Secondary schools in year admission

[Karine12]

Hello all, we have adopted a 15 yrs old girl and she is due to arrive next month in the UK. I have started calling secondary schools this morning to have an idea of availibility and as predicted, most are not able to take her in. I shall carry on but this has been very disheartening so far! Could anyone give me an honest view on Fulham Cross Girls on Munster road and Hurlingham Academy since it changed management a few years ago now? I am keen for her to go attend a girl school. Ideally wanted religious as well but none available. Any thoughts would be much appreciated. Many thanks.

You've adopted a 15yo - wow!
a) Will she be 16 before the end of August?
b) What is her English like?

If so she would be going in to y11 which is obviously hopeless and you need to look at 6th form colleges for Level 2 courses instead.

If she would be going into y10 we are already half way through the school year so GCSE courses would be well underway. I would be speaking to the LAs / schools to see if they would permit dropping down a year and thus y9 entry. (Even them some schools will have started GCSE syllabus in some subjects eg science).

I suspect that unless you can pay for private school, it may be more a point of who will accept and be accommodating of year group, catch up etc, rather than being too fussy on single sex or religious.

Surely home educating her would be better given that she's coming to a new family and new culture.

Thank both for your replies, any help is really appreciated. She is currently in year 10 and is turning 15 end of September. She is coming from Nigeria where they follow the UK curriculum so that will help. English is her first language, she also speaks the local language Yoruba and is quite good in French. Starting after the Easter holiday in year 9 and then start again in year 10 in September was suggested by one of the school I contacted and I agree that this could be one option. Agreed also that I shouldn't be too fussy but hey, we all want the best for our kids right..?? Guilty as charged! We have known her all her life, won't go into details but we are not complete strangers to her, she is well integrated into the whole family already. We really want her to integrate and make as much as friends as possible so getting her into a school is paramount. Although not immediately to give her time to adjust to her new life of course. I will persevere!

I would definitely go for y9 entry if you can.

• It means she won't miss GCSE content for courses starting y10. (NB check, some schools run a complete 3 year GCSE system - try to avoid these schools).
• It also means they can assess her education status and get her into suitable sets for y10
• She can adjust to new surroundings without all the lessons being critical academically

Are you currently a parent / familiar with current (newly changed) GCSE system? If not then the controlled assessments & coursework have pretty much all gone, everything is more or less now back to terminal exams end year 11.

(My adopted DD2 is y9 currently ) .

OP do you know her level of academic attainment? Has she been privately schooled in Nigeria?
The reason I'm asking is that the vast majority of Nigerian schools do not follow the national curriculum (in fact I've not heard of one that does). What is taught and how (and the standard) are very variable - science is often entirely theoretical for example. Even if your daughter has been to a top international school there may be some degrees of adjustment needed for curriculum content. If her school was not so good she may be years behind. Which is not an insurmountable problem but it might change the questions you want to ask a prospective school.

Separate to which -congratulations!

I looked around Fulham Cross Girls school for my daughter this year (she’s year 6) - I was very very impressed by it and the can do attitude of the Head (recently awarded a TES lifetimes achievement award). I have lived in Fulham over 20 years and would say Fulham Cross is better for a girl. I also have a friend whose daughter is there currently year 9 - she’s doing really well there and more importantly is also very happy and confident

Get in touch with Hammersmith and Fulham council about an in year admission. If you look at their guidance notes, they state they give priority to adopted children. Therefore you need to discuss options with them. It’s not a standard admission for your DD.