school for overseas children/move to Preston from Canada

[Lililove52]

Hello, I will be starting school at Uclan in Jan 2025 and will be moving to Preston from Vancouver, Canada in Dec 2024. Trying to be proactive here as I have three children, daughter age 11, and twin boys age 13. Does anyone know if it is possible to find them school spots as it will be an in year admission then? I have never been to Preston before so I am not even sure where we will be living. Any recommendations on schools and also an area that is nice enough to live in? I appreciate any suggestions/help. Thank you

The University should be able to assist in finding accommodation or at least give you a place to start looking. Mid year schools admissions may be tricky as it will depend on the spaces available. Start by contacting the LEA ( Lancashire) to find out their applications policy.
I can’t advise on good areas to live - I live about 15 miles away but have only been into Preston a few times for shopping etc. Hopefully someone local will see your post.
Good luck.

If you are looking for state (free) school places, there is little you can do other than research areas.
The LEA (Local education authority) is obliged to find you places for all your kids, but the places will depend on which schools have spaces once you have an address in England. The kids could end up in different schools.

Whilst it is a system that has a number of issues, all English state schools are inspected by OFSTED. They rate them Outstanding/Good/Requires Improvement/inadequate. I would look for an area that has several good schools, rather than focus on an outstanding school, as it is likely to be full. Bare in mind that some schools have not been inspected for a long time (nearly a decade in the case of my kids school), and so could have changed dramatically from the report. All reports are available online.

When we moved, I contacted the LEA a few days before our flight - as we had an address at that point. We got an excellent response, with a list of schools with spaces in the years we needed. We then applied knowing what was available. Note: all spaces are first come first served. A place that is available this week may not exist if you wait a week to apply. You then need to be in the school within a few weeks - so don't apply too early!

Are the twins 13 now? How old will they be on 31 August 2024? If they will be 14 by that point, the schools will have started teaching a 2-year GCSE course. I would prioritize their school. If still 13, it's not quite as vital they are in school as soon as you can arange things.

Good luck. Schools were one if the most stressful bits about moving, because you can't really do anything about it until you have committed to everything else.

When are their birthdays?

If your boys turned 13 before 1st September 2023, then they would currently be in what we call Year 9.

That means in December 2025 they will be in Y11. They would sit the first public exams for the U.K. (called GCSEs : General Certificate of Secondary Education) in May/June 2025.

Don’t underestimate that that is a single certificate. That is approx 20 exams covering approx 9 subjects, and it’s HARD.

They cannot just appear in a U.K. state secondary in Dec 2025 and take those exams in 2026.

If they turned 13 after 01/09/2023 they’ll go into Y10 which will be hard for the same reasons, but not quite as bad.

When do they take Canadian exams? If I were moving my child just before, I’d defer my move.

The very least you should do now is use an online school / tutor - and prep the boys for Maths and English. These two subjects they’d need to resit in Y12, so you could at least avoid that. Even if the eventual school uses a different exam provider (there are different “boards” who have different syllabuses) prep for one and then switch is better than nothing.

Fun extra point for Preston… it’s in Lancashire county so has a grammar school system.
This is a quirk in England where it varies between counties.
Grammar systems mean that children can sit an “11+” exam when they are approx 10, and it’s used to stream the highest results for the grammar schools.
It’s like having all the top set kids in one school, and everyone else in another.
Not everyone wants to do 11+, some high academic kids want to stay with friends, plenty of kids develop later or are perfectly bright but don’t make the cut.
But if your kids are especially academic, keep in mind that the grammars are far less likely to have in year places, so they may be in a school that is relatively lower achieving.
It’s useful to know if comparing school results, because you’re not comparing like with like when one was academically selective and the other not.

There are no selective grammar schools in Preston, the nearest are Lancaster and clitheroe.

That’s useful to know! Thanks for the correction. But it’s relevant still for OP when she considers areas - if she looks beyond Preston.

The OP is arriving in December 2024, so they will be year 9 or year 10.

