"A" Level Study
 

Hi,

I've been living out of the UK for around 18 years mostly in China and am happily married to a Chinese wife with whom I have 3 children.
The 3 children are all UK citizens but have never lived in the UK and are currently attending local Chinese schools in the city where we live (Suzhou).

Our oldest son will complete his Chinese Middle School exam in June this year which is roughly equivalent to the first year of GCSE and we would like to send him too the UK to do A Levels (as well as qualify with 3 years residency for University application in the future).

I have a couple of questions:

1. Will he be eligible to attend a state 6th form college or school to carry out A level study ?
2. What are the entry requirements for 6th form in the UK - will the Chinese middle school qualification suffice ?
3. Are there any organisations in the UK who arrange home stay accommodation whilst he would be studying for A levels (age 16-18) ?


Any information gratefully received !!

Re: "A" Level Study
 

According to what others have put on here, sending him back on his own for education will not qualify for home fees in 3 years time.

1. As a British citizen who is of school age, he will be allowed to have free education at a state school or 6th form college.

3. No. Either you will need to pay for him to be a boarder at a private school, or he will need to stay with a relative in the UK who will look after him.

Re: "A" Level Study
 

There are state boarding schools in England, but spaces are limited. Please see link below for more details -

State Boarding Schools' Association - SBSA

Another point is whether you will consider moving to Scotland. British Citizens resident in Scotland for three years can receive free university education.

Student Awards Agency For Scotland

Re: "A" Level Study
 

You can try here:
Homestay Finder - Helping host families and international students to find each other

Re: "A" Level Study
 

Sorry for the long post.

1. Yes he is entitled to 6th form education - but is his written English good enough or will he need help?
2. Entry is GSCE or equivalent. If his english is not good enough or the standard in China is lower, he can still do the a levels but he may struggle.
3. Yes there are organisations, but do you trust your child to strangers? Perhaps state boarding school is better? Or relatives?

If you think that sending him to UK to study will make him exempt from LEA -then you are mistaken. I know of British friends living in Malaysia who sent their child to boarding school from age 14. When it came to University, she still had to pay overseas fees as her family were ordinarily resident in Malaysia and her only purpose for being in UK was education.

For University Fees here are the rules from UKCISA - Main purpose of residence

For many categories of the fees and Student Support regulations, you have to show not only that you have been ordinarily resident in a particular area, but also that your main reason for being there was not to receive full-time education.

You can check this for yourself by asking where you would be ordinarily resident, if you were not in full-time education. If the answer to this is in the same area, full-time education is not your main reason for being there. For example, if you are an EU national and your only reason for being in the UK is to receive full-time education, but when you are not in education in the UK you live in Belgium, you can show that you are not ordinarily resident in the European Economic Area (part of the relevant residence area for EU nationals) mainly for full-time education.

If the answer to this question is that you would be somewhere outside the EU, the main purpose for your residence in the EU is to receive full-time education.