TraceyMcAlister

Hi Everyone

I'm desperate for some guidance in regards to schools.

We are a family of 4 (8yr old and a 10yr old) planning on moving from a small village (1 hour from London). My husband will generally be working in Irvine so we plan to move nearby. He is used to commuting atleast an hour each way to and from work. My main concern is good schools for the children! My son who is Dyslexic is currently in year 5 and my daughter is in year 3. I want to be within catchment for Northwood High, Lakeside Middle School and Stone Creek Elementary. Does this mean I need to live in Irvine to be in for a chance at these schools? Or can we look at living in Lake Forest, Mission Viejo, Dana Point?

Any info greatly appreciated!!! It's likely that we'd need to move as soon as beginning of June.......so little time!! Plan is to let our house out here and rent in CA. We have a dog too!! My husband was born in San Fransisco but only lived there for the first year of his life, however he has dual citizenship. I also think that most schools break up at the beginning of June so we may need to wait until the end of summer to enrol them anywhere!! Aaaaaah!!! hms:

Nutmegger

Each school will have a specific catchment area (look at their websites) -- as has been said on here before, live on the wrong side of the street and you could be channeled to a different school! So if you are sure of the schools you wish to attend, you must tell your realtor this and ensure you only look at houses that are on streets in the appropriate area. And you should enroll as soon as you have your address. The students may not be in school, but the administrators will be preparing for the new school year. Good luck!

Pulaski

US schools typically start back in mid August, so if you keep your children in school in the UK until school breaks up in late July, your children may have as little as 3-4 weeks of school holiday before starting in school in the US.

One fairly frequent poster here on BE had an interesting insight into moving children internationally to a school in the US, that arriving after school had already started served as a reminder that the child(ren) are different, and not used to the US school system. In other words if they arrive on day one of the year, when most children are new to most teachers, they may just get lost in the crowd, but arrive "late" for the year and they'll get more attention.

GeoffM

Some (popular) schools have a lottery system if you're not within the catchment area and want to attend. Worse, you can be *in* the catchment area and *still* have to go to another school! Happened to friends, though they did get to go to their home school the next academic year. Boundaries also change: find a house in June and you could find that you're on the wrong side of the boundary for the August. But if you're in the school already then grandfathering does exist (ie they won't kick you out just because the boundary moved). Again, happened to friends. YMMV

Phone the school. They're usually quite helpful. If they don't give answers then phone the school district instead. Unfortunately some people are chicken and egg in that they won't talk unless you live there, but you don't want to live there unless they talk first. But some are very helpful.

Rete

Sorry, but I need to ask. Do you already have your IR-1 visa to come to live in the US? Do your children have their US passports?

scrubbedexpat091

Bold bit- So true. When it came for high school (I went to school in So.Cal) I had no friends join me at the school I went to, all my friends lived across the street which was not only in a different city but different school district.

The neighborhood was middle class mix of blue collar & white collar professionals, and by no means bad, but we had no high school, each high school was 7-8 miles away in different directions.

I went to my "local" HS which was one of the better ones and consistently ranked in the top of lists for something, offered AP & IB and so on. Low drop out rate, high % of students going on to college.

My friends ended up in an inner city school ranked near the bottom with a high drop out rate and gang activity, low % of students going onto college.

All because I live on one side of the street and they lived on the other.

We all went to the same elementary school.

Marc_ely

If you want to go to those specific schools then you need to live in their catchment areas. There are some overlaps in area for middle and high schools but elementary schools serve specific areas.
Finding a place that will be in the catchment of all three will be quite limiting.

Getting a rental at all as a foreigner can be quite tricky, let alone one in a very specific area. It might be easier as your husband is a citizen though.

What made you focus so tightly on those three schools? Are those schools known to be good for dyslexia support etc?
I think all the schools in Irvine are good schools. Most of the schools in the other places you list are also good too.
You probably already know about it but: www.greatschools.org
Don't get too hung up on 8/10 vs 9/10 vs 10/10.
In my experience there's sod all difference and the actual quality of the teaching is down to the individual teacher your kid is assigned to, and they vary from excellent to utter shit, even in a 10/10 school.

Be aware that schools have later starting ages here than in the UK. So your kids will probably be academically further on than the kids here.

Rete

In Irvine, CA, for the school calendar 2018-2019, school starts of August 23, 2017 and ends on June 7, 2019.

scrubbedexpat099

Sounds like the father would not be able to pass on US Citizenship, also wondered about that.

On a more positive note Dog should be OK.

GeoffM

I'm not entirely certain when the scores are calculated but I suspect they could be up to a year old (possibly even a touch more). Our son's school dropped from an 8/10 to a 6/10 in 18 months, and I'd certainly agree on the good teacher/bad teacher thing.

I'd also try to hang around the school(s) at pick-up time to see what it's like. Great if you live next to the school... and don't aim to access your driveway at that time. Our first house was "trapped" in all directions by schools so it was pointless trying to drive anywhere at 3pm.

If you're instead in a long pickup queue, that can be demoralising in itself, especially if merging is involved. Seems that manners and orderly merging goes out the window when DS/DD is to be picked up.

BenK91

As others have said, may not be a bad thing having them start late. Also as patronizing as it sounds, expect to pay more in terms of housing if you're in an area surrounded by good schools.

Edit - Just saw you're in Saffron Walden. I was born there and lived there til I was 16! Went back in December 2017 as my family are still living there... Still didn't think much to it as a 26 year old now!

Rete

TYPO

Starts on August 23, 2018 and ends on June 7, 2019

penguinsix

FWIW While California is part "live on this street" (and this helps quite a bit) it also has some significant school choice policies. However, the most popular schools are usually quite full. You generally have options of intra-district transfer (i.e. attend any school in your school district / city) and in some cases even inter-district transfers (i.e. attend a school in another town if there is room).

https://www.cde.ca.gov/re/di/fq/districttransfers.asp

Might be worth researching a bit as you prepare for your move.

EDIT: One other point. Starting a few weeks late is not a bad thing if you are new. Kids come in and they are sort of singled out as "new to the area" and don't get lost in the Summer shuffle.

TraceyMcAlister

Hi

Thank you so much for your help. Having spoken to my husband we are now thinking of renting in Mission Viejo (no longer Irvine) and looking into the best schools in the Saddleback Valley District. It's most likely we move in June so really hope we can enrol the children during that time. Plan is to come out for a couple of weeks in April to check out the area and schools. I'll get a realtor to help. Thank you! :-)

TraceyMcAlister

Thank you so much for that insight! :-) That's a really good point!