Year 10 is likely to be difficult as the the school is likely to start GCSE study at the beginning of year 10, in September. If there is any way you can bring your moving date forward so that they can start in September 2024, that would help the older ones hugely, if they would be going into year 10.

If they would be going into year 9, start date will be less of an issue.

I'd live in Lancaster over Preston

Yes this.

Lots of good advice here but the key thing is when your 13yos turn 14 @Lililove52

I cannot stress enough how much better it would be to join a new school in year 9 rather than year 10.

As others have said, if they turn 14 before Aug 31 this year then you would be better to move this summer if at all possible, so that they can start GCSE courses at the start of year 10, as is usual, rather than a term into year 10 - there would be a lot of catchign up to do.

If they have just turned 13, and their birthdays at Sept or later, then in Jan 2025 they will go into year 9 so not such an issue.

What type of course will you be doing at UCLAN OP? In the UK we don't really refer to a university as "school".

My husband comes from Preston, we visit regularly still. Its a great city and has been thriving. Also good access to the coast and Lakes. What course are you doing? The nicer areas might be Fulwood, Penwortham, Longton. These are all more expensive though My husband's family live in Cottam which is ok too with a lot of new builds.

I would consider what schools might have places & where you need to be for access to those schools and your course.

There's a massive number of new builds. And (afaik) no new secondary schools... I'm afraid there's probably not many spare places. I'd probably look very carefully at the catchment area for Broughton.

A ridiculous proportion of Preston schools are 'faith' (CofE and RC). I don't know how they apply their selection criteria to in-year admissions for people from outside the area.

How long do you intend to stay? Manchester may have a wider range of schools. Getting in year places is very much hot and miss and you will need a local address to apply.

I don't know about secondary schools in Preston; my niece attends Lancaster Grammar.

Its probably quite hard to get in-year admissions for 3 kids and she might need to apply with the "Fair access" protocol to force the council to provide places, which indeed might not be in convenient locations or the most sought after schools. The education board can provide advice on that.

I can't begin to imagine living in Manchester and commuting to study at UCLAN.

It is possible to commute to Preston from Manchester by train, but at the moment trains are unreliable.
The logistics of finding school places for twins are challenging at any time during the school admissions process.
I would ask UCLAN more about the process for bringing your children with you OP.

I know this thread is a week old but just wanted to correct a previous post for those who may look back at this post.

Lancashire does not run a 'grammar system' in the way described. There are 4 grammar schools in the whole of the county 2 of which are single sex so in effect only 3. Yes you do need to take the 11+ to get into one of these schools but very few children take it and only if they want one of these 3 schools. None of these three schools are in Preston although many kids do travel relatively long distances to get to them from Preston partly because of what another pp mentioned which is true in that most of the best performing schools are faith based. The result of this is that the comprehensive schools are not affected by the grammar schools taking all of the able kids particularly in Preston. There are some great schools with excellent results outside of the grammars.

I think that misconception was addressed early on. But perhaps adding that there are a few schools in the Preston area which retain the name 'grammar' which are either state comps (eg Hutton grammar, boys Church of England) or private (eg Kirkham Grammar, private, not in the Preston but I think the nearest independent secondary to it. Probably not at all relevant to the OP if she's a student but may be to someone reading the thread)

I live in Preston and also study at UCLAN part time, whilst working full time with children at both primary and secondary.
I would suggest looking at schools in South Ribble as they have outstanding schools and my older ones have always been really happy there.

As for areas, Penwortham, Longton, Hutton areas are great, all in South Ribble technically but a 5-10 mins drive to university and the city centre.

If you have any questions about the area or anything else about living here then feel free to send me a message.

I finished my degree at UCLAN. I also used to work at the hospital there.

1. which campus will you be based at? There are campuses at Burnley and Westlakes, Burnley is about an hour from Preston and Westlakes is in the Lake District, about 2 hours drive away.

2. Are you RC? - Preston has a large RC population so at least three of the secondary schools are RC.

3. your children will be in high school with uniforms - get them prepared.

My Dad lives in Burnley and I grew up there.

I commuted from Wolverhampton to UCLAN. Now that was a commute.