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Secondary education

Connect with other parents whose children are starting secondary school on this forum.

Missing year 6

16 replies

Treguennec · 20/06/2012 16:21

We are wondering about taking our daughter out of school for year 6 so that we can go and live in India as a family (a country I know well.) She will go to school there but obviously wont be following the national curriculum. She is bright and adaptable.
I wonder what thoughts you have about the possible pros and cons of this? Some have suggested it's a great idea to miss a year when so much of the focus is on SATs. Others that it is too important a chunk of curriculum to miss and she may begin secondary school at a disadvantage. Your advice welcomed - esp from those whose children have gone through year 6.or from teachers.

OP posts:
MothershipG · 20/06/2012 16:32

Sounds like a lovely idea and brilliant life experience...

But (you knew it was coming, didn't you?) what on earth will you do about High School admissions? It really doesn't matter if she doesn't take SATs, apparently a lot of HS reassess on entry anyway, but how will you apply to High Schools if you're out of the country? If you live somewhere where there is pressure for places you'll have a job getting her in anywhere half decent. So I suppose it depends on where you live. I'd have a chat to her teacher and Head teacher and see what they think.

Kez100 · 20/06/2012 17:00

It's the return I would be worried about. Otherwise, what a great experience for her and you all as a family.

hocuspocusherewego · 20/06/2012 20:20

High school admissions can be done online as long as you are returning to your current address. You could probably even apply before you leave so that it is done and you don't forget.

I say go for it, children are adaptable and she will fit back in no problem. Don't worry about the curriculum she will be able to pick up anything she misses pretty easily from a few study books maybe just before she goes back to school. If you ask her current school they can probably give you some work for the following year

notheroldie · 20/06/2012 20:35

I took DS out of school for the whole of yr 6. We went travelling it was brilliant. We applied for his secondary school place before we left and off we went.
He had no formal schooling while we were away, we did take a few maths and english exercise books to do, but he did very little!!

It was the best year for him! He wasnt very keen at school work and the year out doing things at his pace and learning so many fantastic things while we travelled, he learnt far more than he could've done stuck in a classroom. He started to read books which was amazing. He wasnt interested before then found a book he loved and didnt stop!
Life experiences are so beneficial to a young person, emotionally, socially and everything else!

When he started at secondary school as he hadn't taken his SATS (he wasn't the only one who hadn't), he got put in a general 'set' then got moved up or down according to how did coped with the school work. He was fine, still got his 8 GCSEs (or whatever they are) and unlike everyone else a bloody amazing time travelling!

Good luck , got for it and love every minute, think of it as the best kind of education you can give anyone. :)

sashh · 21/06/2012 04:12

Go for it, education is more than tests and classrooms.

boomting · 21/06/2012 18:34

What sort of school would she be attending in India? Perhaps it would be a good compromise to send her to a British international day school there, so that she's still covered roughly the same work as other children have? This is less important with subjects (such as history) that can be learnt in 'chunks', but more important where the subject builds on previous knowledge, e.g. maths and languages.

castlesintheair · 21/06/2012 18:42

It's something we are thinking about doing but only to France. You can apply to schools from abroad. One of the ones we are thinking of sitting DS for (private) said they will post the entrance exam to him and he can sit it from wherever he is and if he gets in they can always defer a place for when we come back (if). I would definitely go for it. It's something your DD will remember far more about than Year 6 in a classroom. As someone else said, education is far more than SATS and school.

Yellowtip · 21/06/2012 18:53

My niece did took Y6 out to travel around the world with my sister and BIL. No problems.

Yellowtip · 21/06/2012 18:54

My niece took!

Treguennec · 22/06/2012 08:10

thanks for all your replies ! it wouldnt be an international school! it would be a very traditional english-medium Indian school and from my earlier experience as a volunteer teacher in India it would be a fairly unimaginative education - rote learning et al. I would probably negotiate a half term place and do home ed (for which read - life!) some of the time. long vacations for travel would be when the learning gets done. I suppose my main concern has been whether she starts high school at a disadvantage.
tbh i am so sick of her gyrating to pop videos in UK i'd take her anywhere to get her away from that! She'd soon get the message that that's not appropriate in India! Please keep your thoughts coming.

