GCSE in year admission in Harrow

[SuratNuJaman]

For a kid starting their GCSE year, can he/she travel from Europe and join an English Government run school a month before GCSE exams. Does the Government/Council have a "duty of care" which requires them to place the kid in a school and get them to take thir GCSE exams?

Is there any cut off deadline that the kid must be in a school by say December, for them to take their GCSE exams?

Happy to read legislation myself. If someone here has Administrative experience in a Council with admissions, would love to hear from them. The council for the kid will be Harrow.

1 month before the exams? Goodness why put your child through that level of disruption.

It would be very tricky to get your child into a school part way (or almost all the way) through year 11. Schools study different exam boards and subjects. How will you match that to what your child has studied? The exam entry cut off is also quite a few months before the exams take place.

Entering as a private candidate at an exam centre would probably be best. You'd need to organise and fund that yourself though.

Why are you actually considering this? What are you aiming to achieve from it? It sounds extremely disruptive for your child at a key point in their education.

The school would have to enter your DC for the exams several months ahead. Not sure when exactly. I expect you can find out by googling.

Can I clarify - you want your 15/16 year old to arrive in England in around April; find them a school place; sit GCSEs?

Do you have an address jn the UK? Because you’ll need one before you can apply for a school place. Then you’ll need to find a school that has a place on role in Y11, and also spaces in all the right subjects at the right level.

Do you realise that that everyone takes Maths, English Language and English Literature, but also about 6 other subjects that they choose. For each subject you either take the Foundation paper or Higher paper. There are about 5 exam boards the school may use - the material covered for each subject will be similar standard, but different content for each eg: in the texts studied for Eng Lit, or the periods covered for History.

Some subjects have elements of practical assessment some time before the written exams start eg Music (performance, composition), English Language (speech).

It all feels very unlikely that this could work.

Thank you. The kid is well prepared and could take an exam tomorrow.

Private exam was a consideration, but the future prospects in a certain field negates this as an option.

My question hinges on "law", does a council (thus school) need to make arrangements for the kid to take GCSE if they turned up a month before exams.

Thank you. The parents are Council Tax payers in Harrow, thus not an issue. Kid can take an exam now and would be fine.

It is a mere technical point I am wanting to clarify, does the council have a "duty of care" (or what the term may be legally) to get the kid to sit GCSE exams.

I have done this already. The enrollement seems to be in December.

But my question rests of a technicality, "Does council have to find a place for the kid and get them to appear for GCSE".

No you cannot do this. A student is registered for GCSEs months before the exams. You need a proof of residency. The local authority will see straight through you and shut the door. Stop trying to cheat the system. And if you are trying to get a freebie or get into an English university without paying international fees then it won’t work.

Maybe just phone or email the nearest school to where your DC will be living and ask?

The school enters the child for the particular board of exams under their centre code- so there is not a global entry.
For example for English literature the child needs to have studied the correct texts and learnt the correct quote banks for the themes that exam board asks questions on. There is no straight forward readiness for all GCSEs, you need to know which exam board the school has chosen and then the options within the subject that the school has choosen.

I’m pretty sure the local authority are legally obliged to find the child a school place within a certain time frame. I think they have to respond to the parent within a certain number of days but no idea how long they can take to actually find a place. If the child is over 16, the time frame might be longer. You would have to find out the details directly from Harrow education authority. All sounds like a nightmare for the child. They could sit their exams at an exam centre. Why is the enrolment at a school so crucial? Is it some money saving scam?

If the school doesn’t think a student is likely to pass a GCSE, they are not obliged to enter them, even if they have been at the school for several years and have studied the whole curriculum. The legal obligation lies in teaching the National Curriculum. It is not compulsory for anyone to even take GCSEs.

DS has just done his GCSEs, one or two or his peers dropped their weakest subjects. I’m not sure how an “unknown” student from a different education system would convince a school that they are a suitable candidate GCSE at the end of the course.

If you really want your child to take GCSEs, and are so certain of their suitability, then I’d investigate the possibility of entering as a private candidate.

You can be the smartest child in the school but writing an English literature paper on a book one has never read is going to be a challenge.

legally there is no obligation for the school to register them for GCSEs a month out. They legally have to provide an education, not exam entry.

This scheme is a daft one sorry.

The LA is obliged to offer 1 school place. It would be at whatever school has a place and is able to accept that pupil not necessarily a school you would choose or in a location you would choose. There's no legal requirement for anyone to sit GCSEs.

