Leafykaren

Hi all. This is my first posting on the forum. Just reading other posts has given me so much information already and I am hoping you will assist me too. It's a bit of a lengthy post, so make yourself a cuppa before you start reading!

Situation: British citizen (only by birth 44 years ago when South African parents were in UK for 6 years, but they moved back to South Africa when I was 1 year old, and I have been living here since, so the whole UK education system (and everything else) is unknown to me except what I can glean from the Internet). I am currently married but likely to be separated soon. Have two sons aged 11 and 9. As a single parent, I will no longer be able to afford the UK and European holidays and experience I always wanted to give my children, so have decided to just move to the UK instead - husband is fine with this. Initially looked to move in a years time (July 2014), but am getting rather excited about it all so may make it January 2014. I have been looking at state schools (will not be able to afford public schools) in Hertfordshire which seems to have a good standard of education, seems good for families and is central for possible job opportunities for me (I am a librarian). Looking at Hitchin at the moment.
Sorry for all the wordy background, but it may focus the answers to my actual questions - and explain my asking such brain-numbing basic ones - and here they are:

1) What school years would my children be in in September 2013 - DS1 born August 2001 (turns 12 in August) and DS2 born in December 2003 (turning 10 in December). I can't find a clear answer from Hertsdirect website?

2) With DS1 being an August child and coming from overseas (i.e. may be behind in some subjects, have to learn different teaching methods, etc.), is it possible to ask that he joins the 'year' below and is one of the oldest in the year rather than one of the youngest?

3) Are the chances of getting a place in a preferred secondary school better during the academic year (if we moved in January) or at the beginning of the academic year (if we moved in July)? Or does it not make a difference?

4) If I don't get in to the preferred school or the second choice (even I am able to rent somewhere less than half a km away), up to what distance away will they generally look to allocate a space? This will affect my monthly cost and need to buy a car or not.

5) Any suggestions for state Primary schools in Hitchin?

Thanks in advance.

Karen

Posted yesterday in Rovers return - which I think was the wrong place as I can't honestly consider myself a returning rover - Sorry (Administrator, please close that thread, I think this is a better place, don't you?)

rebs

Your eldest daughter will be in Yr 8 and youngest will be in Yr 5 - there is a chart here which you can follow to see....

You can try, but my experience with state schools is that they are very inflexible regarding placing children into other years - maybe someone else has had better luck

If you check the LEA and school websites, they should all be listing the exact details of their admissions criteria - distances etc will vary from school to school depending on how oversubscribed they might be.

Leafykaren

Thanks rebs for your answers, especially the 'Which year's one' - good ol' Wikipedia.

I had read through many of the school admission pages on the hertsdirect.org site which is why I am probably paranoid. Looking at it all, and my main concern being my kids education, I am inkling towards biting the bullet and moving sooner rather than later, and look for a tutor to catch up on local content subjects. At least it will put the younger one in a better position to do the 11+ if required.

Another question: For the eldest going into Year 8, would he still have to write an exam to get into a partially selective school (apparently Herts doesn't have any full grammar schools) as an In-year applicant? Yes, I still have my rose-coloured specs on thinking that there are vacancies in the good secondary schools

I think it one of those things one can't plan to the 'nth' degree and there is only so much one can do from 9000km away. Schools don't even look at you (and understandably so) until you are standing in front of them.

So that's it then ... start closing up the SA shop and move in January from lovely warm SA summer to cold UK winter. That will be a real test of character - not only facing the unknown in almost every respect, but dealing with the coldest time of year too (fortunately I'm in Johannesburg and we do get a few minus degree temperatures during winter, no snow though, and I think the kids will love the snow, ice skating, ...)

Now how to tell the boss ???

Spacecake799

Hi,

With regards to moving your child into a lower year we managed it. We approached the school 2 days before he was due to start in year 9 and explained why we thought year 8 was better. The met him and agreed it would be fine (I think if he had been a big strapping 13 yr old it would have been different, has always been small for age so looks the same as his friends).
Definitely worth asking.

Good luck

rebs

Sorry, I don't know the answer about mid year entrances - my guess is that you would need to sit the exam if that is part of the school's admission criteria - but that is only a guess

We were lucky in that we were able to time our move back such that our son sat the entrance exam for his school at the appropriate time and then start in the September along with his peers. Again, luckily, his school were able to arrange for him to sit the exam while we were still living outside of the UK - we did still have our house in the UK at the time.

I found this website and forum very useful - you might get some more specific Hertfordshire help there - we are in Dorset.

Good luck with it all

Leafykaren

Thanks for the hope Spacecake799 - Another advantage to being short (or should that be undertall). DS1 is not a tall one either (about 4th shortest in his current class). I will definitely try asking the school - thanks for the response.

Leafykaren

Thanks again rebs. Was previously at this site, but before I got too embroiled in it all and got into a complete panic, thought I had better just confirm which year's the DSs were in first - which you have done for me.

I feel a UK rekky in September / October coming on ... Yay

MagsB

Hi Leafykaren! We've made the move from South Africa to the UK only 6 weeks ago, and it already feels like a lifetime ago!
Hertfordshire is great for schools. You do however need to do your research well, with regard to which schools are more likely to have space. I've been advised on Mumsnet to rather look at larger schools as they are more likely to have space. I had a list of about 20 schools in the Bromley area (South-East London/Kent) and in the end only 3 of those schools had space for my 8-year old - which narrowed the area in which we could look for a flat down a lot. The admissions team was not very friendly or helpful at all! We got space in an extraordinary big primary school, 0.5 miles from our flat. My daughter seems to be happy, and it is a good school, but at some point I was really worried that they would place her at some failing school miles away.

I think the best place to start is http://home.rm.com/schoolfinder/ - here you can see lots of useful information about schools, Ofsted reports, results, etc. There is a link to Rightmove where you can look at rental properties available close to each specific school. I have also found www.mumsnet.com very useful when I wanted to ask questions about specific schools.

Good luck!

Leafykaren

Hi MagsB.

Another S'African :-) Great advice- thanks. I have been trawling mumsnet and netmums, rightmove (really useful), schoolfinder for the last few months, but was only really looking at Secondary schools and where there were rentals almost next door to them! This was one of the main reasons for pinpointing Hitchin (not many schools around to get lumped with preference number 5, i.e. the one I didn't choose, and I would be happy with either of the two state schools - both get decent Ofsted reports (which I can finally say I almost understand, at least enough to make comparisons), and seem popular but not heavily oversubscribed - I will check the vacancy rates a bit more after term starts. But now that I am thinking of moving before DS2 is going in Year 7 - he will be in Year 5 this year, I need to start the hunt for Primary schools too. There are at least 4 I would be happy with, going by the Ofsted reports, and only 2 are currently slightly oversubscribed but I think until I see my sons' reactions when we actually visit the schools, it is difficult to say - kids have more of an instinct than adults sometimes and they are the ones who have to go there everyday. Oddly enough I have also been looking at the sport activities offered (especially swimming as they both love that) - typical S'African hey.

On another front - did you sort out your bank account, etc. before you moved or only after you arrived - Which bank?
I looked at 1stContact - I don't need the visa part, but do you know anyone who has used them for banking, NI number and job placement?

Thanks again and enjoy the summer!