PandT

[it was suggested I moved this thread here. Originally posted in "Moving back to the UK"]

Hi, we are a family of four with two sons aged 12 and 14 and potentially moving to the US this summer on a 2-year work assignment (husband).

We are looking for advice predominantly around children education from people that have been through the same.
We obviously want to minimize disruption from an educational perspective at this delicate age.

My oldest son will spend Year 10 and Year 11 in the US and then returning to a UK school for Year 12. One option we have been looking at was to enrol him in a school offering IGCSE so that he could come back to the UK after 2 years and continue with A Levels, College, etc.
We have found some international schools in the area we are moving to offering IGCSE, so perhaps an option (?)

My youngest will spend Year 8 and Year 9 in the US and then returning to a UK school for Year 10, hence starting his GCSE on his return.

We are in the process of speaking with the current UK school to find out more about the re-entry steps, exams (for my oldest son if needed), etc.
We also understand that there may not be availability at that same school when we come back.

Has anyone been through a similar situation in these age bands?

Any feedback welcome, thanks a lot in advance.

Marc_ely

If it's just a 2yr temporary thing I'd definitely look at IGCSE. The schooling system here is very different in terms of how the children are assessed.

lansbury

As said the school system here and the curriculum is different. If it were me the choices are:-

1) Do not accept the move to the US. It isn't worth the major disruption to their schooling or

2) Send them both to an international school that teaches the UK curriculum.

3) If 2 isn't possible see option 1

Pulaski

There are a handful of British International Schools, on the East Coast and as far west as Texas. I think there are only six, so it would depend on you moving to one of the cities twehat has one. I know there is one in Houston, and another in Charlotte, NC - which we visited and seriously considered, we were very impressed, but decided it didn't fit well for our daughter as we are not anticipating returning to the UK.

PandT

Thank you all for your feedback.
Pulaski, forgot to mention, if we do decide to go we would move to Stamford area, CT and yes International School options are somewhat limited...

Cheers

kodokan

It's doable for your younger one, but I agree with the above for your oldest. The only exception would be if he was really positive about the move, extremely keen to try out international living, a highly motivated and self-starting student, and accepted it would likely involve repeating a year upon his return to the UK to take sufficient GCSEs at 17 to advance to A level courses.

scrubbedexpat099

Boarding

RollingStones

Hi PandT,
I shall be watching this thread with interest since we're in a similar position.
Husband and just been offered a relocation to Philadelphia. My children are a bit younger than yours (almost 13 and 11). So my daughter is on Yr8 and my son is in Yr6, so secondary in September. Making sure we don't screw up their opportunities is a priority for us, especially since they both enjoy school here.
Good luck with your move.
We're hoping to tie-in with school admission too.

aless02

I'm surprised at the negativity and rigid thinking here! There's tons of options for children, and an international move should generally be positive to their overall maturity and education, not a detriment! It's not as if the OP is proposing moving to the remote jungles of Ecuador (but you know what, that would be pretty cool too). Not everything in life has to fit into a cookie-cutter rigid schedule.

The children could educate at home, using iGCSE course materials or purchased online curriculum. They could go to American high school/middle school and you could supplement with iGCSE coursework so the eldest can take his exams either in the US or back at home. You could also talk to the their current school, get an idea for what they suggest in terms of ensuring your children come back into the UK school system relatively easily. There's really tons of thing to be done, learning is learning!

kodokan

Learning is learning, but curricula/ exams are VERY different, and it's unfortunately the latter that will almost always determine adult success in our society. I'm speaking from the experience of educating my kids across three countries, in two languages (their native English, and French for their elementary years). My 17 year old son is on his 10th school; we did a spell of homeschooling/ online schooling in there too for nearly a year. Please believe me when I say that the vast majority of kids in their mid-teens and up cannot move effortlessly backwards and forwards between educational systems and cover up any gaps with a bit of online study, or suddenly switch to successful autodidactic homeschooling despite having been traditionally schooled all their lives.

We're not being negative, we're being realistic. I'm this board's biggest advocate for moving younger kids internationally, dropping them in a new country and school system - in a completely unknown language - and breezily saying 'kids are marvelously resilient and it's a great experience for them', but it's a wholly different game with this age. It's possible to change from UK to US at this age, with some effort and possible make up work, but it's the changing back that's the killer.

Yes, it's possible to move a 14 year old to the US and homeschool them using a British curriculum, and have them take GCSEs back home. It would take an enormous amount of parental effort to match the content of the subjects studied and ensure they were learned to the right level in the right format for each exam. It would require a very self-starting, academically-interested kid who didn't mind leaving all their friends and the only way of life - going to school - that they'd ever known, and spending all their time at home alone or socializing online, because outside of school and the associated sports teams, almost all US youth socializing takes place through a church.

