Owen778

So, you have yet to receive info on Houston.

Essentially, anyone who works downtown and has a family has a choice: you either live in the suburbs with the good schools and cheaper housing (and hence lower property taxes), but put up with commutes by car or park-and-ride bus of an hour or more, or you live closer to downtown, say in The Heights, Garden Oaks or Midtown, and put up with the expensive housing, generally poorer schools (or pay school fees) and bad local traffic. Some of the schools close in are better, but property prices are generally higher again to make up for it. Downtown and nearby does have most of the cultural activities in the area, and most of the best restaurants.

I don't work downtown. We looked into it recently, as my wife was seriously considering a job there, but we are far out in Cypress, and she didn't want to do the commute and we didn't want to move.

I suggest you talk to some of your colleagues who have previously made a temporary move to Houston, though bear in mind that the city grew a huge amount during hundred-dollar-oil, and it has not really shrunk since.

SanDiegogirl

Minors on L2 visas cannot work at all........ your wife can.

MsElui

This rings a bell with me too. Whilst my kids were much younger and will do all their schooling here - the accent/standing out thing is real. Even to the point where the kids no longer have an accent - but they are recognized as being different through the odd sounding parent lol!

NiHao

It all sound horribly complicated to me. As your employer will pay have you considered a UK boarding school so that they can just continue with their UK education?

ksb76

Um, why not just continue their British education at the British school in Houston? Easy transition for younger two as same curriculum. Can easily live in either suburbia or closer in to town and commute to new campus in Katy.

warwick3

No one has mentioned the IB programme here as a way to perhaps help your decisions?
If your children start the IB diploma in the states (you can check which High Schools do it), and you do return to the UK, then they can continue & complete it easily at either the state or private schools that offer it. It is also internationally recognised by universities so avoids the issues of eg. not having A levels etc if your children want to study in the UK

petitefrancaise

I haven't mentioned IB (my kids are doing this) because
1. AP exams are perfectly fine for the UK - we chose IB because my kids might have gone to an EU university (one of them is).
2. The OP's company are willing to pay for private education. Without a green card and only a 4 yr placement, IMO, the best solution is the British school in Houston. Then there'd be minimal disruption, the kids will be with other Brits/international kids and they will slot back into the UK system fairly easily.

I can't emphasize enough the importance of putting them with kids "like them" - for me I think this was possibly the best thing we did for our kids. Try learning about "3rd culture kids". I chose the school for its reputation and the IB, and luckily (because I didn't plan it) these things came with a lot of international kids in our city.

Pulaski

I believe that is a fundamental part of the reason for the successful outcome for your children.

kodokan

Yet when your daughter has a (hopefully) smooth path to success in life, you'll attribute it to excellent parenting, including providing educational stability?

I do agree that some of it is luck - for example, it's impossible to control for things like your child's new best friends or their favorite teachers, who will form a key part of their school experience.

But I also think much of it is some black art combination of nature/ nurture. Many people are horrified at the notion of moving 100 miles away from their families and everyone they know, let alone starting over in another country. Of those that do make the move, some assignments fail and end in early repatriation. Isn't it probable that parents who excitedly embrace the thought of a move overseas to a new place/ culture/ language, and who make a success of it once there, are more likely to have children who - due to either genetics or upbringing or both - are more to also succeed in situations that require thriving on change? Children who see not obstacles but opportunities; who see themselves as energetically embracing all that life has to offer rather than bemoaning the loss of an alternative life path; children who define themselves as proactive winners rather than 'poor little me' passive victims to whom life 'happens'?

It's not like staying put is a failsafe recipe for childhood/ adult happiness - there are plenty of kids who go off the rails after spending 16-18 years in the same town. My brother, who still lives within half a mile of where I was born and has barely ever left the county let alone been abroad, is one of them.

Nevertheless, there are of course some children for whom such a move would be likely to end in unhappiness and educational failure. I imagine that by the time they're teenagers, their parents can tell which are which.

warwick3

Petite franchise:
While I understand your clear view about going to British School, it wouldn't suit all and there may not be spaces, so alternatives are simply good to discuss.

I'm glad you've found value in the IB programme, albeit accidentally, and I am sure private schools in the States teach it just as much as public schools. This wasn't the point.

I've spoken to two head teachers in the UK and while AP classes 'should' be ok in the UK, they both had the perception that High School classes vary in quality regionally and this is why they are often generalised/stereotyped as not as good as UK year groups - very often incorrectly it seems to me. University perceptions are likely to be the same. As its available readily, IB seems to overcome this, as its standardised around the world, great if you want your kids to actually experience life in the country you are moving to (rather than a British based curriculum school) or if you think your kids are likely to move anywhere else through their education.. And even having only dipped my toe in the expat world, I'm learning you can never say never!
Hope this discussion helps the OP. Good luck - some tough decisions.

kodokan

AP classes can, and likely do, vary in quality regionally. But the AP exam is national - UK unis don't just ask for attendance in AP classes and the whim of the teacher to declare the student got an A or a C, they require AP exam results of (usually) grades 4 or 5. So APs, although not global like the IB program, do result in national standardization of examination against a set curriculum, for the whole peer year group cohort, entirely comparable to A levels.

petitefrancaise

I haven't "dipped my toe" in the ex-pat world. As Kodokan says, AP is a national standardized test. The curriculum for each subject is pretty similar to the IB subjects - as mentioned by me in a previous post - there are a couple of exceptions where the AP curriculum is better than the IB equivalent (Physics).

With L1 visas and the OP having to pay full whack for college fees in the US, then the kids WILL end up back in the UK for possibly college and definitely for their careers. This is a true ex-pat placement and the efforts made should be to make both the inward transition easy and the outward one too. Obviously the OP's HR dept think the same since they are willing to pay very considerable private school fees.

If the situation were green cards then I'd be offering different advice - I think I already did.

petitefrancaise

I wanted to give you karma for this but BE tells me I have to spread some around to others first!
as usual.

Pulaski

Well we don't plan to wait until she is 14 then roll the dice by uprooting her and taking her, for example, to Italy. Maybe that makes us lazy parents because the thoughts of try to straighten things out in a new country so little Miss P can make the best of her education, are not something that we would want to have to do.

We put in the leg work before she started school, and enrolled her in the best k-12 school we could find, that we feel gives her the best foundation to do well in life. We would move heaven and earth to avoid having to move her.

petitefrancaise

yeah, I did that too.... in scotland, then france and now here!!

The point though is that some things happen and you make the best of them. Things change - what was once seen as the best possible option is not so great once you are in the midst of it.

I have to wonder why you are so adamant about not moving your child. Personal history?

It's also not a particularly helpful attitude to have on a forum where many of us have already made the decision to move and are doing all we can to mitigate the impact on our children. I came on this forum at first asking for help about a specific issue and at a moment that was very hard for me, you lambasted me for daring to bring the kids anyway. It made a difficult time even more difficult and wasn't in the least bit helpful for the situation I was in. We all do the best we can, we all love our kids and whilst you would choose a different path to me, I am not about to criticise your choice, which I could if I wanted to.