Can my daughter join year 11?

[ThePoisedOtter]

My daughter will be 15 in late November , and is currently completing her last year of compulsory high school here in Spain, as students finish secondary education one year earlier here than in the UK. We are coming to England in June next year as my daughter wants to do A Levels and go to university in the UK. My question is, she’ll only be 15 in September next year,(turning 16 in November) and too young to join 6th form, so what could she do? She will already have her GCSE equivalent certificate and I’ve seen schools accept the Spanish diploma for entering 6th form, but she’ll be too young. So for that year could she join year 11 and just take 3/4 GCSEs, the subjects she wants to do in Alevel, or would it be better for her to join a college?
Anyone with similar experience? We’re looking at state schools only. Thank you!

you are moving the entire family over for your daughter to do a levels here?!

it will be school dependent as to their approach on this. obviously more flexibility of private

She’d probably be better joining y10 and doing GCSE’s.

Yes, we’re English and want to move back for work, family etc

Would suggest she takes the core gcses plus any she wants to do at A level? If she arrives in June she can join y10. Or she may be able to find a school offering IB , but majority are independents.

It would be challenging to join year 11 and pick up even 3/4 subjects imho. Much of the content (more than half usually) is covered in year 10. I would suggest linear ones like MFL (so presumably Spanish), maths, maybe English language depending on her English skills?

I think modular subjects like science, history, Eng lit would be massively hard to catch up with. As others say, joining year 10 might be better. If you can find a school with space.

What subjects is she looking at for A level?

If she has gcse equivalent qualifications wouldn't she be better off joining 6th form a year early though? If you can find a school that would be flexible on that it's what I would do.
Lots of Scottish kids finish school and start uni at 17 because of the different system.

Is her English good enough to do A levels in the UK?

If she already has the qualifications she needs to do A levels why not give her a year out before she starts college. She could use it to improve her skills in music, reading, cooking, computing etc. it takes a bit of organisation but I did it for my son who was young for his year. We spent Fridays afternoons doing film studies and watching old films. He now works in film and television.

@clary Science GCSEs have been linear since 2015!

Have a look at sixth form colleges. The on that dd attended offered a 3 year A level program for students coming from abroad with a limited number of GCSEs and level 2 qualifications taken in the first year including Maths and English Language.

Do finances allow you to consider private schools? Most schools with a good number of international boarders will be very used to this sort of scenario. Many have a specific one year "pre-A Level" course, which usually includes taking some GCSE exams.

Most courses now are linear.

If she's completed secondary education in Spain she'll likely have all the content knowledge already, and her certificate of secondary education.

I can't see why she shouldn't slot into y11 and sit the exams.

She may find things like English difficult if she hasn't studied the texts, but if she's A level calibre she'll likely still come out with passes.

Sounds like a great plan. Y11 will be a good transition for her.

Do you know where you will be moving to? I was wondering if there were a couple of obvious schools she would join (and idc join their 6th form). If so, it might be worth asking them what they recommend she does.

Doing just a few GCSEs sounds like a sensible plan. I'd suggest in maths and English (as those are the ones employers may ask for so it's easier to have, rather than explain the equivalent), plus the subjects she wants to take for A levels (both to keep them ticking over and also to make sure she has covered all the topics teachers will expect 6th formers to know from GCSE).

It's a difficult year to integrate, but as she has already studied to that level, then it is probably do-able. That year would be the one where she gets used to being in a British school and makes friends.

I wouldn't put her in to sixth form early (even if you can) - I think it would be awkward socially as people start driving lessons, reach legal drinking age etc and she'd be left quite a way adrift of even the youngest in the year

Thank you. For A level she’s considering Psychology, History, Spanish or Psychology, (PE)if the school does it, Spanish. Her spoken English is native level though written would be a bit behind.
Maybe you’re right, as she would already have done Maths here then it could be easier, along with Spanish obviously and maybe English Language

Some colleges have a 14+ programme.

