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!

PE GCSE is one which involves an element of coursework – students have to offer three sports as a practical element and many play at least one out of school. I see she is keen on footy so that’s great – it just might be tricky to organise logistically. For example (sports-mad) DS2 offered athletics and he had to use his results from the summer of year 10 (bc the work needed to be complete before the year 11 summer season started) – not an issue for footy but maybe for other sports. Maybe not tho.

Still she could probably attend the PE lessons and take on board the learning.

I am thinking the issue might be whether a specific school had a place for year 11. You could maybe do with talking to a few to see what their view on this plan would be. Schools are mostly back from half term on Monday.

I've just looked up the school you mention and it has a very comprehensive list of FAQs (impressive) which however suggests that it gets a lot of applications to join out of the usual joining points (end of year 6 and end of year 11 for sixth form). In fact it says in one answer "as the school is always full" – so I would counsel you to have several possible schools in mind.

The LA has to place your DD in a school under the Fair Access Protocol, if no local school has space. Chances are there will be a school with spaces tho (there would be in the town I live in) but it might not be the one you would like.

You can apply anywhere for sixth form tho.

The LA has to place your DD in a school under the Fair Access Protocol, if no local school has space. Chances are there will be a school with spaces tho (there would be in the town I live in) but it might not be the one you would like.

at what age until?

They would have to find a space for a child in year 11. For sixth form it's different as it's not compulsory.

Trouble is not many students leave at year 10 for obvious reasons so it might be tricky.

If she joins year 11, then the school will almost certainly expect her to follow a standard timetable, attending lessons for 8/9 subjects. They might accept that she wouldn't be able to catch up the syllabus in some of them, and allow her to sit and work on the subjects she will take, but they'll need her to be timetabled to be in those lessons.

If she's got GCSE-equivalent qualifications, she might well be able to go straight into sixth form, provided they're happy that she has the knowledge she'll need for the A-levels. She would then need to plan on a gap year to qualify for home fees. I think some sixth-form and FE colleges are able to take under 16s. In schools, I guess the issue may be that she would count in their statistics for GCSE, even if she is actually in the sixth form, so they might be reluctant to place her in the sixth form.

Some sixth-forms offer a "transition year" of GCSEs - in state sixth-forms it's aimed at those who haven't quite got the GCSEs needed for A-level; in privates it's often aimed at those coming in from overseas.

With aottle bit of self study there's no reason she couldn't sit whatever gcse's she likes (assuming the school would let her) its not uncommon for home Ed kids to do a gcse in a year, so given she would already have at least some of the knowledge needed from Spain it shouldn't be too hard.

Another option could be to home Ed for a year, you don't have to do the gcse's but these are an option and she could add in sports/short courses/ spend time exploring interests

There's always kids joining state schools in Y11 and the school just needs to get on with it. I think you'd be doing her a disservice not putting her into y11. If she fails the GCSE she still has her spanish exams so nothing is lost, but she would gain a lot. A Levels are hard and if the Spanish leaving cert isn't on par with GCSEs, than shell really struggle.
PE A Level has basically no sport in it btw, it's mostly biology. Psychology has a lot of science too, and maths. I would encourage her to look at past A Level exam papers to get an idea of what she will learn, those are better than the 'idea' of a subject.

Compulsory school age- reception to y11.

I work in a regular state school 11-16. We have a few students join at the end of year 10 and some at the start of year 11.
There is no way we would ever let a student do 'some' GCSEs and have free time. All students have full timetables.
I can't imagine other state schools being different as we don't have spare staff to supervise students on "free periods", and I cant imagine other schools would. And having worked for three decades now with teenagers I would say very very few could study successfully unsupervised and unsupported in this way. Who would be setting and marking their work for example?
Also I can hear the safeguarding leads' voice saying -where is the risk assessment for this child who is unsupervised?

Don’t underestimate how behind she is likely to be with her written academic English, especially if she is planning to take the essay-based A levels that you mention. Both vocabulary and syntax will be an issue. If she isn’t already, she needs to start very regularly reading an English-language broadsheet and pop psychology and history books.

PE A Level has basically no sport in it btw

I mean I agree there is a lot of biology and it certainly isn't a case of rock up and play football for two years, but I don’t agree there is no sport in it. My experience tho is as a parent rather than a teacher of it so I bow to your knowledge if you teach it @Foxesandsquirrels

But DS2 took A level PE and he had to supply lots of videos of him playing goal (tricky to get) and do a good deal of analysis of people doing his sport.

