briansp

HI,

I'm potentially going to Providence, RI, for 2 years or so with work but have some concerns about the timing for my 14 year old daughters education. She starts Standard Grades in 2 weeks (GCSEs by any other name) and I have no idea what her options would be in the States.

Any input most welcome - work obliged to pay for any specialist schools if direct match not available so private an option if its the only way.

thanks

Jerseygirl

Welcome to BE.

Thinking a few years ahead...if your daughter wishes to go to uni in the UK she needs to be a UK resident for the 3 years prior to starting uni...otherwise she will be required to pay International Fees. There have been a few exceptions...you can find threads about this subject in the Moving Back To The UK Forum.

briansp

Thanks for that - should be OK (i hope) as still classed as UK resident and maintaining my UK residence, just on a "long term assignment".

Or I could be walking into a financial disaster ;o)

md95065

Moving a 14 year old to the US for 2 years and then back to the UK is a tricky proposition and depends a lot on the specific 14 year old in question - it could be a wonderful experience for them (and you) or it could be a disaster - for it to be a complete "success" both the move to the US and the move back to the UK have to "work".

Of course you can never have complete certainty about these things but it is worth giving some serious though to the issue - she will be leaving her friends behind in the UK, have to make new friends in the US for 2 years and then have to leave them behind when she goes back to the UK. When she does get back to the UK both she and her former friends in the UK will likely have both changed so much that she will be "starting again" for a second time.

Jerseygirl

We thought we were only here for 1 or 2 years...that was 15 years ago when our daughter was 11. If we could turn the clock back we would send her to uni in the UK.

penguinsix

Here is our basic primer on schools:

http://britishexpats.com/wiki/What_d...kids_in_school

In the US system, you stay in secondary school until age 18 (i.e. high school). 'College' and 'University' (the terms are basically synonymous here) begin after that (there is no gap year by and large).

Each kid is different when it comes to these things, and each school is different. You could live on one side of the street and go to a school where the kids are friendly, academic, driven and the school is perfectly suited for the type of learning method she exceeds in or you could live on the other side of the street (note: literally the other side of the street) and be placed in a different school where the kids pick on her and teachers ignore her pleas for assistance. It's hyper-localized and hyper-specific to your child and school such that most general advice we can offer will not really be the end of the story.

Please review the details of moving abroad and how that affects UK university fees. It's really caught some expats by surprise who just assumed they'd always pay local resident fees and if you haven't mapped it out fully you're playing it a bit risky.

Good luck.