How will this work out?

[FumsN]

Hey
My son is coming to the UK after finishing secondary education in Nigeria. He did IGCSE's. He's to do Year 12 I suppose. However, due to his visa being rejected (due to his father not submitting his documents early enough), he's missed up till 2nd Half term. At this point, should he just do Year 12, Do Repeat Year 11 or Go all the way back to Year 10? Answers are graetly appreciated!

Year 11 is the year leading up to GCSEs.

As he already has igcses there is no point repeating year 11. If he's too old for it he won't get funding either assuming you are planning state school.

Year 12 is usually done at either college or sixth form and there is a process to apply to them.

Are you looking at private or state? Private will have more flexibility.

I would contact the schools or colleges directly. It doesn't sound like a good idea to have him join A levels having missed half the first year.

Maybe take this year as a gap year and have him join you in the summer and start next September, but apply for that now?

If he has igcses he should start year 12 in September, assuming he is 16/17. He needs to be in education or training of some sort until 18.

He's just turned 15. When he finished Year 11, he was 14. My idea originally was to do a gap year, but most say that you need to be in school or some education of sorts till 18.

Can you afford a "crammar" until he is 16+ to make up any gaps in gcse study.

Oh, definitely he needs to be in school at 15 unless you wait to bring him over.

Have you contacted any local schools yet?

I'll try contacting some local schools and see what's going to happen.

Thank you so much!

In a state school, he would be placed in the correct school year for his age. That means he would be in Y10 if he has just turned 15.

What were his IGCSE results like?

A state school is likely to want to put him in with his age group, and they're certainly not going to want to put him into year 12 this late in the year. They might say he has to go into year 10, and do the GCSEs (because the IGCSEs won't count for their statistics). If he's got mediocre results, that might not be such a bad thing, because he'll be able to improve. But if he did well, then it might be very tedious. I guess they might consider year 11 if there's good overlap of syllabus; obviously he's missed most of teaching, but for some subjects the syllabus may be pretty much what he's done, so he'd just be repeating the revision.

If private is an option, they may be more flexible.

Home education is an option.

Thinking ahead, you might want to check what the fees situation is if he plans to attend university in the UK. Even if a British citizen. he will probably need to be resident here for three years before he qualifies for home fees for university. That means that if he goes into year 11 now, he would need to take a gap year. He'd still be under 18 when he finishes A-levels, so technically he ought to be in education, but in practice I don't think that is enforced (and I can't see that they'd start with a 17.5 year old with A-levels and a university offer for the following year). However it might be simpler to start in year 10 from that point of view.

He got 3A stars, 5A's and 1B. So state schools would have him put in year 10, year 11, or year 12?

When is he 16? Some further education colleges do a 14-16 programme but these tend to be vocational based and less academic students. Does he have English, Maths and Sciences among his igcse? Private schools may take him accelerated a year but state unlikely.

When did he turn 15?
So if he was 15 on 1st September 2024, he will be in year 11 turning 16 between 1st September 2024 and 31 August 2025.
If was 14 on 1st September 2024 and has turned 15 since then, he will be in year 10 turning 15 during year 10, so before 1st Sept 2025, and then go into year 11 in Sept 2026 turning 16 before August 2027.

Either way you need to be looking at him joining year 10 or year 11 in a school. You need to contact schools and see what they would suggest. Did the I GCSEs he did include English (not as a foreign language)? At a minimum he will need English and Maths at 5-9 if he wants uni or higher level jobs. If he hasn't got these, he needs to complete them at school or college. Otherwise ask schools what they think. If he goes into year 10 now and is reasonably bright he might well be able to join a 2 year GCSE program to take GCSEs in May/June 2026. If he's Year 11, I'm not sure what school will suggest. He could always take English and Maths GCSE at college in one year from Sept 2025, but I'm not sure where that would leave him until then because he should be in school.

You may be able to find an FE college or private school that would let him start A-levels even if he is younger- it will very much depend on the setting. If he goes to a state secondary, he will be put in the most appropriate year for his age, and likely have to repeat GCSEs, which seems like a waste of time given he's already got 9 strong GCSEs.

You can give him a "gap year" if you register him as being home educated.

Your son is quite a bright lad to have got such good results sitting exams two years younger than usual. In some ways, irrespective of the visa issue, he's in the same boat as other very bright children. If he goes into a state school, they will insist that he joins the "correct" year for his age, working toward GCSEs in spring 2026. The system is very inflexible that way. He could simply rack up a number of additional subjects which he hasn't previously studied, but I'd worry the pace will feel slow and he'd be bored there.

The plan you originally had of letting him have a break this year could work, if there's something he'd like to do during that time. He is still of "Compulsory School Age" until June 2026, but he could be home educated instead of going to school. (A previous poster mentioned being "registered as home educated", which is incorrect: there is no such thing as a register. The government is trying to change the law on that, but there's no way it would go through in time to affect your child.) Your only legal responsibility is to actually educate him. However, there is great flexibility on how to do that. He could learn something new, unrelated to his previous subjects, or explore some topics of interest in depth. Open University has some courses which may appeal. Or he could do practical life skills. He could have a part-time job, though there are restrictions on the hours he can work, as he is still under the scope of child labour laws until after CSA.

He could start sixth form or college from autumn 2025, but he will still be a year younger than the others, and you'd have to check that they would take him. In principle there's no reason they can't, but some settings are quite rigid about that. Don't let them tell you they can't claim government funding for an under-16, because that isn't true. Some colleges are unaware of how to do it, and may need to be pointed in the right direction.

After your son finishes Compulsory School Age, the legal situation changes slightly. It will no longer be YOUR legal responsibility to educate him. From then, HE becomes responsible for remaining in education or training until his 18th birthday. However, penalties for noncompliance were never introduced, so in practice he can do what he likes.

Anyway, come over to the Home Ed board on Mumsnet if you want some more ideas of options outside of school/college.