moving from Scotland to England - which year

[saraha321]

Hi. We are moving from Scotland to England this summer. Our daughter is 15 and has just taken her national 5 exams. We were hoping she would be able to go straight onto A-levels in September however we have just been told she will need to go into year 11 and do her GCSEs! Surely this can't be right. She's not 16 until October but this just seems ridiculous. Any help and advice would be greatly received. Thanks

They take GCSEs in the 5th year of secondary school in England

16 in October would be Yr 10 now so Yr 11 in Sept.

Very few schools will let her start GCSEs at that stage. Can you delay the move. Or leave DD with family/friends/boarding?

You cant have a 15 year old starting A-Levels in England, that is the wrong age. She should be in Year 11 doing her GCSEs.

Maybe let her take a year off and then join college when she is older.

Would home educating for a year be helpful or even an option? She could cover the GCSE syllabus for the subjects she plans to take at A level. I would think the jump from Nat5 to A levels would be a big one (Nat5’s to highers is tough enough, and A levels are more like advanced highers). Unfortunately this is a point when jumping between the two systems is really awkward given the different ages exams are taken at.

What does she want to take for a level? Maybe look at past papers for GCSE for that (from last year ideally) and see what sort of standard others would be. Most schools ask for a grade 6-7 to do A level. You can look up mark schemes and grade boundaries to see what she would have achieved. Could she get 6-7? I realise this would be easier to assess if it's maths or MFL but you would get an idea. The purpose of this would be to see if a pp is right and the jump would be big. My dd is just finishing A levels and she found it a big enough jump from GCSE, even English lit which she did as the new, harder one.

I think the idea of a year working on the gaps in her GCSE knowledge is a good one, but where is tricky, I doubt you'll get a school to take her into yr 11.

How odd! I did this many years ago. I sat my o grades and then moved south and went into 6th form to do A levels. I would have been 16 not long after starting 6th form

The problem is that her birthday is in October (ie after 1 September ) - whereas the Scottish cut-off date is the beginning of March (with the flexibility to defer).

If she'd been born in August, she would be expected to go into Y12 and start on her A Levels.

Ds' birthday is in September: he was technically also bang in the middle of his year (in practice, because of deferrals, at the younger end). Did his AHs at 17 (was only 16 at the start of S6, his final year of school) and was 17 when he started Uni (turned 18 after Freshers' Week )

English kids with ds' birthday are in the year below him - the oldest in their year, rather than the middle.