@user2848502016 Her English is very good, she sounds native though vocabulary is obviously weaker so I think she’d benefit from a year catching up/doing something in English to bump it a bit

Ah ok fair enough. Maybe as others have said she could do gcse English and a couple of others

@GrannyRose15 A year out is a great idea but I honestly can’t find much online and am in Spain atm so it’s tricky. She’s a passionate football player and there are a lot of courses for 16+ school leavers but I have spoken to some organizations and they have said she would definitely need to be 16 in September in order to join which she won’t be so…

@catndogslife Thanks I didn’t know that. I will have a look at 6th form colleges then. What is the name of the one your child attended?

Yes I am aware that it's an end of year 11 exam.

My post was perhaps not clear. I meant that science and other subjects are topic based,so joining when most topics have been covered might be tough.

By contrast, maths and MFL are more skills based - a good student should be able to join a maths class in year 11 or an MFL one, assuming they had studied these subjects, and do OK. That's all I meant.

I think an advantage of her doing Yr11 here is that she'd then do three years in the English system which I think means she'd count as a U.K. student for University funding and therefore not have to pay fees as an international student which makes a massive different to the cost of Uni. If she is going to do GCSEs, I'd also suggest she does at least five GCSEs including maths and English just so she can tick that box on application forms... although the downside is that some jobs further down the line will be looking for the usual 9 or so GCSEs all at a high grade so an automated system might reject her as it won't appreciate the complexities of her situation

We've had students like this. Usually do the subjects they can do, then have free, supervised time in subjects they wouldn't be able to cope with, where they can catch up.

So I'd think eng lang
Maths
Sciences all fairly doable
Spanish gcse
RE, depending on school
Even lit. If she can read the texts, know the plots and learn key quotes, she'll be in with a chance of passing.

Coursework subjects could be trickier.

It is unlikely gcse in Psychology or PE would be a requirement to take A level, maths and Science would be more relevant. In fact Psychology A level is not an entry requirement for a degree either.

I see you have said her chosen subjects @ThePoisedOtter

So Spanish is cool, I would say the GCSE would be a good prep for her for A level, even if her Spanish is at native speaker level, as it will teach her what kinds of questions you get (tho obvs there is a lot more to A level in terms of lit and film analysis plus research for the speaking exam) and she should sail through that, though of course some support with what she actually needs to do would be helpful - but she will get that in year 11.

Maths would help with psychology A level and she should be fine to slot in to maths in year 11.

Science I was thinking might be more tricky but I guess biology is biology so maybe that would be worth looking at – again would support psych A level and also PE.

History GCSE would be tough to pick up as topics would mostly have been covered and would be unlikely to be the same. Similarly with Eng lit I would say – I’d be inclined to focus on Eng lang.

Can you say where you might be living and perhaps ppl can suggest some schools that might be good? Not all schools offer Spanish GCSE btw tho more do than did 15 years ago.

@clary Thanks so much for your help.
Yes, we’d be living in the south east, probably Berkshire/Surrey area though depends on schools. I was looking at Charters in Berkshire as one option. It offers both Spanish and P.E GCSE and A-level and Psychology A level.
I agree Spanish, Maths, Eng Language gcse would be great, I’m not sure about Biology as they do General Science here so she might not have covered the same things. Perhaps she could do PE gcse..

@Asuitablecat Really? You’ve had students like this? Did they integrate ok? Do ok in exams, if you remember?
Would she have to do a minimum number of gcse exams or could she do 3/4, bearing in mind she’ll already have the Spanish Secondary School Certificate.

Yes. We're close to a big city, so quite a few transient parents. And it entirely depends on the student. There have been successes and failures, largely based on the amount of effort a student is willing to put in. Usually we put them in for the main ones they'll need: eng + lit, maths, sci. There's always the foundation level in maths and science and if she's already going to have qualifications from Spain, anything else is just a bonus really.

It always amazes me how quickly kids integrate, too. And at least she can speak English.