seanshellluke

We are trying to decide whether to stay in the uk for two years and allow our 14 year to do his gcse's and then go to Oz and carry on his education or whether to go before and not worry about gcse's.
Our main concern is that should he ever wish to come back in the future should he have a basic british education or will it not matter.

Different opinions and other people experiences would be welcomed

cranston

IMO go sooner - if you really want to go?

seanshellluke

Hi
Its not that we don't want to - it is just trying to weigh up the advantages and disadvantages concerning his education.

We are in essence doing this to better the life now and in the future for our son, and want to make the best knowledge based decisions that we can - we know little about the australian school system apart from what we have read on here and found on google. For our son this will be major time in his life and the last things he needs is up messing up by making the wrong decision about his education.

lainey70

My son is 15 and in year 10.We were hoping to go before he had settled into yr 10 but we are still waiting for the visas
He will have to stay in school until he is 18 over in OZ any way, The new term starts in January, so we hope to get over before then, then get him into school to make some friends.
IMO as we are going to be Aus residents he will need Aus qualifications, His gcse's wont mean much out there, so at the moment he is at school and started doing gsce's to keep him in school and his mind on things but its not so stressful.Having to do exams as well as emigrating is not a easy thing for them to cope with.
It will depend on what visa you are going on too.
My family emigrated to Italy when i was younger, They all got Italian exams, live over here now and working !

Australia_bound?

If you aren't in a rush then wait, as you said if he decides to come back at least he's got something UK employers will recognise. Dare not comment on educational standards in Aus, lots of threads on it feel free to browse them, may help you make your mind up.

WS

Personally, I would wait until he's got his GCSE's.

spartacus

I honestly don't think it would matter.

If you think your (and his) medium term is to be spent in Australia, would he be disadvantaged by only having UK recognised qualifications?

seanshellluke

Hi All

We are going for a permenant 138 skilled and all the other visa. Reason for this was OH was offered a job last year on a temp visa but we declined and have gone for the permenant visa option so that we know once we are there we can stay.
Our aim was for our son to do his GCSE's in UK and then go to Oz and carry on with the last two years of High School there and graduate with Oz qualifications also. He plans on going to Uni after so we are trying to look long term at all aspects.

The chances are we will go after his GCSE's what with the way the property market is at the moment etc and we will just validate later this year (if we get the visa) meds arrived today in Oz so just waiting on them to go through system.

Just trying to sound people out and make the right decision for everyone
Thanks
Michelle

sunbather

When is your son's birthday? I'm not sure why he would have to be in school until he is 18. My son is 15 (16 end of September), in Year 11 now (Oz) and will be taking his TEE's next year so will be leaving school just after he is 17. He will be going to Uni

seanshellluke

Hi
His birthday is May so he has just turned 14 and will go into year 10 in this country (uk) in september coming. I have read many different peoples questions and answers on here and thought that the majority seem to be under the impression they are 17-18 when they leave, sorry as i said i have little knowledge of the Oz system. We are unsure as the the what they leave school with in Oz when they finish. I was under the impression that within one school year there can be a 2-3 year age difference? again this is just what i have read.
Any info and help will be greatly appreciated
Michelle

lele.juggins

We arrived last May and our son had just turned 15 at the time and went into year 10 here in Oz (Perth). It was a good time to arrive, as it gave him the rest of year 10 to acclimatise to the new School etc etc, before starting the important years 11 in Feb 2008, which he is in now and year 12 next year. I would say that as long as you can arrive before your son would be in year 11, ( the year in which he is 16), then that would be the best. If he is just 14, then if you arrive by Jan/Feb 2009 then he will start year 10 in Feb, which would probably be ideal.

seanshellluke

Hi
Thanks i think that is what i was trying to get at but as not knowing the one system i had it a bit mixed up.
Regards
Michelle

Kath & Graham

My advice would be dont get pushed into putting him in Year 11 if you come and his birthday falls into that catergory, we did with our daughter when we went and she found it very difficult being thrown in at the deep end so to speak. So we took her out and put her in Year 10. she didnt take her GCSE's but someone we knew daughter did and she still ended up back at school for Year 12 as her qualifications werent recognised and she was advised she wouldnt be able to get them converted.

hereshoping

To be blunt... how clever is he?

If he's a clever boy and when you come back will do A levels and do well in them, then go now, an employer won't care about GCSEs if he's got good A levels and a degree (especially not if he's been abroad at that time).

However if GCSE level is about his accademic limit then you should stay and get some qualifications a UK employer would recognise and credit him for.

Despite what we try to tell teenagers GCSEs really aren't very important in the long term.

seanshellluke

Hi Both

Firstly Kath
many thanks for reply, but do you know if he were to do his gcse's here in the uk he would have justed turned 16 when done here in july, if we then moved to Oz what year would he go into and how old do you have to be. Our ideal aim was for him to do year 10 and 11 gcse's in the uk and then go to Oz and redo their last two years so that he has both .
Now you may all be thinking we are pushing him into exams but we are not we have discussed this with in in great detail and he is happy with attempting to do both.

Answering hereshoping now we all think are kids are the best / intelligent etc, i am not going to say he is the brightest as he is not, he has to work at his grades but gets good results when the effort is made and other distractions don't get in the way.

At the end of the day we do not intend to come back, we are trying to look at the best possible options for our son, simple what works for him we will adjust to as parents thats what everyone wants the best for their kids.
Sorry if i have gone on a bit but this is a huge decision that we are not planning on taking lightly.
Regards all