algebra concepts in 5th in the parish school they attended. They had the groundwork laid for a serious run at algebra by the end of 6th grade.

That's exactly my experience of the math(s), Mathanxiety, with the pre-algebra and algebra, and the standards expected by the end of 3rd grade.