Dhartery82

uaemanc

Hello,
I think students pick their GCSE subjects in year 9 in England so he should be fine. Depending on what school you are planning to put him in, many teachers and tutors are helpful and create a plan to get students on track with their goals and work too.

Dhartery82

cyrian

You also need to check the OFSTED tables for school performance and size of catchment area for each school.
The figures vary greatly between areas.
In London, finding a good school is a nightmare.
HTH

BritInParis

You do your GCSEs in Years 10 and 11 so you'll be picking them in Year 9. You do your SATs in Year 9. There will be some choice for GCSEs but a lot will be mandatory unlike A-Levels.

JDH101

My wife and I are in a similar position. I was on the Borough of Richmond website yesterday looking into the requirements to apply to get my 5 year old son into primary school.

The website says that the child has to be in the country at the time of applying. But we live in California and don't plan on moving until June for him to start school in September.

Does anyone have any experience with this? We have a house in the borough so I know we qualify for school and he has a British passport.

Many thanks.

cmh9875

hi, I am having similar difficulties, I have a 14 year old USA High Schooler and a 12 Year old Middle Schooler. We are british and want to move back but I cannot get any answers from any admissions board on the GCSE side of things, as my eldest child will be missing one whole year of the process and starting in Year 11. Has anyone found a good contact in the UK.

penguinsix

The US expats in the UK messageboard has a special parenting section where they delve into some of the bits and bobs about moving from US to UK education. Might be worth a look.

https://talk.uk-yankee.com/index.php?board=8.0

cmh9875

thanks very much, still learning to navigate the site

christmasoompa

Just to disagree with some of the above responses, my daughter chose her GCSE's in January of Year 8, and has just started them at the beginning of Year 9. Some schools only do them over 2 years, some over 3 as ours does - you'll need to look in to it cmh9875m for wherever you are moving to as you may find your son has missed 2 years of GCSE's, not just 1 year.

HTH.

christmasoompa

Nothing you can do until you have proof of your address i.e. a signed tenancy agreement. If you're moving back to the house you own then the council will check things like council tax records.

Worth noting too, that applications for those starting primary school in September 2019 close in mid January. If you haven't applied by the deadline you'll be treated as a late application i.e. given whichever school has space, unlikely to be any decent one if it's in an oversubscribed area. So depending on how oversubscribed schools are in Richmond, you might want to think about moving back earlier if possible.

christmasoompa

Sorry to disagree again BiP, but SAT's in Yr 9 were scrapped a few years ago too.

JDH101

Gosh what a tricky situation. Firstly thanks so much for your response. We are going to be living at my parents home and they are going to move out to help us with our move home. My parents home is in the borough of Richmond. I'm thinking my parents could write up a tennancy agreement for us to rent out the property officially from them.

Moving back earlier simply isn't an option. For starters my son is in kindergarten for the school year. Plus I have my job with lots of big projects that won't get finished until the summer. I would be leaving so much money on the table if we were to move early. Here's a naughty question - could I just lie and say we are at the residence? Any correspondence they send to the address my parents could respond too. Sorry I know that is a naughty question. But I can't believe I'm the first person in this situation. Thanks again!

christmasoompa

You're not the first person in that situation, but I really wouldn't recommend you lie. If you're caught (and that happens a lot - they turned up on my doorstep when I applied for my son's school place, as we'd been renovating the house so they wanted to check we were genuinely living there), then it can really screw up your child's schooling, they can take a place away even if they're happy and settled at the school. The council do various checks, including checking tax records, so a false application can be easy to spot. This article specifically mentions Richmond btw - https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ukn...er-school.html

I think you'll just have to accept that if Richmond is an oversubscribed area, you'll have your son at a school that won't be your first choice to start with, but he can remain on the waiting list in the hope of getting a place later on. Unless your wife could move back with your son before 15th Jan to apply for a school place, and you follow on later?

Will your parents home be a permanent home, or just temporary?

JDH101

Honestly, my parents would be a temporary home until we found somewhere to live. But we would stay within the catchment area as its where we want to live.
I have emailed the admissions team and told them of my situation. You are right, I shouldn't lie over something as important as my son's schooling.
Thank you so much for your advice and taking the time to respond. I do think the system is flawed for genuine situations like this. Do they expect me to take my son out of his current school and miss 6 months of education just so we can be placed come September? Moving a family from one country to another is stressful as it is, but this might be the most stressful part to it. So now a little 5 year old is going to do a move across the world, make new friends at a new school, then after a year get moved once again to a new school that is his parents preference.
Hey ho - thanks again.