Kmaidment

Hi - We're thinking about moving to New York state with my husband's job. My son's are 10 & 12 year old (so pre GSCE stage,) are there any downsides on taking them out of the UK education system now & potentially putting them back in later, maybe in 3 years time so my eldest can start A levels in UK & my youngest GCSEs - or in 5 years so the next stage?
Thanks for any advice.

nick.simpson19

Some schools offer International Baccalaureate which is recognized by university's world wide.

Plus sometimes in certain areas there are international school, where they could potential continue in the British system. (These are more common in Europe)

Kmaidment

Thank you for your reply, Unfortunately there are no British schools locally to where my husband would work, that would have been ideal. There is 1 school locally that teaches the IB so that would definitely be worth thinking about.

scrubbedexpat100

You will need to be a resident in the UK for 3 years before your boys start uni to avoid international fees due to the non residence aspect.

kodokan

Find out from local schools/ 6th form colleges in your area how they would deal with an internationally-educated student arriving at 16 with no GCSEs. It's possible he would need to do an additional foundation year first, in which he took the 5(?) GCSEs necessary to gain acceptance to A level courses.

He may be limited as to what GCSE subjects he could realistically take and pass in a year, based on what the 6th form college offers and what he's studied in the US. For example, most US high schools do General Science in 9th grade, Biology 10th, Chemistry 11th and Physics 12th. So he may not have done a broad enough science education to easily pass a double or triple science GCSE, which would close off some higher level science studies.

Maths may also be similarly tricky, due to the linear US curriculum - he'll have done Algebra 1 to a level easily high enough for a GCSE and beyond, and likely the same with Geometry (usually a 10th grade class) but won't have touched on Trig or Calculus at all.

He won't have studied much of anything in Social Studies that's likely to be useful for a UK GCSE in History or Geography.

Some of the English language skills may need relearning due to the differences in spelling and punctuation, and they also have a very specific paint-by-numbers way of structuring essays here that may or may not be how they teach such things in the UK now.

Foreign languages are easy to transfer skills-wise; as is IT or Art.

Kmaidment

Thank you that's very useful to know!!

Kmaidment

Thank you for the information - all stuff I hadn't considered. Really helpful, thank you.

Owen778

Probably worth adding that education is mostly a state responsibility in the US, so New York State will be different to Ohio and to Texas, and there is some further variation between individual school districts. That said, the generalities will be the same - single subject chunks taken each year of high school (in my school district, 14 to 18) and sometimes in the last year of middle school too, all aimed towards reaching the state standards in time for graduation from high school.

Kmaidment

Thank you.

kodokan

No problem - I have a 16 year old in 10th grade who'd be doing GCSEs this year if he was in the UK, so I had a quick think through what would be transferable for him if he went back now.

Other things to think about:

- if he does have to do an extra year (and I can't think how he could get onto A level courses or be ready for that level of study in certain subjects without it), then psychologically how might he deal with that, being so out of step with his peers, starting university a year later, etc?

- how might he deal with the workload imposed in the US, knowing it's all essentially pointless as he doesn't care about his GPA, class ranking, or how his 9th and 10th grade performance will reflect on his college app?

My son, for example, wouldn't have a major problem with the first thing above; he very much likes being an outlier and would enjoy the unique back story. (He might, however, produce a spreadsheet showing me how much our parenting decision had cost him for that one year, in lifetime opportunity cost of lost earnings ).

He would, however, have a colossal problem with the second thing. He greatly enjoys learning and will teach himself scads of things about Ancient Rome or Russian literature or the history of the Periodic Table, but much of what he does at school is clearly busy work designed to tick a mass education box: making a poster about nutrition for health class, having to take an Intro to IT class set to the lowest common denominator when he builds his own PCs, etc. He does it, moderately cheerfully, because he can see a goal of getting straight As and likes gaming the system for the best possible GPA. But if he knew none of this would matter a dot to his future life, he simply wouldn't bother, and then there'd be a world of ongoing issues about self-identifying as the defiant, troublesome kid, seeing education as something to be confrontational about, getting into a 'meh, can't be bothered' mindset about schoolwork, etc.

Plus getting poor grades in classes would rapidly get him demoted to the basic level classes. If he's anywhere above average intelligence, this would be a terrible place to be - think of it as him being in the bottom couple of sets in the UK, the ones full of kids who seriously don't want to be there and where the teacher is performing crowd control interspersed with a few minutes of instruction, where no one does the set homework or makes the faintest effort in class/ group work.

If you decide to come, treat it as permanent, and tell the kids it's so. For many people, it turns out to be anyway.

Kmaidment

That's a really good point! My eldest is clever but dyslexic so not a superstar academically although very very arty (currently expected to get a scholarship to a private UK senior school next year.) My younger one is doing well at school due to being competitive & very conscientious rather than very clever, but he's very sporty - he;s in every team going - golf, swimming, soccer, rugby, cricket, basketball - you name it - he loves it!

kodokan

That's helpful - being arty is a skill he can work on and improve regardless of where the rest of his education is taking place, and a broader life experience exposing him to new ideas and cultures could be a good selling point.

And for your younger one - well, being sporty here is a fabulous 'in' to an enjoyable social life, and at 10 he's still young enough to train up to be considered for selective athletic teams in his teens. Expect to have to pay MUCH more than you're used to in the UK though, as most extracurriculars for even small kids - twice a week karate, being on a weekly baseball team, etc - run to $100-150 a month.

Kmaidment

Wow! We pay £60 a month for them both to be on the swimming team & soccer etc are only about £100 a year!!

kodokan

I know! I almost had a stroke when I found out about pricing here. I was used to paying a couple of quid for the kids to do something run by volunteers and hobbyists in the local village hall. Here, kids' activities are a relentless commercial exercise, so my 7 year old was doing karate (aka rolling around on the mat like a puppy and waving her arms about) in in a fully-equipped full-time martial arts gym, by paid instructors, for $115 a month (plus belt testings, plus kit, ya da ya da) and that was one of the cheaper hobbies she could do.

There are apparently places where you can get reasonably priced kids' activities at the YMCA and the like, but I've not lived anywhere that's an option. Plus I think if you have a child that's competitive, rather than doing it for fun and fitness, then they need to be in a proper (read: expensive) club/ team for their sport.

jeepster

Your taking your kids through the expensive route as i would think YMCA, school teams and Park districts have much cheaper activities. But of course the local towns are all different.