Need Schools Recommendations

[flg728]

We are making a permanent move to London and will NOT have an expat package. We are looking for a school for our current freshman daughter. We don't even know where to start or where we are going to live. Hampstead and Victoria Park/Hackney are locations that have been suggested. We prefer not to pay high tuition fees but understand we might not have much of a choice. Have been in contact with Dwight London - any reviews? HELP lol??.

Sorry if this should be obvious, but how old is your daughter? Am I right in thinking a high school freshman is about 14?

Yes, sorry! She is 14 but will be 15 when we move. Our move is scheduled for June 2016 and not an expat package. My husband and daughter both have German passports. Sadly my daughter's German is not strong enough for the The German School in Richmond. Thanks for any and all info!

Sorry, no suggestions, but unfortunately you will be moving at a really tricky time for your daughter. She would go into Year 10, almost at the end of the academic year, which in most cases will mean that she has missed half of the teaching time/course content for GCSEs (national exams). Some schools start teaching these in Year 9. If you are looking at fee paying schools, you might want to see if they would consider moving her down a year group. This is in practice not really an option in state funded schools.

Assuming that by We prefer not to pay high tuition fees you mean you are prepared to pay some fees it's perhaps a pity you couldn't have sent her ahead to start now. 15 is, as pointed out above, a particularly awkward time to move schools in the UK.

Have you considered using an educational consultant?

Yes, a very tricky time to move if she were to go to a school with a GCSE curriculum, the standard system in England & Wales involving external exams at 16 followed by more advanced exams in fewer subjects for the final two years of school. Her contemporaries will be taking their GCSE exams in summer 2017, but as has been pointed out they have already started the courses leading to them.

The alternative (which you may have in mind) is to bypass GCSE by attending a school offering an alternative curriculum - either an American high school curriculum, offered for example at the American School in London, or an International Baccalaureate programme which some schools offer in the middle as well as the higher years.

Perhaps in the first instance it would be worth your while having a look at the websites of the main Anglophone international schools in and around London, and also what the Good Schools Guide says about them? E.g.

American School in London: www.asl.org
TASIS: The American School in England: www.tasisengland.org
International Community School: www.icschool.co.uk
International School of London: www.ISLLondon.org
Marymount International School: www.marymountlondon.com
Good Schools Guide: www.goodschoolsguide.co.uk

Those are just off the top of my head and no doubt there will be other options. Unfortunately fees tend to be high in the international sector, no doubt supported in many cases by expat packages which I know you will not have.

I see you have already been in touch with Dwight School London, another one offering International Baccalaureate (IB) in the middle and higher years. The Good Schools Guide also includes a review of that school which may be of interest.

As we are moving next week I realized I never came back to this thread! Thank you all for the info. We decided on Dwight and are so happy with the decision.

Hi flg728, I have been looking at Dwight for my 15 year old son. We won't have an expat package either, and he would be starting in Fall 2017 - he's finishing his Freshman year here in Chicago. Could I trouble you for an update? Thank you :)

ChicagoMk, unless the OP became a MN regular she may not see this. If you don't get a reply maybe start a new thread with Dwight in the title to attract anyone else in the know? Good luck.

Will do Blu, thanks!