I want to move my daughter in year 10?

[milliemac11]

My daughter currently goes to a sate school where she encounters bullying . As a result I have moved so she could apply to another school. She wants to go to private school, which I am willing to pay for but want to know if the following schools will take her.

We've looked at: queens gate
More house
Godolphin and latymer
St james

You have to ask the schools, not Mumsnet.

At this stage, it might be wise to move her down to Year 9.

You think so? Because she is quite bright and gifted for age so holding her back a year maybe not the answer for her. Also, do you think any school would take her?

She is around one-quarter of her way through a two year course. That is pretty hard to make up, even for a clever child who has settling in to deal with too.

If there is a smooth transition between schools (same awarding bodies), then it is easier, but it is hard to see her reaching her potential when moving at this late stage.

She would also have to fit in with established option blocks, rather than getting the relatively free choice she would get in Year 9.

Speak to the schools.

So there is no chance of moving her at all? Even with extra tuition? It's just that at her school she has been beaten up by multiple girls on occasions where her hair has been pulled out and scratches on her face and I'm really afraid to keep her at that school. I just want her out so that she can concentrate in a stable learning environment.e

I would do it, as long as it is in January. Extra tuition if you can afford it might be of some use, but as long as you find her a school with the same options she should be fine.

But there is only a two week holiday? Will a school take me by january?

I feel for you, millie.

I teach in an independent girls' school and we get lots of girls who have been horribly bullied in the state sector. I just want you to know that it is hard moving this far into GCSE courses, although not impossible. You need to be prepared for the difficulties. Of course, these difficulties are small compared to what she will face if she stays where she is.

Year 10 is tricky because the courses are all exam courses. In the case of Science, it is a one year course, so they are already at the half-way point. They may have already done controlled assessments. There will be a question of different awarding bodies, and also the question about the options open to her. Of course a new school will commit to doing controlled assessments with her, even if out of synch, and will patch up differences between the awarding bodies - but it is sub-optimal.

It is worth considering moving her back a year. Just weigh up the pros and cons. It is not an easy decision to make and there is no right or wrong.

The one truth is that you have to get her out of the hell-hole she is in ASAP. Good luck.

As for your initial question about whether a school will take her, many schools have a policy of not after the start of year 10. There will be schools that will take her mid way through year 10, but only if they are confident they can do justice by her and help her reach her potential. Year 9 depends on whether they have spaces; this is not as much of an issue in Y10 as the classes split into option groups, so can remail fairly small.

The schools should have admin staff in for the next week, so do call them. You have nothing to lose.

Thank you for your help in this stressful time, I have spoken to her and she certain that she doesn't want to move back a year. I was wondering whether you could list the schools that would be able to take her in the middle of year 10?

You have to ask the schools yourself.

There is taking her on principle.

Then there is fitting with her option blocks.

Then the courses that she has already been studying and controlled assessments.

It is not an easy question to answer.

Thank you

Move her if you can, but go and visit the schools armed with the details of what GCSE syllabuses she is currently doing, which topics she has covered (if possible), which set books have been chosen (for English) and what controlled assessments have already been done (and predicted scores if you can get hold of them) and take a copy of her latest report and predicted grades. Then talk through in detail what the differences in courses/teaching order are and how they and you might make up the gaps. If the differences are too great then they probably won't take her, but you will probably want to choose the school with the best fit for courses, rather than the one you like best if you see what I mean. Might it be worth looking at other state schools as well as private? I ask as the GCSE syllabuses may be more similar (independents more likely to do iGCSEs for example).

Dd moved school in Oct half term of year 11. We looked around and many schools were ruled out immediately based on too badly incompatible courses, but there were a few feasible options available and we found that some GCSE syllabuses are actually more compatible than they seem at first sight. Even some English controlled assessments are very similar and may be moved across between syllabuses sometimes (the old school can pass completed assessments to the new one and any GCSE modules already sat can also be transferred if the syllabus is the same).

But your dd will need to be prepared to work very hard to catch up. Restarting the year is sometimes a sensible option.

Can you find somewhere doing iGCSEs with much more of the exams at the end rather than modules and assessments?
Clearly a school that tolerates that kind of bullying amongst it's pupils is not somewhere any of us would want our DDs.

@sartail Trust me you wouldn't want your daughter there. She told me they were bullying her because she was too "posh" and up herself. She is a very bright girl and very hard working, which makes it easier for me a parent because I know she's willing to catch up at all costs. Also, she has done her English controlled assessment and is due to do GCSE aqa B1 C1 P1 in January

Should I just wait until sixth form to move her? The thing is I don't want it to get worse

Millie, why do you want to wait until sixth form? Is your daughter safe at school? Is she happy there?

Well it's not that I want her to stay, because of the horrid bullying but I do not want her to have to repeat her year which would put her way behind her year group as she is born on the 5th of october and also, many people are saying that schools will not take her in the middle of the GCSE course, I don't know what to do! HELP PLEASE!