Yes, it's possible for a teen to concurrently do American high school with its often heavy load of homework and the expectation of a full load of extracurriculars like all their friends will be doing, necessary to not become a social outsider, and also self-study alongside for British exams in often completely different subjects (the way Maths and Sciences are taught by separate strands each year would be particularly challenging... oh, and it being US history... oh, and they would be reading the 'wrong' books for English).

Yes, it's possible for a teen to do a couple of years in a US high school as a fun life experience, and then return to the UK at 16 and start GCSE courses then instead of A levels, and be tracking 1-2 years behind their age peers. So long as they didn't mind that.

So sure, it's possible. But each will have potentially life-altering pitfalls in not only their education, but also in how they will develop as a person at a crucial stage for forming their identity as separate to their family and parents. Which of the above would you roll the dice with, if it was your kid?

RollingStones

I completely appreciate where you are coming from kodokan.
Now we've said we'd go OH wasn't too happy about my "wobble" last night.
I was thinking positively about the move out there but now I'm concerned about bringing them back. DD does brilliantly at school now, and I very much doubt she would appreciate being put back a year.

kodokan

Is yours more of an open-ended move, RS; is there a possibility staying longer if you all like it? That's a different question to whether to move for a known 2-year sabbatical.

We moved here when my oldest was almost 12, and we knew that it would have to be a long term move. Having seen two school systems already, and learned to appreciate the potential differences, we knew doing the usual 3-4 year stint and moving a then 15-16 year old would likely be disastrous. We came on L visas, but made the move conditional on the company applying for green cards at the earliest possible opportunity, to avoid us having to leave the country at a time not of our choosing which would stuff up his education.

This turned out to be farsighted of us, as that company laid hubby off a couple of years ago when our son was 15. As it was, it triggered an interstate move for us from Arizona to Ohio, so he changed high schools between 9th and 10th grades. He's now in 11th grade so 1.25 school years to go to graduate, and there is not a cat in hell's chance of moving him now, even domestically; if hubby were for some unlikely reason to change jobs, he'd be working away from us until Son had graduated.

We also have a daughter 4 years younger, so I figure we have one tiny window of moving - if we absolutely have to, as I completely won't be seeking it out with that age - when Son has gone off to college and she's 14-15, but after that... nope.

This is not like normal expat kids, where every few years they seamlessly transition between matching curricula, moving in and out of schools where a sizesble percentage of kids are doing the same thing that year and everyone has shared their experiences. There is no nurturing 'all in the same boat' social environment. A move to the US means fully localizing. It's a big mental load for a kid to change their entire educational culture once, at a potentially delicate developmental stage.

My daughter is, to our knowledge, the only non-US citizen in her middle school of 650 kids. My son, in a school of 2,600, knows of a few others (two of whom are Chinese exchange students doing only a year here). He is very popular and has a ton of friends, as most newly-arrived kids seem to, but it's likely no one will know what they are going through and be able to empathize.

Still, it surprisingly often works out. My kids are happy, well-adjusted, and academically successful. It's actually easier, I think, for my son, who has a very distinct British personality and accent; he has rock star status and enjoys it. My daughter can 'pass' for American so is more often misunderstood as to why she is slightly... different, as her friends and teachers forget she's actually foreign.

But I really, really wouldn't take the emotionally and educationally fragile ages of 13-18 and move them, and make them get to grips with a whole new culture and system, knowing full well I'd be doing the same thing again in a couple of years, where upon their return they will continue to be wholly out of step with their peers. Repatriation shock and maladjustment is a thing; go find the I Am A Triangle Facebook group and read how over 10k adults are struggling to integrate their overseas experiences and personality changes back into their home country lives. And these are often people who've largely lived in an expat bubble while there, with their Anglo-American friends circle and their same-country education system schools.

The expatriation-repatriation process is one that often flattens adults, and it often takes them some years to regain an even keel. To knowingly do it to an adolescent where every year is a crucial development stage for them, and expect them to simultaneously pull off additional work and exam achievements that their non-moving peers aren't having to do, is naively optimistic.

So in summary - moving adolescents between cultures and systems once = yes (depending on the kid; some won't cope but it's usually obvious to their parents by that age). Moving them for two years, then back, and expecting it not to have a profound impact on their education and personal development = nope.

kins

Have you tried moving 13/14/15/16 year olds between the two systems?
How did it go?

Pulaski

"Is it 'possible'? and "Is it advisable?" are two entirely different questions!

HartleyHare

The OP posted this question on the MBTTUK forum and I did post an answer:
http://britishexpats.com/forum/movin...ing-uk-893492/