changing schools in year 10 - advice please

[BillyJoel]

Hello, just a general bit of advice needed please on moving schools in year 10. I need to move back to mainland uk with daughter very soon, and need to know how to least disrupt her education and gcse's next year. She is reasonably hard working and wants to move, is generally doing AQA exam syllabuses. We have no real need to go to a particular town yet as I have yet to find a job. How do i go about moving us with minimum disruption to DD's exam results?
All and any advice welcome.....

Wait until she has done her GCSEs?

I don't really see how you can move her in the middle of her courses without disruption to her results.

You are unlikely to find a school that happens to be doing exactly the same boards & specifications. In some subjects (e.g. Maths) this is not disastrous, but in others (History, English literature) the syllabus may have very little overlap. It may not even be possible to timetable all of the subjects she is currently studying.

If this move is necessary, then it's what you both need to do, but I think that there will be a price to pay with her GCSE results.

Having said that, GCSEs are not the be all and end all. So long as she gets the results she needs to continue with the next stage of her education/training, then all will be well.

Thanks three. Good advice. I guess the sooner the better if at all, and then research very hard the most suitable school. Is it hard to get into anirmal town comprehensive school?

is re-starting year 10 an option? fwiw if she's a summer birthday the age thing would perhaps not matter much?

Quite the opposite, she is a september birthday. Might not be a bad idea starting yr 10 again, if she was prepared to do it. She might have better options for gcses as it is very limited where we are now.

My DCs international school doesn't let students join GCSE classes after January of Year 10, they have to go to the year below. Even joining in January is hard work with catching up.

I think restarting Year 10 is the way to go if you can negotiate it. Or stay where you are for ten months.

It's not impossible if they work hard. We have children with limited/no english starting after the second term and it is difficult for them but they can manage. Try to move her to a school that is using the same exam board. If she is ok with starting year 10 again this may be the better option for her, but it if that would mean going into year 9 again first to finish a year out, she could be bored senseless. I think you need to have a firmer idea of what school she will be going to before you can actually make a decision as to what is best, but for a clever or hardworking child it is certainly not impossible or always even that difficult academically to change schools mid-way. It really depends on the exam board, syllabus and topics being covered and whether the new school will offer all the subjects she is currently taking.

Thanks both. I was wondering how to start my job hunt and finding the right school with a similar curriculum, subjects and course texts is probably the starting point. I ll get her to list them and start from there.
Any other points of view and ideas welcome.

personally I just would not move them in year 10. its not just the exams which would be hard if they do a different exam board in her subjects but also the friendship group thing. 14/15 is quite a tricky age and she might struggle to integrate into friendship groups. either wait until after her exams, many kids change school for year 12 so she is unlikely to be the only newbie or get her to repeat year 10. bear in mind though a lot of schools, ours included start the gcse syllabus now in year 9.

bad time to move if you can possibly avoid it.

Thanks. She is doing AQA Syllabus for many subjects. Is this common?

Would there be any possibility of your daughter staying with friends family for the next 18months until after GCSEs? Probably not. and she's probably miss you which would disrupt GCSEs too.

You may have an issue with controlled assessments - my DD has already done 2 for English, no idea how that works if you move between schools.

AQA is a common exam board in England and you should find plenty of schools using it. The course options are often very similar too between schools because of the availability of good supporting text books. The only issue I ever had with a girl leaving in year 10 was that one subject - History - was not at all compatible (going from Cambridge to AQA exam board) so she just did the History in one year and sat before she left (got an A*). It is not ideal to move a child at this point in their education, but it is not unusual given the fact people do need to move for work etc. Any good school should be able to help transition your child away and, equally, transition your child in. If you also know well in advance which school she is moving too, then she can start on the course work/syllabus before she moves with the support of the staff in her current school. Exam board syllabus are easily downloadable so, as long as you know the specific course options she would do at the new school, there would be nothing to stop her doing some catch up work if necessary before she begins.

DS is Y10, most of his subjects are AQA. However, he is starting to do GCSE assessments in languages and in English lit the teacher decides from a range of different texts, so might be harder to slot in if DD has covered the "wrong" ones for the new school. The other problem is her current school may well teach subjects in a different order than new 1 - so may cover some topics twice and some not at all. Will sort out after a while but she could end up with a lot of catch up to do. Would need a lot of support to help with this or fewer subjects so DD can concentrate on the more important ones and those that map over better.

Re ability to get into a normal comp - it will depend on the size of the year group versus the permitted admissions no (PAN). If they have a space they will admit, but you generally need a UK address that you are living at to apply, so a little chicken and egg. If there is a space you are not going to have much competition though, as very few people move in Y10 or Y11 due to GCSEs. If you have to move look for AQA & large school with a good 6th form, so you have best chance of subject matches and don't need to move her again.

Another option to make things easier could be home education. Some people who have to move around at critical times find that is a good way to deal with it. If the move seems a sure thing and if your dd wants to, she could even leave school right now and start preparing herself for IGCSEs. This can be done independently under her own steam, or with a distance learning provider or tutor. The key to avoiding problems when doing this is to identify in advance an exam centre where she will be able to sit her exams as a private candidate, so she knows which exam syllabus she should be working on. It would be handy to find somewhere near your new home, but you can also travel with her to a centre farther afield if you are willing to do so.

Home educated kids usually don't do large numbers of subjects in parallel over several years in the way schoolchildren do. They more often work intensively on one or two or three subjects at a time, sit the exam, and then move on to the next subjects. So if there is enough time, your daughter could get a few IGCSEs under her belt right now, before moving.

Here is a wiki about sitting exams while being home educated: www.nwilts-he.org.uk/he_exams_wiki

Thanks, this is all very helpful. The transition advice is useful, as well as the HE ideas. I wonder if as he might be able to do couple of gcses early in this school and we could last here until the end of this year. Even if the grades aren't good, at least she would have a coupke of the less easy exams to transition out of the way. For info,she takes maths,3 sciences all studied as one, art, dt, english lit, geog, business studies.
It seems the way forward is to really plan it out subject by subject and make sure that all are covered in some way. Possibly by a bit of home ed, early exams, and good planning with the new and current school. I would like to not have to move but i dont think my job is going to last till summer 2015 and i would rather move her earlier rather than later.

This is all really helpful. Thanks, and do let me know if you have any other thoughts.

I have taught pupils who moved in Years ten and eleven. What I would suggest is that you get ALL coursework, books etc from the old school - if your daughter is going to a good school and is predicted good results then they will want to help and will need as much work and information as you can get them.

Those are not difficult subjects to match - although not all schools offer triple science so check this.