If there's no places available then it can take a while for an offer to be made. If you reject the place offered the LA will no longer assist you. Once the child reaches age 16/the end of June of their normal GCSE year the LA will not care in the slightest what they are doing. You need to find your own 6th form or college place. Most of those places will already have been applied for long before GCSEs are sat too.

Your plan sounds very reckless. Enter the child privately for the GCSEs they want to sit. Why is this not an option if they could sit them now? Practically every subject is available somewhere at a private test centre. Is the paying yourself for the child's exams the problem?

No. They don't.

If the parents wish to screw up their kid's education that much, there is no law that requires the council or a school to rescue them from the consequences.

Legally, provide an education. Will a school accept a child into year 11, 1 month before exams - no, too disruptive to existing pupils. Most likely would be a college place on a 14-16 programme for a month or tutors if lucky. No legal requirement to be entered for GCSE'S, only education provided to end of June in school year they turn 16. Most likely, no school place, parents have to try and force provision of education, time will pass, and then time out, maybe a claim for failure to provide education for a couple of months, but look at how many pupils without a school place are in the news. Use an online school, where you can study anywhere and then provide venues for exams.

I'm pretty sure the cut-off date for GCSE entries (which is in February) is final – if a student is not entered by then, they cannot be added to a list in, say, April. AFAIK anyway (I'm just a former teacher/current tutor) tho an exams officer will know for sure. Unless you were able to negotiate for the future school to enter the student for exams before the Feb deadline, with them joining the school later. But that doesn't sound a) likely or b) a good idea.

I agree with others, what is the purpose of this scheme? Why not just sit the exams privately? or join the school sooner (tho tbh any time after the start of year 10 is going to be a challenge).

You can enter someone for an exam on the day of the exam, it just costs £££.

The February deadline is for normal exam price, entries after that are more expensive.

A school will not willingly take a child on roll in year 11. Sometimes through the fair access process the LA will force a school to give a place. But you can't rely on that, it can take months.

i very much doubt any school or LEA would allow this

but mostly it’s just a terrible idea. Doesn’t matter how bright the kid is if he hasn’t studied the specific curriculum for each GCSE course he is unlikely to pass

Or do iGCSEs from wherever they currently live?

Private exam was a consideration, but the future prospects in a certain field negates this as an option.

Would love this to be expanded.

There is something that is called 'Fair Access Protocol' for when a child has been without a school place for 4 or more weeks. However gaining a place at a school would take longer after this kicks in and still wouldn't require the school to enter the child for GCSEs. I doubt it would even apply in this situation.

The thread smacks of someone trying to cheat the system in some way, but I can't think what way, or why the OP thinks it is realistic with all the different boards, options etc.

The local authority needs to provide an education (not necessarily a school place) and the school makes the decision about who to enter for exams.

No matter how bright or ‘well prepared’ (they won’t be, not for all of the exams for the right boards, that the school uses) they are, no school is going to do that.

What you could do is contact exam centres now and make arrangements for the child to sit the exams they are preparing for. That would also be better for the child.

No.

there’s a requirement to provide an education.
no requirement for GCSEs. A surprisingly large number of Uk students don’t sit them for various reasons.

The exam registration is usually in February and most courses have coursework or controlled assessments done over the preceding two years. My friend arrived in the February and was offered a place in September at a college that did 1 year gcse courses

Sit GCSEs in a state school so their previous private education isn't flagged for university applications? Obviously Oxford or Cambridge won't spot this at all!

You have answered the question of so many posters here.

"Sit GCSEs in a state school so their previous private education isn't flagged for university applications? Obviously Oxford or Cambridge won't spot this at all!"

Knowing the ins and outs of where the kid wants to go in future (it is not Oxbridge), it is precisely this reason that the parents are trying to exploit.

The money to pay for private exams, circa £3000 the parents have. It is the future intake into something very specific requires a "State" sat GCSE, not a private sat GCSE, not iGCSE.

There is a crude way of replying. The wokiness of woke has necessitated this silly situation.

The parents pay council tax, so it is not some money saving scheme for those who have asked.

If they wanted this they should have moved the child at the start of y10.

Is it an absolute entry requirement to whatever to have sat GCSEs in a state school?

The parents seem to want the advantages of a private school education, but then the leg up of additional help for those from state.

Note that med school entry doesn't require work experience in a hospital if you are thinking of some recent news. It can easily be for example a care home.