Where to Live?

[MumOfTwoMovingToUK]

We are moving to the UK and working in London. We are looking for recommendation for towns/counties surrounding London (max 90 minute travel time by train) that offer very good state secondary schools for boys and girls. Our children will be in year admissions. Thanks so much

You need to state which train station your office is near and how old your children are and when you are arriving in the U.K.. There are some age groups, ie 5 and 11 when it's very difficult to get a short notice school place.

Thank you so much for replying. My husband will be working in Hammersmith. He is moving in October to find rental accommodation in a county that has good secondary schools e.g. Hertfordshire/Berkshire/Surrey. My daughter will be 15 years old and my son will be 12 years old. My children and I will move at the end of December.
The move is so daunting because we are unfamiliar with the UK. Our idea is to find a recommended county and then to look at schools.

15 is a difficult age to move, will she be year 10 or 11. Either way she would arrive part way through gcse courses. She may not have many choices of subjects and a lot of catching up to do. There are good schools in most areas but these may well not have a vacancy. You cannot apply, and therefore will not find out, until she is resident.

You will be fine in west London, anywhere that is on the tube lines or anywhere on the south west trains line that stops at Wimbledon train station - for example New Malden, Guildford, Woking.
As @LIZS says 15 is a very difficult age in the U.K. school system, you need to speak to someone via your new employer who can explain the U.K. secondary school exam system to you.

Thank you so much for your reply. We are concerned about my daughter. We are hoping that they will accept her into Year 10 because we are arriving from a foreign country and she needs time to prepare for her GCSEs. Her birthday is in August and she is small for her age. Why do you say that she won't have many choices of subjects? I have read up a lot about GCSEs but thought she could choose subjects if a school offered them. Thanks again

Even in year 10 she will have missed the first term of the syllabus in each subject, she won't be retaught the content before she takes the exams as the end of year 11. Schools do enroll students mid year but it's very tricky for the student and the school.

You don't get that much actual choice.
Maths, English literature, English language, Sciences are essentials. Then there is normally a Modern Foreign Language and a Humanity (History or Geography). So you only really end up with 2 actual free options.

Is there anyway you could move over for the start of the academic year. Trying to start in a new country in a new school midway through Y10 will be really hard and a lot of catching up.

Or could your daughter stay in your home country till the following summer and then come over and go straight into 6th form?

If going for the Y10 option, you also need to make sure you only look at schools that do a 2 year GCSE course as a fairly large number do a 3 year course starting in Y9.

Thanks, Ladies. Unfortunately it is too soon to move now to start in September. So our only option is January 2023 to start Term 2 in Year 10. The other option is to not keep her back in Year 10 and then, as you said, move across so that she starts 6th Form in September 2023. I am concerned that 6th Form will be a big jump for her because she missed out on her GCSE years.

Op if your daughter is 15 in August she would be in yr 11 (GCSE year) in December. That’s going to be impossible I would say. Yy is there any way she can stay in the US until she has taken whatever the GCSE equivalent is and then come here in September 2023 for sixth form?

When ppl talk about a limited choice of GCSEs, I think they mean that if you slot in to a year, you have to take the options where there is space or those that fit into the timetable so you may not have the free choice you might have had. And also Yy there are many compulsories so there are only 2-3 choice at all.

Hi op I'd you don't mind me asking, what country are you moving from?

So sorry don’t know why I thought you were coming from the US. I see you don’t say.

Bristol is about an hour and a half train journey from Paddington Station. However you will also need to factor in the walk/drive/cycle/bus/taxi to the station at the Bristol end as there's no underground or tram system in Bristol.

You may need to consider an international private school given the challenges already mentioned for your 15 year old. The American School in Cobham might be a good choice.

Hi OP the issue is that state schools typically don’t take children out of year and even private schools are getting more reluctant, based on my own discussions about DD ( also august born).

where are you now? Do you have any sense of how the curriculums compare in terms of content?

15 is the worst age to move her. Sixth form would be better.

Where are you coming from ? Have your kids been in an international school over there ?

Loads of reasons to wait until sixth form, I'm afraid.

• you may well struggle to find a school that will take her out of year, so she'd be starting Year 11 a few months before exams
• timetables will have been set, for either Y10 or Y11, so she'll have to slot into the subject option combinations available
• you probably won't be able to apply until she's resident (it won't be enough that your husband has already arrived), so it could be a wait before a place comes up
• she'll be moving at a time when very few others will be moving, so she'll be one of very few 'new girls'

Moving at sixth form would be totally different. Loads of pupils move schools for sixth form, both locally and internationally, so it should be much easier to form friendships. If you time it right, she should hopefully have a good choice of schools and subjects.

You say you're worried about her catching up, but many international students come to the UK just for the sixth form and do extremely well, including in very academic schools. Does your daughter have fluent English? Is she at a good school at the moment?

You might find a private school or "crammar"(intensive college) willing to take her out of year but in state schools it is very unusual, takes much negotiating while time is not on your side. As above timetables and class groups will be established even if she were accepted into y10 and not all subjects would be feasible to start mid way through. Some schools start the syllabus in y9 and the groundwork laid in previous years. Has she followed a UK curriculum at all? Does she need EAL support?

Good morning, Ladies

Thank you so much for all of your advice! We are currently living in South Africa. Our schooling is completely different and the school year runs from January to December. The children are in secondary school from the age of 13 turning 14, to 17 turning 18 and it is compulsory education. All children stay in their secondary school from Grade 8 to Grade 12 and they don't move schools unless their parents are transferred or they are not happy at their school.

My daughter is currently halfway through her Grade 9 year at an excellent all girls school. It is equivalent to a UK grammar school. Unfortunately we will not be able to afford an independent school in the UK.

It is so daunting moving her at such an important time of her schooling. My son is a sensitive soul but he is fortunately young enough to move into a school in a lower year group.

Would home schooling for two terms be an option? If she is at a grammar school equivalent and doing well, it may be that she could tackle gcses in English, Maths, science.. especially if you got some help from a tutor. Then she could start sixth form afresh.

You would probably do best to find a SA expat group on Facebook and find someone who has made a similar journey as it's very difficult for your dd to find a state school that will be suitable for her. Maybe you could home school her from Jan-July 2023 and send her to a sixth form college but even for Sept 2023 start the closing date for applications is this Sept 22 (Esher College) and she need to have selected her 3 A levels when making the application.

I’m thinking English Language, Literature might be more difficult.

I’m not sure about in year school entry but I think Hampshire would be a worthwhile county to look at. Basingstoke or winchester. State schools in winchester are very good and I know Henry Beaufort weren’t at maximum capacity in the upper year groups when my last child was there so might be easier than Westgate or kings. Things may have changed since then though.