ianandnatalie

I know this is a little specific but we are really struggling to find any solid advice. We are moving in December to Miami for a year, maybe 18 months, and really need some help and guidance on schooling (and maybe private tuition) for our 8 year old daughter. As she will dip in to the USA schooling system and then return in year 5/6 to the British schooling system, it is imperative we keep her aligned. Can anyone please help?

Thank you in advance,

Ian and Natalie.

anotherlimey

I have an 8 and a 6 year old in Miami. Bear with me because my wife takes care of most of this...

Schools vary quite widely.

Where will you be living in Miami? Your assigned school will depend on where you live; another option is applying to a charter school, if your local schools are not well ranked, and then of course there are private schools.

Both mine are in charter schools because we didn't like the assigned school's teachers much. We also have a tutor for the eldest.

Note, your 8 year old will be sitting the standardized test in this school year. If she fails then the school, I believe, can hold her back a year.

Chesten

I'm pretty new and my kids are younger so I don't have experience of this.

But...if it were me (and I expect you've thought of this too) I would certainly discuss at length with the current UK school to be crystal clear about the syllabus being missed. Do the same in the US re what will be taught and get a tutor for any gaps. I don't know how much of the US research can be done from afar. Can you visit prior to the big move to work this through a little and get a sense of areas/ schools etc?

Good luck.

Pulaski

Mid school year to mid school year, is going to be a bit messy, but won't do any long term harm for an eight year old. At that age, and if Natalie isn't working, I would seriously consider homeschooling, which is a pretty big thing in the US anyway. If you tap into a local homeschooling network you should be able to find both tutors for specific subjects and some parents who have specialist knowledge.

carcajou

School quality very closely tracks neighbourhood socioeconomics. Good neighbourhood usually equals good school.

If you are only going to be in Miami for a year - consider if any British private schools are operating there and enrolling your kids there, and not bothering with the public schools.

US schools absolutely can and will hold kids back for a year if they don't meet targets - but that is rare in elementary school but much more common in high school. If your child is intelligent but is struggling mainly because of the curriculum switch - any competent school administrator will understand that and pass an elementary-aged child on to the next year level.

Ecto17

We have just started a 6 yr old in first grade and have been lucky with our local school.
We found it relatively easy to find a good school (as we were lucky as there were several in our area) but also because each address has an allocated school and each school is graded from 1-10, so you can check the school before even considering the house or area. Realtor.com has that information on most of its listings. Far more certainty then the lottery of schools in the U.K. which is something.
I am using a website called www.twinkl.co.uk to access U.K. materials, it is really useful and is the website a lot of teachers use. I think it is about £60 a year but a worthwhile investment in our view.
Good luck with your move, v exciting.

Pulaski

I think you will find that city-data.com has more complete data, though I suspect that it is pulled from the same source as the realtor.com data.