Moving from US High School to UK Secondary

[tropicaltailwind]

Can British expat kids currently in US High School system successfully transfer to UK Secondary School for A levels?

My family are UK citizens in British Overseas Territory - DS is 12/13, currently in small private US-system High School for ADHD/autistic/gifted/other neurodivergencies kids.

At some point we will move back to UK.
I would like help understanding how it works/if it’s possible to start A levels if he has no GCSEs.
What alternatives to A levels are there for students educated abroad?

He’s been in a UK-curriculum inclusive mainstream School from Y3 to Y7 but moved to the US-curriculum school for what would be UK Y8 (7th Grade) as the previous school only goes up to Y7.

If accessing A levels without GCSEs in the UK is really tough we will need to move back to UK sooner than planned, which will be v tricky. Thanks for any advice.

(I originally posted in Chat and then found this forum after I’d posted)

UK, there are education departments in England, Scotland and Wales which have slight differences. Could you state the area you may be moving back to such as Manchester, London, Kent? You will get better suggestions that way. Also, private, state or both for applications?

Thinking longer term it will be trickier to get further in education or work in UK without English and Maths gcse passes.

I think you have 2 issues. Your child is unlikely to walk into a specialist school unless you have £££ to fund it yourself. Schools like the one your child is at, are few and far between. They are also expensive unless you have an EHCP and the local authority agrees to fund it.

The other is yes, it'll be extremely difficult to access A Level content from the US curriculum, unless your child is used to AP level work. Roughly speaking, the US high school diploma is equivalent to GCSEs. A Levels are very advanced. English universities expect a high level of knowledge and are 3 years, not 4. There's no spare year for gen ed classes like the US has.

Depending on where you intend to live there are schools which follow the America route? Obviously they are private rather than state.

You might be able to access college? They often do 3 years - for certain courses? I think secondary state schools maybe slightly harder without GCSE?

You can go to a school that offers IB, no need for GCSEs then and IB continues with English and maths, up to an effectively higher level than GCSEs. IB is accepted by U.K. universities, plus universities abroad, including US, and covers 6 subjects. 3 subjects are studied at higher level, so A level standard or higher (depending on the subject) and 3 subjects are studied at standard level. Maths and your country’s language are obligatory, at either level. It’s much broader than A level and more aligned to other countries’ school certifications.

With relatively few exceptions UK schools offer IB in lieu of A level, rather than throughout, so still sit gcses at 16. Those that might offer MYP and diploma and also cater for SEN are pretty limited.

There's an American school in surrey

One of my DDs had a friend from Switzerland in her A level class, and he had not done GCSEs. The school accepted whatever his qualifications were and allowed him to study A levels. This was a private 6th form, though, and he was an extremely talented musician.

Yes but the fact that maths and English are not dropped with IB renders the GCSEs redundant.

My friend’s DS moved to the U.K. at 16 a few years ago, after being at an international school in mainland Europe, so MYP and no GCSEs, did IB (it was rarer then), now he’s graduated from a U.K. university and got a job right away. No one asked him for his GCSEs but then he does have a degree now. Maybe for non graduate entry level jobs they may get requested, but if the OP’s DS does the IB that will testify ability in English and maths (if passed in the iB).

Many Sixth Forms (but not all) will offer Maths and English resit lessons alongside A-Levels. Any (state) Sixth Form will need to show that either the student is studying Maths and English GCSE, or has passed it. (If they are taking Maths A-Level however, the student is exempt from the maths GCSE course.)

My DD has just started 6th form college after doing GCSEs and has made friends with a girl who moved here from America in August. The first question my DD asked her was how she got into college without GCSEs. Apparently she got her diploma 2 years early and that has enabled her to transfer to 6th form.

From what I understand (I've never met the girl but she hangs out with DD a lot), she's half British and half American.

Isn't IB an alternative rather to A- levels for older kids? To take IB you have to have GCSE or comparative exam

It depends, there are Primary Years and Middle Years IB programmes which precede the diploma and can be taught in lieu of national curriculum and gcses, but few schools in UK offer it and those that do are fee paying.

And how would that help OP?

There would be no gcse requirement to enter year 12 and they tend to attract expat and international families. Still might be an issue longer term though as gcses or equivalent in English and Maths are expected in UK.

I would be trying to find an IB school.
International schools do it after GCSES and quite a few American schools offer it as well in my State.

So it must be possible to move from American teaching into IB, the USA schools don't have formal external exams prior to IB starting.

Id suggest moving for GCSE or once meet uni entry reqs.

We would check the level and allocate an appropriate level course. Some countries don’t have a GCSE equivalent and jump from junior cert type (Below GCSE) to senior (level 3 A level equivalent).

Thank you very much for the information which I’m digesting and researching. I’m going to book a session with a local school placement consultant and visit the boarding school fair to ask the reps of UK boarding schools what they accept (free advice even though not looking at boarding). We are trying to get him into a UK- curriculum high school. Place depends on result of an Ed psych report which we are waiting on. His current school only offers ACT/SAT and AP in science and math. I guess it might be possible to arrange private tutoring after school to take IGCSE in English and Math.

We were intending to move back when he’s 16 to take UK A levels in East Anglia but still unsure if that’s possible given he’d be half way through US high school system.

Some schools/ colleges might give an assessment to check levels.

ultimately the school will have the discretion to admit or not. I lead a sixth form college, we have taken students from all over the world. Depending on the subjects they want to take we do sometimes ask for them to sit an entrance test (maths, science, languages where specific prior knowledge is required). The only students we have had transfer from the American education system in recent years have struggled though. One returned to the American system, the other had to resit his first year. The assessment methods were just so different - all testing in the USA had been multiple choice (I realise this won’t always be the case but it was in his high school) and he really struggled with long answer essay style questions. We’ve had much more success with students from Australia and New Zealand. And as previous posters said there will be an expectation of Maths and English at GCSE unless the student already has an equivalent qualification

Over the decades a multiple waves of immigrants arrived to UK. Most recently Ukrainians. They simply went to the age related year. Only those who didn't know English had a big challenge.

Due to the US airforces bases at Mildenhall and Lakenheath plus all the international movement around the science park and uni in Cambridge im sure the schools in East Anglia are quite use to students moving with international qualifications. Try Framlingham College in Suffolk and Greshams in Norfolk.
Greshams has an IB programme and Btec options which are a practical option to A levels - the agricultural course is meant to be amazing. It also has a Dyson state of the art STEAM centre.