Anyway I meant to say that yes, a state school will need her to be on a full timetable – there is for sure no capacity for a student to sit in the library working for half the week. But I would think she could be in the lessons and get something out of them, while probably not intending to sit the exams. At least it would give her a flavour of what might be to come with A levels.

As I said, I would try to contact the LAs or even the schools where you are thinking of and see where has spaces – would be a guide to where may have spaces in July next year. And ask if they think it is feasible.

I think you will need to approach actual institutions in the area you are settling in. What they will expect her to do will depend on how what she has studied before relates to the UK qualifications. I work in education, and some colleges might be set up to take 15 year olds, but a lot won't be. Whether she could come from another country and enter a school half way through her GCSEs will partly depend on what she has actually learnt in comparison to what's on the GCSE syllabus. Also a lot of colleges offer 1 year GCSE courses for learners age 16-18. This would be aimed at students who had studied in year 10 and year 11 (14-15,15-16) fractionally failed their GCSEs, and then gone back for a retake in either year 12 (16-17) or year 13 (17-18). However some colleges offering this, might let your daughter do it when she was 15-16 to catch her up so she has full GCSEs by the time she finishes the academic year when she is 15-16. Also Enic will translate qualifications to UK as in tell you what UK quals are equivalent to what she has. enic.org.uk/Qualifications/SOC/Default.aspx

@clary no I don't teach it and yes there is obviously some sport but in comparison to GCSE, it is a minuscule amount of sport and it's heavily theory. The biology is very in-depth so I just mentioned it because I don't know how much science the Spanish system teaches, and to what level.

@lanthanum I’ve just googled this “transition year” you mention that some schools offer but I can’t find any info. How would I find out which state schools offer this?

Yes fair enough, I agree there is less sport than GCSE PE. DS took biology as well, with maths and almost FM (but changed his mind about that). He joked if he had he would have just been doing half biology and half maths! He must have liked it tho as he has ended up studying bio at uni :)

They would go to the additional need area in my school and be registered there. It's what we do for students who are allowed to drop some subjects in tr 11 because they're not coping.

But I agree, it will depend on the school and the demographic of the school population. We are fairly well set up for keeping all manner of kids in school to the end of yr 11 and making all manner of adjustments for them.

I don't know, I'm afraid. It's possible that the local authority might know. I know it is offered at a state sixth form college in my area.

I've had a student join from abroad a year early. She had been put up a year in the country she was from so was only 15 starting year 12 (A levels). This was a state school so definitely. As long as you think your daughter is ready for A levels, it shouldn't be a problem.

The only issue was that she didn't want to go to University when she was 17 (plus she was an august birthday so a young 17), so she took a gap year before starting Uni. Incidentally, she did really well in her A levels. She was fluent in English.

In order to go to Uni she will need GCSE English and maths. The maths from Spain may count but English will have been studied as a second language so will not.
good luck with the move

Ha! That is a lot of bio. My DD wants to do A Levels in Maths, Dance and Textiles next year, I kind of wish it was more specialised as I have no clue where that trio will take her lol

Have you contacted any 6th Form or Further Education colleges and been categorically told dhe can't start A Levels? If so I guess you need to contact the Local Authority Admissions team for a Y11 start. I would advise against doing GCSE Spanish, she'll probably find it a doodle, not learn anything and waste her time for a qualification she doesn't need. First port of call would be the college(s) she will hopefully attend and see what their requirements would be and what they recommend she does if she has to wait a year.

Bracknell college offers a one year GCSE booster programe which might work - aimed at those who didn't get the grades they needed but I can't see why it wouldn't be ok for someone from overseas. Subjects are a bit limited though.
https://bracknell.activatelearning.ac.uk/courses/further-education/full-time-gcses/

Edited to say - it looks like that might be at their Guildford campus though which I hadn't spotted.

It looks as though the same thing might be available in Reading - I can't make out how it's organised as all the local FE colleges seem to be run by one giant organisation now! Possibly the "Guildford" above should have been edited to Bracknell.
https://reading.activatelearning.ac.uk/courses/further-education/full-time-gcses/

I don’t agree btw that GCSE Spanish would be a waste of time. After all, if she is trying to pass a few GCSEs – at least partly to set herself up for the future – then it would make sense to do a slam-dunk as one of them; if nothing else, it would give her some idea of how to approach an MFL exam in the UK – which as she is planning to take Spanish A level, would be helpful. If she does go into year 11 she needs to be in lessons most of the day so may as well take Spanish.

Have a look at Europa School in Abingdon near Oxford. It’s a state school that offers IB and has many students coming from Europe so is more used to dealing with children who don’t quite fit into the natural UK age groups for the year. IB is a huge amount of work but it’s a great school.