Need advice on my sons Education
 

Hi Everyone

I have a problem regarding my sons immigration and i need some advice. I thought i might share it with the British expat forum and see if anyone out there has had a similar situation.

My wife and I moved here 4 months ago and everything is sweet so we have no intentions of returning to old Blighty any time soon. When we were working our way through the application i asked my then 15yr old son if he wanted to come with us to which his response was "No thanks dad I am staying here". 4 Months down the road he is as miserable as sin and says he doesn't want to stay in the UK anymore. He started his A levels in September and says he hates them.

My question is: What are his options??

As a parent a part of me thinks the sensible thing is for him to stay in the UK for 2yrs and finish his A levels but if he is not happy then i wonder whether he will put his full effort into completing them.

I have spoken to immigration and i can bring him out here but where would he be placed in the education system. He is 16 and has completed his GCSE's. Can he find an equal level of education to do here and what would it involve?

I am also unsure as to whether he would be classed as a domestic student or international

Please help :confused:

Best regards


Mark

Re: Need advice on my sons Education
 

Can't help in terms of where to place him in the system etc (My child in school is only 5) but in terms of domestic/international.... I found this for you on the immigration website:

U3.35.5 Primary and secondary domestic students who require a student permit or limited purpose permit

The following people require a student permit or limited purpose permit in order to undertake study in New Zealand but are considered to be domestic students for the purposes of attending primary and secondary schools and are exempt from paying foreign course fees:

b. Children whose application for permanent residence is under consideration and who are the dependent children of any person who is the holder of a New Zealand residence permit.

d. Dependent children of any person who is the holder of a valid work permit other than those excluded under U8.20.


You can read the entire thing for yourself here: http://www.immigration.govt.nz/opsmanual/25493.htm

Re: Need advice on my sons Education
 

if you have PR he'll be classed as a home student, even if he goes onto uni in NZ

Re: Need advice on my sons Education
 

You'd be mad not to bring him out here pronto, imo. I can't understand where the dilemma is?! Whatever slight education adjustment he has to make will be a piece of cake for him compared with having to adjust to wanting to be with his parents and not being able to be at his age (I'm guessing 17/18?).

Re: Need advice on my sons Education
 

Mark is he still living with his mum, how does she feel about him leaving the country?

Re: Need advice on my sons Education
 

Sorry I didn't really make myself clear.

My son lives with his Mum in the UK. My present wife would be his step mum.

I have wanted to emigrate for many years and when I had a discussion with my Ex wife (Sons mother) she requested that I put it on hold until my son was 16 and had left school. We have openly discussed it with him and he had the choice to stay in UK or come with us. At the time of our application he was enjoying time with his friends and was in a relationship so decided to stay. I made sure that he knew what he was doing after school before i left.

I have not spoken to his mum about his change of heart because i want him to be totally sure that this is the answer to his problems. I have tried to make him aware of the downsides of being so far away from family and friends and the possibility that he may have to return to school. After he has given it careful thought and decided what he wants then i can approach his mum to discuss.

I figure that if he does come out it would want to be before February so he can catch the beginning of the new school term.

I am personally all up for him coming out here but I don't want it to be a 5 minute phase because i can not afford to fly him back him when he realises he has made the wrong choice. He has also done well at school up to now and i don't want to ruin his chances by bringing him here.

Thank you for your answers, they are a great help.

Best regards

Mark

Re: Need advice on my sons Education
 

Ahhhh, that was a rather essential piece of information and changes things somewhat! It's suddenly a rather tricky, delicate situation :unsure:

Well, the schooling info remains the same- I think he'd enter the end of high school here and go on to uni straight from that and yes he'd be domestic.

Good luck with your tricky situation :)

Re: Need advice on my sons Education
 

Hey Guys
we moved here 3 months ago, after my daughters GCSEs she starts in year 12 in January which is the next school year and will be doing the new zealand curriculum. Im not sure what area your in but i would look at schools that offer cambridge style of exams as they are most transferable if he returns. my daughter school has pretty much disreguarded her GCSe results :( but she has settled really quickly and made loads of friend so i wouldn't worry about that bit. once a child is 16 you do not need the other parent permission as they are classed as being able to make there own mind up! that said we did get her dads permission as we didnt want to make him feel left out.
good luck with it all
Jacki

Re: Need advice on my sons Education
 

Without knowing the family circumstances in more detail than would be appropriate on a forum it's hard to say what is for the best. I worked in a sixth form college for a number of years and so I know this age group very well. They change their minds very quickly and you are right to be concerned about the cost of a return flight. All it needs is a fight with a parent, or falling out with a best friend and they fly off in a whole other direction.

The hard thing is as a parent you obviously don't want him to feel he is not wanted. Taking on board that I don't know you, him or his mother, my personal opinion would be to offer him a trip to NZ in reward for getting his A levels. To him it will seem like a long way off but patience is a good lesson to learn for youngsters. Maybe he can have a NZ gap year and of course he will then be old enough to decide what he wants to do.