Last night my OH and I were discussing the correct strategy to ensure a smooth and beneficial educational strategy for my eldest. Now I'm questioining if I understand correctly what is best for him. This is what I am proposing:

Background:

The strategy:

I thought that it's simple and smooth doing it my way but OH insists that he needs to complete his GCSEs in June 2011 before we can consider making the leap over there. But if he does that he'll need to redo year 11 in order to get his uni entrance. I'm not keen on him effectively wasting a year and if he has to end up doing 13 years of school education then I would prefer that we remain here until he finishes his A levels.

I'll be grateful if anyone can clarify the best strategy for us to follow.

Personally I see your way as best...gives him a headstart and allows him to get a real feel for Australia by being educated early on, alongside his Aussie peers. Is your OH trying to tell you that she has gone off the idea of moving to Australia, perchance? Hmmmm

No not at all. She's as keen as I am.

If you're planning on being in Aus for the foreseeable future, beyond the time your son would attend Uni then I would do as you suggest. If you only think you'll be here a couple of years and you envisage him going to Uni in the UK then I'd do as your wife suggests.

Whilst the schools would be happy for him to do year 11 and 12 at an older age and lots of kids do it, I don't really see the point of him finishing his GCSEs if he's not going to follow on his education in an English institution.

Does he have any views on the subject?

Not really, he's just trusting that we'll decide the right thing for him. He's always been fully sold on the idea of moving to Australia. As you know, we'd previously decided to stay here for a few years more but I'm afraid that it might never happen if we leave it that long.

I was pleased last night when my younger son announced after watching the latest episode of "Wanted Down Under" that he's really looking forward to moving there. From "I'm British and I want to stay here" through "I'm warming to the idea" to "really looking forward to it" in just a few months . But it goes to show how quickly his opinions on moving can change. ...A chip off the old block, methinks

Unfortunately kids change their minds as much as we'd like them to change their underwear! A week or so before you move he'll probably do the 'I'm moving over my dead body' routine - Sorry

I hope not . I'm thinking that the last minute emotions wont be so great given that we're not leaving family behind and his best friend is coming with.

I've just been looking at this site. If eldest son begins over there at year 11 he wont have the "junior high school certificate" does this carry any relevance or will it impact on him in any way relative to my earlier questions?

Hi,
My son came over for the middle of Australian Year 10.
He did not do his GCSE as our job offer meant we had to arrive at very short notice.

Anyway it worked out great for my son. He has just got his TEE exam results and got a pretty high TER score (he can get on just about any Uni course he chooses). So Im pretty pleased right now.

He spent the half of Year 10 here, relaxing and making friends. This made him settle into Australian life much easier. As he was not worrying about exams and got time to get used to the Aussie schooling.

By the start of year 11 and 12 he was ready for some serious work. He went to a good Catholic School and had no problems with the work or making friends

Anyway having gone through what you are proposing wanted to say for us it worked. Ive had no issues with my son making friends or settling. In fact he settled the quickest out of all of us. But the big plus is the super exam results (sorry cant help bragging!)

Im not sure how well my son would have settled being thrown straight into
Y11/12 course work without that initial time to settle.

Gems
PS, my hubby is a teacher so we didnt dismiss GCSE lightly.

It's irrelevant if he's doing 11 and 12. Actually never heard of it - my eldest is going into Grade 12 in a couple of weeks, there was no hoo har when she finished Grade 10. It may be one state, that site also states that High School starts in Grade 8, in NSW and others it starts in Grade 7 so I'd say it's quite a generalised page.

Thanks Gems. It's great to hear that your son has adjusted nicely and done very well . I would move over there right away if I could but there's some things that need to be done first. I feel fairly confident that Jason will settle straight away into the Y11/12 course but I agree it would be preferable if he had some months to settle in first.

All the best

Thanks MP . The end of 2010 it is then

I tend to think that either you come just as he is about to turn 16 in which case he will go into year 11 in 2011 (not 2012 as you said in your first post) or stay until he has done his A levels which will travel very nicely to Aus universities. GCSEs are essentially irrelevant being considered equivalent of year 10 certificate (called different things in different states) and you dont actually need a year 10 certificate in ACT to be able to go on to college. ACT has a college system for years 11 and 12 which is quite different from the rest of the country - separate institutions and not part of HS.

If you come so that he goes into year 11 you may want to be a bit canny and keep your eye out for year 11 applications - colleges are not totally like HS here and there is an application process towards the end of the year (I am thinking Aug/September but would need to check that out) where kids can apply for whichever college they want - they wont necessarily get it but it gives them scope to go out of area and may be do particular courses which take their fancy. http://www.bsss.act.edu.au/years_11_and_12/colleges is a good place to start. Narrabundah would probably the one most in demand.

Some colleges have talented sports programs where kids can get credit for high level sports participation (Erindale and Dickson), others are more arts and drama (Narrabundah). Some do the IB (Narrabundah, Copland and possibly Canberra???) which may be a consideration should you ever decide that Australia is not for you as the qualifications would move back to UK/Europe more seamlessly.

If you are going private then Radford would be the one to look at or, if you fancy a bit more rigor (IMHO) and the NSW assessment process then Canberra Grammar School is the only one in town which does the HSC.

If it were me in your position and I had the time available I would finish A levels because that then keeps options of a UK or Aus uni open to you without the added problem of international student fees in UK if that is the way they want to go,

Wow! That's everything that I need to know. Thanks very very much

(Sorry, I got the year confused - I meant 2011 )

If you plan for him to start yr 11 in January next year, I would aim to get out here at least a few months before the end of the school year so that he has a chance to adjust & understand his options more fully. It also gives both boys a chance to make friends before the long school holidays.
Good luck Paul