Telling school we are moving abroad

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My daughter is in Year 8 in her Secondary School and I am about to tell them we are relocating to South America.

I need to request her records from the school which I can pass to the new school but just read online that she needs to be enrolled in the new school within 12 weeks of leaving UK otherwise she will be treated as a child missing education. She would be going to a private school but she needs a few months first to study the new language before joining school so I am a bit worried. Has anyone had any such experience? She is also a citizen of the new country we are moving too so she has double citizenship. Why so many rules and regulations? My plan was for her to study the language for at least 6 months and then join school.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks

I think that would be better, my kids did have language lessons after school, but nothing really compares to being with their peers. I know it is different being in a large city to small towns and my daughter was always very much a part of the international community. My son, however, only had local friends and his Portuguese came on quickly and is still really amazing (we left a long time ago) I think you may be pleasantly surprised.

Yesterday we started a Semantica Brazilian Portuguese course online and it's really really good. It will help me and her learn loads before we even get there.

I'm scared and excited at the same time but my heart says it's the right decision for us.

my heart says it's the right decision for us

Then every step in the right direction will get you there. See yourselves as a team. I think Candyflip is right and the immersion in Portuguese will be the quickest way for your daughter to learn Portuguese. Are you fluent? You need plans for you too.

I’m strangely excited for you. Takes me back to our own move but not a new language for us. Having said that I’ve taken a basic Te Reo Maori course and am trying to remember what I’ve been taught.

Oh i need plans for myself too. I only speak basic Portuguese as well so we are both in the same boat :D

You have all given me hope and made me more positive with all your messages so thank you. You always worry and think what if it doesn't work out!

Good luck with your adventure!

When we moved overseas we just filled out the forms to say that we were moving, gave the reason as "overseas move" and that was it. Once you leave the UK you aren't covered by the UK laws regarding education for your DC, though you will be for the country you are moving to (if they have one - it's very strict here about school attendance, can't leave the country without permission from the education ministry during term-time )

We did this. You do need records from the UK and you're going to have to pay a translator here in Brazil. We're in a different state but Brazil requires results every semester. My children had to take entrance exams to place them in the system, it took a while and lots of phone calls to the education department to discover this, so tell the school this to save yourself some time. The school also has translated copies of their school reports. They were not really happy with this as there are no grades. National curriculum grades don't really translate well. We're still smoothing it out, but at least they're in school.

Your daughter with be in 8° Ano, going into 9° ano in February. We've lived in a big city and a small town, I would pick a small town. There's some really good private schools in small towns. Do some research, look at how the schools did in the ENEM last year, also look at the system they use. Some are really really good and others less so. The systems that I think are good are Bernoulli, Positivo, Objetivo and Anglo. My children's school recently changed from Positivo to Bernoulli and it's much better. Small town life for Brazilian teens is really good, my 14 year old is free to ride his bike around, go out for burgers or pizza with his friends or hang out at the sports club. In big cities you'll be a taxi and worry more about crime.

Also my children didn't speak a word of Portuguese when we came, my 12 year old just got 100% in her last Portuguese exam. So that's no problem and they've never repeated the year, which can be a worry until they are more competent in the language. Private schools are usually more accommodating with students from abroad.

Good luck, PM if you have questions, I'm happy to help. We've been here 5 years now.

Hi ladies,
I’m living in UK with my family for the past 2 years. I have a 9 year old daughter who is in year 5 in one of the girls only private school. She has been struggling to fit in there despite of having good hold on English language and her inherent smart nature. Now we see her loosing her confidence day by day because of mental bullying by other girls in school. I have seen myself other girls in her own class treating her badly. All the girls in her class are either pure Brits or Indian origin Brits. They seem to be so cold and distant and at times rude towards her. We approached the school for help and they send my daughter to counselling sessions instead of advicing other girls. My daughter is very sensitive and is not brave enough to react to the mental/ passive / often aggressive torture by herself and this had shattered her confidence level.

We really want to try sending her to state schools because we hope the environment and students to be more inclusive. But my daughter is so scared to change because her experiences and she believe all the girls are mean and rude here.
If you are a mom of 10-14 year oils, Will you be please able to share your/ your daughters experiences in state secondary schools? Do they feel respected and confident? Can a sensitive girl survive in state schools? Do they have good friends? Do they face any kind of racism?

Thank you for all your upcoming suggestions.
Will be grateful for this forever.

Kind regards,
tulsininuk