Nutmegger

Surely, if you are seemingly planning on making your lives in the US, British qualifications have become irrelevant, it is getting your child integrated into the US school system and following the curriculum to attain the relevant qualifications for university here that is important now? And welcome to the US to you and your family!

Rete

Curious what you and Octang feel are "main" exams? And why you think students are 18 when they finish high school?

As a former New Yorker, I do know that we have regents exams but they are yearly in high school and not a main exam at the end of the senior year. Years back honor students were placed in advanced classes called regent classes (believe they still have them today) and if you pass all the regents exams you graduate with a general high school diploma and a regents diploma.

Most students end their high school years at age 17. I turned 18 just before graduation so yes, I was 18 but most of class was still 17.

Are you thinking perhaps of taking the college admission exams?

BTW at least you are close enough to Canada for a quick escape if needed

lizzyq

I have to say in your circumstances I would very seriously consider leaving your 15 year old in the UK lodging with a friend or relative until she has taken her GCSE exams. This is exactly what we would have done had my husband's visa been approved earlier than actually happened. You will need to speak to the school district into which you are moving to find out about their graduation requirements and whether they would give GPA credit for previous study. The GCSE results actually make this easier Academics | US-UK Fulbright Commission In our case our elder son was able to complete his GCSEs and then move to the USA in August in time to start 11th grade at new our local high school.

Octang Frye

Rete,

We get qualifications at 16, and 18.
GSCEs are your general certificates of secondary education. You typically take eight or nine. Some kids will leave school at this age and there are their parting qualifications.

If you stay onto the Sixth Form, you typically study three or four A Levels (Advanced level) and these are what you use to get into university.

In the run-up to both of these sets of exams, there are extensive study/revision periods.

steveq

I think you have to remain "In training, or full time education" until you are 18 now in the UK

Pulaski

That isn't mathematically possible. Most states seem to require children to have had their 5th birthday before somewhere around the end of August/ early September before starting kindergarten, and as there are 13 years in the US public school system (kindergarten and years numbered 1 through 12) by definition high school students will have their 18th birthday no later than the summer after they leave high school, but any child born between (roughly) September and May (roughly 75% of students) will reach their 18th birthday before they graduate.

Furthermore, US schools seem to be much more keen on holding children back, either at entry, or at some point during their grade schools years if they are deemed to be "immature", or in middle or high school if they "fail a year". The children most likely to be held back at entry are mostly the ones with birthdays during the summer - so the ones that, if the letter of the age-on-entry regulations were followed to the letter, who would have been most likely to graduate before their 18th birthday are actually the ones most likely to be 18 before they even start their last year at high school.

tom169

Or, you know, parents holding their little football player back a year for athletic reasons.

jjmb

I would definitely want PF's advice on this topic as she has a lot of experience on this topic, all be it Texas based. Personally, having brought a daughter over at 15, I would think twice about it as its a very difficult age but it depends on the personality of the child as well. Our 15 year old was a typical teenager who found it difficult to fit in at first but as soon she found her crowd, she was fine. Unfortunately we did not have the good advice of this forum ( this was 17 yrs ago) and getting her previous school work evaluated was difficult to say the least.
We had 3 kids, 11,13 and 15, only the 13 yr old has not done well and to be honest, he would have struggle wherever he was. They were average kids (unlike PF's kids) although I suspect the eldest would have done better if we had stayed in Scotland. The USA system is totally different from the UK and she might be in for a little culture shock.
As I said, wait for PF to get back from her European travels. There is another poster here that also gives really good recent advice to newcomers with teenagers but I can't recall their nickname.
One question, why do you want to come to the USA with all that is going on at the moment? We are rapidly approaching retirement (5 yrs) and seriously considering moving back to the UK, despite all the Brexit stuff. I thought I had settled down here but then last November happened. I am still in shock!

Minilove1

Yes,I'm thinking more for her in the future, if she decides she wanted to go to uni back here, or come back for jobs. Just trying to weigh it up and find out if there was a way of obtaining both or at least the graduation part at 16 in US, without me staying behind with her to complete GCSE's here & splitting the family up for several months.
These youngsters can be fickle things is all I'm thinking & as much as we're going & she will go where I go, as she matures, she, at least, may not want to stay forever. Trying to fathom what to do for her best interests going forward.🤔

Minilove1

Hi,
Thank you for your insight. As much as that sounds great in theory, leaving her with family is possible, but don't think I could do it, leaving her to cope with GCSE and all that goes with it on her own,I'd feel awful & she wouldn't be keen. She is academically advanced & strives to do well so I don't want to hinder her if that makes sense? I suppose I'm looking for insider info from people that know how it works, so I can make a more informed decision.... 😊

Adnams

Personally I would not move with a 15 year old about to do her GCSE's.
Have you also researched her visa status and timing out by the time shes 18 - I am no expert on that but please do look at it. Someone else on here will have much more info on that.
Also if you're on a H4 that will affect your legal status to work. It took me SIX years for us to convert from H1B / H4 to GC. I could not work for that entire time period.
USA is great on a short term visit but please do think about its long term impact on your childs education and also your future. If you cant work what will you do?
The grass is not always greener.

