confusedkiwigirl

Hi, I've been away from NZ for nearly 10 years and we are hoping to come home towards the end of the year. Our eldest is about to do her IGCSEs and would then go on to do IB if we stayed in the UK.

Has anyone made the move with similar aged kids? I'd be keen to hear how the transition was and how NZ senior schools compare.

j19fmm

Think you might be ok with IGCSE, normal GCSE is not recognised here. DD had to take Level 1 NCEA maths in order to be allowed to carry on in to year 13. My daughter reckons that subjects are studied in more depth here instead of doing loads of them in a shallow way.
If you have younger children too they could probably cope with the year above but be guided by the teachers.
Some of the private schools do IGCSE's and some state primaries are trying IB.

confusedkiwigirl

Thanks for your reply. How did your daughter find the NCEA maths compared to GCSE?

j19fmm

She had to do the level1 which is pretty light weight, although maths is her least favourite subject. She was also having to do all the work out of class time, she didn't have actual maths lessons, just did lots of practice papers. She was only in year 12 here for 3 1/2 months and managed to bag herself 77 credits. She only needs to pick up another 3 credits to make the magical 80 for Level 2.
The local private school does IGCSE and that seems to be understood and accepted by other schools.
One local state Primary has just gone down the IB route but it's not very well known, or understood.
I've been very pleased with the schooling they have received so far and feel the school is really taking time to understand them. I guess it helps that the school is used to having International and foreign students.
I am teaching at a Primary school and find it a much nicer experience than UK - a lot less paper work and a lot more freedom to study things that are exciting!

trafford

I have just arrived (3 days ago) with two of the children - aged 15 and 16. My son (15) will be doing IGCSE's (they only do 6 as it is done as a 1 year rather than 2 year course). He had a choice of either CIE (Cambridge) which mirrors GCSEs and A Levels or the NCEA. My daughter (16) completed her GCSE's in the UK before we left. She is attending a different school and I think is choosing IB as she thinks that might be easier to enrol in a UK university should she chose to do so. However, the school were clear that NCEA was acceptable for entry into university in the UK. In fact they had recently had one NCEA student accepted into Cambridge. They believe that neither is intrinsically better. IB is more suited to students that are self motivated and organised, and who want a broad education (they must chose subjects across the whole curriculum). Exams are at the end of the two years. It is easier to specialise and focus more on one area (such as science or arts) with NCEA and the assessments are spread throughout the two years. That's my understanding of it anyway, from the brief but informative talk I had with the school's deputy head.

confusedkiwigirl

Thanks trafford, that's good to know. Can I ask where in NZ you are based? Very brave of you moving with 2 teenagers! I have a 16 year old, a 12 year old and a 6 year old and trying to find the right time to move, to suit them all school-wise is impossible. Already my 16 year old is saying she won't come, although how she plans on staying here on her own, I'm not sure! I feel bad about uprooting her from such a good school here but am desperate to come back before they all leave home and establish themselves independently here. Were yours OK with the prospect of moving across the world?

Purrball

To be fair, I don't blame her!

You've been here for ten years. Sounds like she doesn't have the connection with New Zealand that you have, because she's grown up here in the UK and is on the cusp of adulthood with her own life, interests and circle of friends. You speak of going home, but the UK is her home, it's what she's used to... and even if you do move back with her, it's quite possible that the lure of the UK will bring her back here for OE or longer if she's entitled to a British passport.

I'm also a Kiwi expat, lived in London for 25 years now, but when I was almost her age, my parents moved us back to NZ from Europe where we'd been living for about five years. Looking back, it wasn't necessarily the schooling that was disruptive, it was being taken from an environment that you're just learning to negotiate with all the drama and ups and downs of being a teenager, that was the most unsettling, which then had a subsequent impact on my schooling as I became a bit of a rebel. Took me a few years to get used to New Zealand again and as soon I was able, I returned back here where I've lived since. Don't think I'll ever settle in New Zealand again.

Please don't take this the wrong way, but it strikes me that you're attempting a balancing act, weighing up your needs against what might be best for them in the longer-term. It’s different when kids are younger, from six to 11-12 perhaps, but when they’re 16 and older, it can be difficult, especially if they’re unwilling in the first place.

Any compelling reason, apart from wanting to keep the family together, to move back to NZ so soon? Kent's lovely. Do you feel that you’ve exhausted all the possibilities over here? Been back to NZ for any visits recently just to get the lie of the land? If not, do you you think you could easily settle back there?

confusedkiwigirl

I'd be perfectly OK for any of the kids to go off for their OE (as I did) or for them to come back to the UK for uni, but what I would struggle with is ME leaving THEM in the UK to move to NZ without them.

We do have a house there still and have been back for holidays over the years (never long enough and always lots of tears from everyone when it's time to leave) and actually our eldest does have a connection with NZ, having been born there and lived there on and off until she was 7. But, quite understandably, at 16 London is very appealing.

I think what I am finding the hardest, is that this latest stint in the UK was only ever meant to be 5 years, after which we would go back and the kids would carry on their childhood there and we'd all live happily ever after! However, life happens and for one reason or another we weren't able to move when we had originally planned. While there was an end-date to our time here I was perfectly happy but now the thought of never going back, and my children missing out on grandparents and extended family really upsets me. I'd hate to think that the only time I have left with my parents is the odd jet-lagged visit every couple of years.

