Getting kids in to High School ....
Feb 1st 2008, 8:05 pm
#31
Forum Regular
Joined: Feb 2006
Location: Nidderdale, North Yorkshire.
Posts: 64
Re: Getting kids in to High School ....
This might worry me too. The Canadian curriculum generally runs about a year behind the UK one for kids of the same age. So technically, my daughter may have just completely missed out on the equivalent of UK Year 5 !! She's bright as a button, but both my girls would have to play catch up for a while.
Ain't hindsight a wonderful thing?! If I had in any way thought we would consider returning, I would have more seriously thought about pushing them both up a year. I decided against this option to keep them with their peer group (which has worked out well and they have good friends and have settled in well).
I'm starting that slippery road and sounding like all the other confused souls in this section - I've always maintained great empathy for the pickle we get ourselves into
wouldn't life be so boring if we were certain of things all the time ? 
Ain't hindsight a wonderful thing?! If I had in any way thought we would consider returning, I would have more seriously thought about pushing them both up a year. I decided against this option to keep them with their peer group (which has worked out well and they have good friends and have settled in well).
I'm starting that slippery road and sounding like all the other confused souls in this section - I've always maintained great empathy for the pickle we get ourselves into
wouldn't life be so boring if we were certain of things all the time ? I agree with "english rose" in that I would not worry about your daughter being left behind.
We had 2 kids at Banded Peak School (Grades 4 & 5) and another in the Bragg Creek Kindergarden.
We returned to the UK in August last year and our kids moved into Year 6, Secondary School and Year 1 and they have all caught up and are doing great, so don't worry about that.
Feb 5th 2008, 8:17 am
#32
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Joined: Feb 2007
Location: Okotoks, Alberta
Posts: 526
Re: Getting kids in to High School ....
If you return to the UK with kids of high school / comprehensive age (whatever you call it!) - do you have any choice to where they go ?
I know the issue of 'choice' is a misnomer anyway, but we like to think we do have some element of choice, don't we ?
Surely, by the time you get there, all the 'good' schools are full, and have waiting lists. I presume the Education Authority can and will only offer you a place at the nearest school with a space? Which, in turn, I take, could mean one of the least favourable schools in the area !!
I've scanned the Education Authority website, but could not see anything specific about this .... anyone got any experience on this please ?
Thanks ....
I know the issue of 'choice' is a misnomer anyway, but we like to think we do have some element of choice, don't we ?
Surely, by the time you get there, all the 'good' schools are full, and have waiting lists. I presume the Education Authority can and will only offer you a place at the nearest school with a space? Which, in turn, I take, could mean one of the least favourable schools in the area !!
I've scanned the Education Authority website, but could not see anything specific about this .... anyone got any experience on this please ?
Thanks ....
Hi Ann
If you were still in the UK waiting for your work permit or PR application to be processed, I am sure you would still put in an application for a secondary school place this autumn when they are due, even if you didn't expect to be there come September 2009 - because you would want to be on the safe side in case your application got held up or you couldn't sell your house in time or whatever. If you were able to move before she should start secondary school, you would then withdraw your application or turn down the place before you left.
So surely what you are thinking of, is the same thing just in reverse. You are here, but are worrying that you might be back in the UK in time for your daughter to go to secondary school in September 2009. So could you not put in an application anyway and then if you do go back, you stand a good chance of getting the school you want. If you don't go back, you can withdraw the application or turn down the place, as I am sure if it is a good school they will have a waiting list of people happy to take the place from you??
Just a thought?
Lisa
Feb 5th 2008, 9:51 am
#33
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Thread Starter
Joined: Jul 2006
Location: Cochrane, Alberta
Posts: 7,864
Re: Getting kids in to High School ....
Hi Ann
If you were still in the UK waiting for your work permit or PR application to be processed, I am sure you would still put in an application for a secondary school place this autumn when they are due, even if you didn't expect to be there come September 2009 - because you would want to be on the safe side in case your application got held up or you couldn't sell your house in time or whatever. If you were able to move before she should start secondary school, you would then withdraw your application or turn down the place before you left.
So surely what you are thinking of, is the same thing just in reverse. You are here, but are worrying that you might be back in the UK in time for your daughter to go to secondary school in September 2009. So could you not put in an application anyway and then if you do go back, you stand a good chance of getting the school you want. If you don't go back, you can withdraw the application or turn down the place, as I am sure if it is a good school they will have a waiting list of people happy to take the place from you??
Just a thought?
Lisa
If you were still in the UK waiting for your work permit or PR application to be processed, I am sure you would still put in an application for a secondary school place this autumn when they are due, even if you didn't expect to be there come September 2009 - because you would want to be on the safe side in case your application got held up or you couldn't sell your house in time or whatever. If you were able to move before she should start secondary school, you would then withdraw your application or turn down the place before you left.