Pulaski

Probably Kodokan.

az2014

I moved around a lot when I was in school. Couldnt think of anything worse if I had moved just before my GSCE's.

lizzyq

If she is academically advanced I would be even more inclined to have her sit her GCSEs before the move. If you move her 5 months before the exams essentially you are throwing away the work that she has already done without any proof of how well she has performed on those courses. Also should she want to return to the UK for university (my elder son did that and was treated as a home student as we were on a non-immigrant visa, with an expiry date, at that point) having GCSEs can also help. On an H visa she will be treated as an international student by a US university which will probably be eye-wateringly expensive.

Yes it is difficult splitting the family, I know, I was the one "left behind" to deal with all the loose ends of packing up our UK business, home etc, but it is temporary and, in my opinion, the benefits outweigh the temporary losses.

USIOMUS

Hi! I just though I would share a few thoughts with you - we moved our kids when they were 5 and 10. The 5 year old made an almost seamless adjustment (although now she would prefer to move back) but the 10 year old struggled for years with the change. That was 9 years ago, and he's settled at university now, but it was harder than we'd anticipated.

Having said that, if you are thinking of this as a permanent move, I would suggest getting your daughter into a US school as soon as possible. If she moves at 16, she would still be expected to move into a US high school and their curriculum can be very structured and demanding.

We are in the Buffalo suburbs, so I know quite a lot about Buffalo schools. New York is different from most other states in that it requires Regents Exams for graduation. To earn a Regents diploma students take around 5 exams, but that is the minimum. Most colleges would expect an Advanced Regents Diploma which requires 9. You can also earn extra "honors" by taking additional exams in maths and/or science. To give you an example of how this works, my daughter (14, almost 15 and going into her second year at high school) took her first two regents exams in 8th grade (still in middle school). This allowed her to enter high school with 2 high school credits in hand and 2 exams already off her list of 9+. Some of the courses are spread out over two years (social studies and a language for example) with one big exam at the end, while others are single year courses. In addition to these requirements, there are a lot of ways that students can earn university credits while still in high school. They take AP classes (with a big exam at the end - the score on the exam determines whether they get credit or not and varies by college or university). At my daughter's school, you can start taking AP classes in your second year of high school. Additionally, my daughter is interested in engineering. She took part in a "project lead the way" class last year (her first year of high school) and her score on the exam at the end allowed her to earn 3 university credits in introductory engineering. She also takes part in a special math program that is unique to Buffalo. (If you daughter is interested in math, I can give you more information, but she'd have to LOVE math to want to take part.)

All of these types of classes help to build up impressive CVs for students before they start applying to colleges and universities. My daughter's school also has a community service requirement that takes up extra time and students need extra curricular activities if they want to compete for spots at top schools.

If you daughter wanted to go back to the UK to study, keep in mind that there is a three-year residency requirement (the 3-years before she starts). There may be ways around that if you have family there, I don't know. I just know we don't have a way around it, so our kids aren't going back, even if they want to!

Having said ALL of that (sorry, I'm never brief), kids move in and out of schools all the time and I'm sure a school here would work with you on assessing your daughter and working out exactly what she needs to do to meet graduation requirements. I've no idea if they would expect her to take all of the regents exams or if she could use her GCSEs (if she gets them) to test out of some them. I will say the schools try to be helpful, but don't really understand the UK exam system. At 16, even with GCSEs I think she would struggle to find a college or university place - she'd need SATs or ACTs and I suggest those would be easier with a few years of US schooling behind her.

I don't think I've helped at all, but here's one solid piece of advice: The Northtowns get a LOT less snow that the Southtowns. I don't know where your husband will be working, but if possible, settle in the Northtowns and sit back and laugh as the Southtowns get hammered and you get half an inch! (When we were hit with Snow-vember, less than a mile south of us they got 6 feet of snow in like 12 hours. We got a dusting!)

And good luck!