You're right, it is a balancing act and I feel whatever we choose, someone will end up unhappy.

Sorry, didn't mean for this to be such an outpour!

Purrball

Please don't apologise.

It's interesting hearing the background. I'm just always curious to hear from other Kiwi expats about how they think of going back and how they negotiate things. Think I stopped thinking of New Zealand as home in about my seventh year here and the last time I returned, I felt like a tourist, like a stranger... and was occasionally treated like one too. And yes, life is what happens when you're making other plans and before you know it, ten or 25 years passes by.

Unfortunately, you're right. No matter what kind of expat you are and where you move to, there's always some degree of loss and for some of us, we'll always be partially torn in one way or another. I can't see my sisters or my nephews as often as I'd like, let alone my mother... and as a larger family, we're all now scattered across the planet, which for me, has had plenty of upsides if I'm going to be honest.

I wouldn't try to persuade you from one course of action or another, but I do sympathise with your daughter. She has no agency, doesn't feel part of the decision and quite rightly, instinctually understands it could have a major impact on her life which must be frustrating when you can't call the shots. I guess all you can do is to gently remind her of the good things she loves about NZ.

Best of luck.

trafford

No problem . I am in Auckland. I don't know if we are brave or foolhardy! Both teenagers were in very good schools, they had a strong and extensive friend network, they were truly embedded and happy in their lives. But we had always spoken of giving the kids an opportunity of living in NZ, and we were running out of time. While it would have been easier on the children to have moved while younger, at least this way they have had the experience of both cultures while young adults. My OH is English but I am kiwi and we had been living in the UK for over 16 years. So the kids call the UK "home" as Purrball says. Both children were keen to move to NZ for years, in the abstract sense anyway. As the time approached and it looked like it was going to happen, and especially when the flight was booked, the kids became much less keen. In fact they kept hoping we had changed our minds and would stay. Many tears and pleading (and alternatives offered in desperation such as staying with friends in the UK etc!) but both have accepted that while it will be a challenge, it will also be an opportunity. So they also see the positives. No growth is possible without change and adversity. I know that not everything that happens to us is always good for us, but I think they both will be able to pull something positive out of the experience. I don't think their education will suffer as they are enrolled in good schools, and I like the education system here (being a product of it myself, as well as having been a teacher here), but if they do achieve lower results, then what of it? So they have to try harder? It is a mistake I believe to shield our children from all adversity and difficulty, and while I wouldn't randomly put them under undue stress, it does them good to have their character tested somewhat. They have had some choice of schools and subjects, and they have both been told that they can return to the UK for university if they so wish. So they have some agency, but within boundaries. My daughter said she is treating it as boarding school. Some of her friends disappeared to boarding school in the UK, and only see each other at long holidays. So she has rationalised it in her own head. I also explained that when she goes to university she will have to start making new friends there too, so by then she will be a dab hand at it!

confusedkiwigirl

Trafford, it is so interesting reading some of your past posts. You sound as though you went through a very similar thought process as we (particularly me) are going through now, and like your daughter, mine also wants to do medicine! I've been looking at St Cuthberts for IB and EGGS for NCEA, both of which look good, I think. Also, living in that general area would then allow our 6 year old to eventually go to Auckland Grammar. I love the 'boarding school' attitude your daughter has adopted - a great coping strategy when it gets tough!

All the best for your new chapter in NZ, I really hope you settle in quickly and this time next year we'll be there too!

babybella

Our son was almost 17 when we came, he did his GCSE's and AS levels in the UK. The school recognised all his qual's and is now at Uni. Nobody ever made him do his NCSE maths or English (just as well as he hated math). Maybe it depends on the school! Our eldest son went straight into Uni with his UK results fully recognised.
Kaz

j19fmm

Humph! Wish this High School had seen it that way!!!! But hopefully the Uni's will look kindly upon the fact that she has 13 GCSE's and Level 1 maths AND 80 Level 2 credits and then 80 Level 3 credits!!!!! Poor girl. Glad it wasn't me...I'd have just left school

bourbon-biscuit

Getting NCEA1 maths is part of UE, and will make uni applications much more straightforward. Some of the UE stuff is quite recent - and there are slight changesf or this year's cohort too. The previous poster might have had a kid come in before UE was defined in this way, but also they might have been aiming for a uni/ course that the school knew would consider her GCSE maths as equivalent to UE component.

http://www.nzqa.govt.nz/qualificatio...sity-entrance/

bourbon-biscuit

Fwiw, we moved our daughter from NZ - UK JAN 2013 at the end of her second yr of nz high school. She joined a yr 10 cohort in the UK but them we returned to NZ in August and she returned to her school midway thro yr 11. She planned to get enough credits for UE only as NCEA2 and IB make L1 results redundant apartfrom the UE component. However, being the toughie she is she approached every subject teacher and asked to be put in for every standard going (telling us about it once deed was done) and knuckled down to every internal and external left in the year in subjects she was enrolled in. Yay for her she got NCEA1 with excellence endorsement. She starts IB next week - we're very proud of her amd how she has adapted (the actual results are just a bonus), and she is proof that it isn't necessarily terrible and dreadful to shift teens. Good luck to those doing it - just keep talking, listening, listening, listening with your teen.