So surely what you are thinking of, is the same thing just in reverse. You are here, but are worrying that you might be back in the UK in time for your daughter to go to secondary school in September 2009. So could you not put in an application anyway and then if you do go back, you stand a good chance of getting the school you want. If you don't go back, you can withdraw the application or turn down the place, as I am sure if it is a good school they will have a waiting list of people happy to take the place from you??
Just a thought?
Lisa
I understand what you are saying - and of course, it makes perfect sense. However I think the Education Authority's are a little more canny - and you have to provide your address (and prove it sometimes!). This is where you hear of some of those drastic stories where families split up and mum and child 'rent' a house in the catchment area, show proof of utility bills, etc, then once child has got the precious place at the school of choice, they all move back to the family home. OK, so that is extreme, but I've heard of those examples !!!
The form also asks what the child's current school is - and whether you are applying for a school outside your immediate borough. Can't see me wriggling round this one
Feb 5th 2008, 11:24 am
#34
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Joined: Aug 2006
Location: Surrey to Perth and back to Surrey & Back again, Why why why
Posts: 349
Re: Getting kids in to High School ....
Hi Lisa
I understand what you are saying - and of course, it makes perfect sense. However I think the Education Authority's are a little more canny - and you have to provide your address (and prove it sometimes!). This is where you hear of some of those drastic stories where families split up and mum and child 'rent' a house in the catchment area, show proof of utility bills, etc, then once child has got the precious place at the school of choice, they all move back to the family home. OK, so that is extreme, but I've heard of those examples !!!
The form also asks what the child's current school is - and whether you are applying for a school outside your immediate borough. Can't see me wriggling round this one
I understand what you are saying - and of course, it makes perfect sense. However I think the Education Authority's are a little more canny - and you have to provide your address (and prove it sometimes!). This is where you hear of some of those drastic stories where families split up and mum and child 'rent' a house in the catchment area, show proof of utility bills, etc, then once child has got the precious place at the school of choice, they all move back to the family home. OK, so that is extreme, but I've heard of those examples !!!
The form also asks what the child's current school is - and whether you are applying for a school outside your immediate borough. Can't see me wriggling round this one
Hi
We are moving back to the UK soon,hopefully before August,
where we will be moving to Suffolk, either Fordham, Isleham, Moulton, Nr Newmarket
I contacted the local authority to put my son's name down for a place in year 1 also a Nursery place and have been told there is none, and I will have to go on a waiting list, (which they will not do until I can prove that I a permeant address in the area) only then if they can't find me a place in that catchment area then they will find him a place in the nearest school with spaces
I am really worried that he will not be able to get a place in a local school and feel like I am in a catch 22, I don't want to buy a house then have to drive for miles to get him to school, when the school I want him to go to will be 5min walk from me
yet if I can't prove you have a perm address then they won't even put you on the list.
Feb 5th 2008, 1:01 pm
#35
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Joined: Feb 2007
Location: Okotoks, Alberta
Posts: 526
Re: Getting kids in to High School ....
Hi Lisa
I understand what you are saying - and of course, it makes perfect sense. However I think the Education Authority's are a little more canny - and you have to provide your address (and prove it sometimes!). This is where you hear of some of those drastic stories where families split up and mum and child 'rent' a house in the catchment area, show proof of utility bills, etc, then once child has got the precious place at the school of choice, they all move back to the family home. OK, so that is extreme, but I've heard of those examples !!!
The form also asks what the child's current school is - and whether you are applying for a school outside your immediate borough. Can't see me wriggling round this one
I understand what you are saying - and of course, it makes perfect sense. However I think the Education Authority's are a little more canny - and you have to provide your address (and prove it sometimes!). This is where you hear of some of those drastic stories where families split up and mum and child 'rent' a house in the catchment area, show proof of utility bills, etc, then once child has got the precious place at the school of choice, they all move back to the family home. OK, so that is extreme, but I've heard of those examples !!!
The form also asks what the child's current school is - and whether you are applying for a school outside your immediate borough. Can't see me wriggling round this one
Hadn't thought about that, so I can see why you are worried.
But will they not give you a bit of leeway when you say you are moving back into that catchment area from overseas, because you can prove where you are now and that your daughter is at a school out of the borough (a long way out of the borough!!!!!
) Surely they would view your circumstances differently to someone who lives in the next borough and is just taking a chance on getting a place at that particular school?If not, then it really is a Catch 22 situation. I know I have thought about this a lot in our own situation because, as you know, our son is in Grade 5 and if we were still in the UK he would have done the 11+ in November this year as there is still a Grammar School system where we lived. I have worried about whether we would jeopardise his chances of getting a place if we decided at some point in his secondary education to go back, because he didn't get the chance to do the test and be accepted in Year 7. Having said that, I have heard of people moving into the area and getting places there based on their child's performance at their last secondary school.
Sorry I am not much help, but I do feel for you.
Lisa
