susanf

HI our daughter is still in the uk doing her gcse's she's living with her grandma and coming over to join us on jul 2nd.(which is killing me, I just cant wait till shes here with us) she really is a very clever girl and if she was staying in the uk she would have stayed in 6th form. we are in the sunshine coast and she would join year 11 in july. Has anyone else had a child in same situation and how did they do and which path did they take. I have been on the internet and looked at the NSW options and they seem to have more subjects that are similiar to uk ?
Sue

Carbery

We have some friends who were in a simular situation to yours - their son stayed back in UK to complete his GCSE course and exams coming out last July. I dont know the exact circumstances and you will have to check with Qld Education but because he had finished his schooling and left in UK he was unable to join a school in Australia.
My daughter is in year 11 at Merrimac High on the Gold Coast and does not want to take a day off as the workload is so large - also all the courses start at the beginning of the school year (January) with options being chosen for OP subjects late last year.
Bottom line is I doubt if your daughter will get into any year 11 half way through the school year. (Please check though I might be wrong)

Gems

Hello,
we are in WA and my son is in Y11. Have to agree workload is a fair amount for the academic subjects. Also son has been doing exams for some subjects.
But my son is enjoying it and made plenty of friends.

* The only thing is we found that the better schools for Y11/12 were heavily subscribed and we had a job getting our son the place in our chosen school. This was for the start of the school year and we arrived a few months before.

Basically we were told by locals we would find it difficult getting a place as locals can sign up a couple of years in advance!

You should look into what schools and try organising a place asap. Especially if you are thinking of fee paying or popular school.

Gems

Rosscarbery

Depending on her age, would you consider her letting having some time at home with you when she arrives then starting Y11 at the beginning of the next year? There is a huge variation in ages here - there seems to be at least a 2 year age spread in every class. My 14 year old would be coming to the end of Y10 if he had stayed in the UK; he's just at the end of his first term of Y9 here (we're NSW though so not sure if it's different).

Delaying her start would give you (and her) a good chance to look around schools and secure a place and she would have time to choose her options. I would suspect that if she were to start half way through Y11 there would be no spaces left in the more popular subjects.

scrubbedexpat020

My advice is forget the GCSE's, get her over now and get her into year 11 asap.

The exams that count are those in year 12 whichever country you are in. She's bright so she's going to uni? If so, GCSEs will mean jot in Aus.

I think it will be a big ask to join in July having done 10/11/12 GCSEs. Her brain will be cooked and she will need at least a month to chill.

If it were me she would be on the next plane.

Ian

PS it sounds radical but trust me it isn't.

thewoodz

If she is planning to have a good career or further education in Oz then she needs to complete all of year 11 and 12 in order to leave school with an OP score and at least 3/4 of year 11 and all of 12 to have a chance of getting a Queensland Certificate of Education - both of which she will need if she is bright and wishes to have a choice for her future.
Maybe she should - dare i say it - go into Year 10 this year, or what is left of it and use this time to get settled in school and make friends and then start yr 11 in January 09.
As a previous poster has said there seems to be a wide age range in each grade and as many kids leave yr 12 aged 18 as those who are 17 so there would be no stigma attached to her age.

thewoodz

Sorry the above relates to Queensland - i don't know about other states

NKSK version 2

I completely disagree and think this is disastrous advice.

Ozzidoc

On what basis.

As a former HR manager in various industries in Australia and the UK, we paid absolutely NO attention to GCSEs.

NKSK version 2

You might not have done. But next stage educators will.

More importantly as I seem to be saying a lot these days, you never know what is around the next corner. After two years of study it would seem almost criminal to not let her complete the exams.
What if the family decide to move back into the British system? What if she doesn't settle well here? What about all the work she has put in - just to be pulled out of the system when she has completed 90% of the course? She will have absolutely nothing tangible to show for her work. How would that make you feel?

Ozzidoc

Thanks for your reply. I understand where you come from.

The real issue would be if she came to Oz with no GCSEs, spent some time in OZ but did not attain her Higher school Cert, Cert of Education, YR 12 or whatever it is called in the state she's in, and then wanted to attend a UK uni.

Generally, British unis will accept the Oz qualification. Most would look at it on a case-by-case basis if necessary. It would be much harder should the OPs kid want to attend college in the USA.

NKSK version 2

Possibly the perfect storm. And that might well happen - parents get homesick, death in the family in the UK or any of the other multitude of reasons which send a family back to the UK before the daughter graduates from high school. It's a risk which is too great for the sake of 3 months.

I still feel that even if she did complete her HSC here, there remains the problem of the last two years essentially being thrown away. Not a good motivator.

Ozzidoc

I agree.

My gut feeling is that she should should complete her GCSEs and then start year 11 in the new academic year.

My concern is what she would do in the intervening six months...life can be pretty boring living in a foreign country with no friends. If it were my kidlet - and I had the cash! - I'd help them use it to travel around Europe, eg learn Spanish in Spain for a month etc.

NKSK version 2

What a nice problem to have!!
Do the end of the year and then repeat (I did that when I was a kid)? Work? Travel? Do a qualification in something for which you wouldn't normally have time? Voluntary work?

quoll

Absolutely agree with previous posters - if there is any likelihood at all of things going pear shaped and the lass needing to return to UK education system (and who amongst us can say with hand on heart that that will never be a possibility!) then let her finish GCSEs and then begin here in Aus at the beginning of year 11 in 2009. Even though no one in Aus will give two hoots about GCSEs, it is a safety net that she should have. As for the intervening 6 months - great idea to let her travel and learn at the same time.