OP posts:
Annunziata · 22/06/2012 10:26
Hmm

Don't let her watch music videos then! You don't need to move to India to let her know 'gyrating' is inappropriate.

titchy · 22/06/2012 10:36

Agree with Annunziata Hmm Who's the parent here? Plus as soon as she returns to England she'll be gyrating away (ew!) - peer pressure gets harder to resist not easier.

However it does sound a fantastic idea! However make sure your LEA is OK with the address issue. You could well return and find yourself with no school place at all - or at least not once in a decent school.

TheOriginalSteamingNit · 22/06/2012 10:39

But... Year six is a lovely year, and a lot of important memories and bonding go on, IME. Your daughter might be sorry to miss that.

Copthallresident · 22/06/2012 11:15

My daughters more than made up for what they missed not being at school in the UK by the stimulation they got from living elsewhere, though they were at an International School. We came back from living overseas for Year 7 and the only problem has been that both my daughters can find their peers a bit narrow minded, obviously they learnt about other cultures but they also developed an empathy that applies to people from different social backgrounds as well. They have both ended up with their closest relationships being with other girls who have lived abroad or are of a different cultural background. Definitely a way of innoculating them from wanting to be one of the cool crowd!

And there are lots of workbooks that cover the Year 6 Curriculum to make sure she doesn't have to catch up when she gets back, but most secondary schools will do quite a bit of consolodation in Year 7. I found it very hard to get my daughter to focus on calculating the area of a football field when the sun was shining and we could hear the sounds of the adventure that was always waiting outside our door! You could ask the school she will most likely return to, if they are open minded they will be supportive because they will want the benefit of her experiences in classroom discussion. That was certainly the case with DDs school.

Putting children into local schools always seems to be very traumatic though. It takes a long time for children to adapt to the different norms and they can be miserable and feel excluded for quite a while, friends have had that experience even when the cultural differences are only slight eg French Schools (although given the values that govern the French education system perhaps "slight" is debatable!) and certainly when the culture is very different. In the case of where we lived there was the same emphasis on rote learning, which was a shock in itself, but also fierce competition. I suppose it depends on whether her peers in the new school will welcome her or see her as competition / different, you obviously know the school and it's ethos?

However you will need to check what the LA policy is on admissions. Our LA would only accept an application when we were back physically living at our address and could produce electricity bills in our name, even though we owned our house, could prove we were returning etc. By that time they were offering us a school miles away, god knows how many buses it would have taken! The state selectives wouldn't allow us to sit exams overseas either. Places did come up in the very oversubscribed local schools ( coed and single sex non selectives) either when the term started or within a matter of weeks but we lived close enough to go straight to the top of the waiting list. It is hard on a child to make them live with that level of uncertainty though and DD insisted on applying to very selective private schools not least because they went out of their way to tell her how much they would value her experiences overseas and facilitate her application, she sat the exams in her school overseas and they timed the interviews to suit us.

Copthallresident · 22/06/2012 11:23

And good luck and enjoy! It was a great family bonding experience, we now have to have our "fixes" of culture, food and travel, the girls favourite family outings are to go somewhere we can feel in a minority again!

GnomeDePlume · 22/06/2012 13:58

We moved back to the UK as DD1 went into year 6. Before this she had spent 5 years in NL with all her schooling in Dutch.

Of course there were problems from time to time as DD1 adapted however I think this very much depends on the child. DD1 is a very even sort of person and adapts well to change.

The school in NL welcomed us with open arms. Sadly, not so in the UK. The DCs were very much left to sink or swim. DD1 & 2 swam, DS sank for a while (a place in hell is reserved for his first UK primary school teacher).

Dont assume that schools will be welcoming on your return.

I'm not saying dont do it, just do it with your eyes open!

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