You need to phone each school and talk to them. They will have staff in this coming week, including secretarial staff and some senior management probably.

As glaurung says make sure you have all the info of her current courses at hand.

My school will not take students into Y11 but they do sometimes take a student in the January of Y10. It depends on the fit of courses.

Your DD might not be able to do all her options but a school might be able to help her work around with the main subjects.

However schools might be full so you need to get on the phone today and find out the score.

Moving down a year going into a new school is no big deal. I teach in a school where quite a few Australians arrive or leave and fitting in with their school year means going down is the better option in most cases. Also students arriving in the country for Y11 have to redo Y10 as they are not allowed straight into Y11. It means each year group has a variety of ages. I think it is great that the school can be flexible and do what is right for the child.

It is more important that your daughter enjoys school and achieves her potential than that she rushes through in a particular cohort.

There are more important things about children than their date of manufacture.

Good luck OP.

As she is bright and hard-working, would home education be an option? If she does her own exam preparation, in principle there is a lot of flexibility about which exams to take and when to sit them. Some home ed kids prefer to spread the exams out over a longer period of time, starting at 14 or 15 and working intensively on a few subjects at a time. If she is doing particularly well in a subject she can move on to more advanced study at an earlier age. There are no timetabling issues, no restrictions on which subjects are offered, and no required subjects. That means she can study whatever subjects she wants.

I understand that arranging the exams isn't totally straightforward and requires some legwork. You have to find an exam centre, find a way to get coursework validated (or choose an IGCSE course with no coursework element), and source the study materials. There are certainly costs associated, though those are bound to be much less than sending her to private school. However, IME most families who are determined to make it work can get round all of this.

I just feel that you have to find some way to get her out of the school she is now in. This could be an option worth exploring.

www.nwilts-he.org.uk/he_exams_wiki/

Call the schools and move her asap into somewhere that fits her course choices but be aware ther emay be huge areas she has missed that she will need to cover herself, but must importantly be aware that she has missed areas of the curriculum. Both you and she need to be proactive on this. Schools may well have after school "booster" type classes etc though.

Good luck - mine are at grammar and they wont admit kids into year 10 or 11, even though they do have the occasional leaver.

Well, I have been looking at Queen's gate school and their curriculum is very similar to my daughters school. They use IGCSE edxcel for maths, is that very different from normal edexcel GCSE. Also, they many use IGCSE doesn't that mean that there is less coursework and controlled assessments. My friend who's daughter goes to queen's gate said that a number of girls have left the school last term, would this suggest free places?
I have also looked at more house, but there website doesn't give much depth on their courses.
Another one I have looked at is queen's college, but I am unsure of it's reputation

The only cases I know of where a pupil was moved down to Y9 was a child transferring from another country who had not yet started a GCSE course and had English as a second language. As your daughter is bright she should be able to adjust to a different school and if she is being bullied for wanting to work and get good results then this is definitely a good reason to move her.

Millie, you only really see the damage to their self esteem once they are in a new environment and they are starting to recover. Bullying is truly harmful. Don't delay -- act today :). Good luck!

Difficult.

I would expect choices at trad private secondary schools might limited, not least depending on whether they have spare places, and that your daughter might find subject choice restricted or she might have to repeat a year. However the schools you mention are nice and I have met parents from all who are pleased with them. You might however note that it is not unusual for bright girls from the smaller schools to seek a move at sixth form, especially if they want a wider subject choice or to do science.

An alternative might be to look at the sort of colleges which appeal to London's mobile international community. Britain's Universities and independent sixth forms attract huge numbers of students from abroad, and a significant proportion will be looking for a head start by studying for GCSE in London. A sector that at one time seemed to be the preserve of kids needing to resit, is now catering to a bright eyed, motivated and hard working group from all over the world, and increasingly offering GCSE classes.

One example is Ashbourne International College. The boy we knew there is switched from a non English speaking school environment elsewhere in Europe and heading for an English boarding school and had to work extremely hard to achieve a good batch of GCSEs in a year. Lots of praise for the college and also for its attempts to lay on some extra-curricular on top of a focussed learning environment.

Not what you might have been thinking of, but an alternative to a school where your daughter is not happy. You might find it easier for your daughter to settle where there is not already fixed friendship groups, and a couple of the schools you mention are quite small.

Portland Place has a similar history in that it started offering 11+ education partly to cater for ex-pats arriving with children in those difficult to place years, and will be more "school-like" and there are a surprising number of others.

If you were to decide after talking to the schools that getting GCSE out of the way at a college and then seek a place for sixth form is the most practical approach, the schools themselves might help you identify which of these colleges has a good reputation. They might also advise on whether the most practical solution is to simply grin and bear it for another year and a half, and then switch for sixth form, though you and your daughter would need to judge how damaging that would be.

Good luck. It is so miserable when your child is unhappy, and so important for her to see there is an end in sight.

I've been looking at the schools queen's college, does anyone have any information on it?
I was also looking at more house school, would anyone have any info on that please?