Moving school at 13yrs

[Catco912]

Hello! Hoping for some guidance and direction. If a child attends a school which finishes at age 13 and then they have to move to start GCSE years does this disadvantage them with choosing and organising their GCSE subjects in their new school? Is this a reason to avoid a school which ends at age 13? Thanks for any advice.

There are schools, mainly boarding for boys and coed that only start at 13 years olds so quite normal. Quite a few DC shifts at 13 years, for example from all girls schools going to coed or boarding at all girls/coed.

If you're in England, you're 13 at the start of Y9, so I don't think it would affect GCSEs. Generally you choose your GCSEs during Y9 - my DD1 is just about to choose hers - to start in Y10.

A slight caveat would be science. At DD1's school, they started the GCSE science curriculum at the start of Y9, so that may make a difference. It's probably worth checking with the schools you're thinking of. All the children at her school do triple science, but at Dd2's school, only thw top set do triple so I'm not sure how that would work if you're changing schools.

Private schools always used to have a big intake at 13 but I'm not sure how common that is now.

It is quite normal in private sector. They may need to be at a specific level to take a particular subject or catch up as Common Entrance, for example, is not the same curriculum,

Some local authorities have middle schools which are Yr5 to Yr9, so not just private schools. The children move onto a new school for Yr10. So they would be 14. No idea how it works for GCSE though.

All the middle schools round here finish at the end of Year 8. I've never heard of one that goes through to Year 9. Likewise, prep schools geared to the boarding school market finish at the end of Year 8 and the traditional boarding school intake is Y9.

It's pretty standard practise to move for the start of Year 9. I think it would be more difficult to move for the start of Year 10 as decisions have to have been made by then (by the student and the school) about GCSE pathway. It wouldn't be impossible though.

There are other downsides IMO to a school that finishes at year 8, but I don’t think this is one of them.

I think it depends if they are joining a school that starts in Year 7 and doesn’t have a large year 9 intake. In that case it may be a disadvantage if it’s a school where students choose their GCSEs in year 8, as happens in the grammar schools near us. Basically the students cut down their subjects at end of year 8. That would likely be a disadvantage to a student coming from a prep school who possibly hadn’t even done some of the subjects/ no idea who the teachers are etc.