RollingStones

I've been thinking along those lines too, but I don't want to cause trouble later applying to uni.
I believe we'd have to be home 3 years to be eligible for a 'home' place.

RollingStones

She wouldn't have the GCSE's to be eligible for A's either.

HartleyHare

This is one of the reasons we returned rather than stay an extra couple of years. There was the potential for it to get messy as the local 6th form college did not offer a particularly broad range of A levels.

Additionally as my daughter is not a "high achiever" (she sounds very much like Kodokan's daughter) we felt that completing her GCSE's would be better preparation for the academic jump to A levels.

With regards to University, the rules for home fees and access to loans do state that 3 years residency prior to the start date of the course is required. However, there have posters on these forums who have stated that they have been able to qualify for domestic fees.

kodokan

Definitely - my daughter uses an American accent at school, but is planning to switch to her home-use British one for high school. She's seen what glamor it adds to her older brother; she has kids in her middle school that don't know her that well yet when they start chatting and find out she's British, exclaim 'oh, are you So-and-So's sister? My older sister/ brother knows him; they talk about him all the time!' Then she comes home and gripes to her brother that kids in her grade, in her math class, who sit next to her, seem to know more about him than her

RollingStones

Thats hilarious! Love that

I've been in touch with our current school deputy head today and the admissions admin for a private girls school (just incase we had the facility).
DH teacher said although they couldn't guarantee a place when we returned they would take her, as they'd be obliged to if they had a place. It would be possible to cram her GCSE's into 1 year, it has been done. Based on current performance she is able. I asked him what he would do in our position, honestly. He said he didn't know - it's a tough one.
Contact with the private girls school came back negative, they won't accept girls into Yr11 as they're half way through GCSE's.

IB programmes are unimpressive in Philadelphia.

It's a conundrum

kodokan

Which GCSEs (and A levels) is she likely to want to take, given her current interests and strengths? A lot of subjects she could study in the US - languages, IT, arts - are very cross-border and wouldn't require much more than learning the particular exam format to pass. If she's a keen reader, then taking her US learned literary analysis skills and applying them to swiftly-read GCSE literature texts wouldn't be too terrible. History would be a complete bust. She would have some math gaps, but fillable with tutoring. Sciences, I'm not sure - I've no idea how that triple GCSE works. A typical US pathway is General Science in 9th grade, Biology in 10th.

One advantage to US high school in your situation is that it's a 4 year program with a lot of scheduling flexibility. Most kids get their compulsory electives out of the way in the first two years - Health, PE, Intro to IT, Personal Finance... it differs by district - so they can leave the top two years for more advanced A level type classes in their academic subjects. But you could go the other way - simply ignore classes that are aimed at a graduation you don't care about, and fill up on a couple of languages, maybe do two sciences or Algebra and Geometry concurrently, take a British Literature module alongside English 9 so as to do Shakespeare, and so on. I'm sure if you explained the circumstances to the counselor, they'd help you pick out suitable classes. I find them very accommodating.

kodokan

Remember also that US summer break is almost 3 months long, in most areas. A fair bit of self-study could be done then, without it feeling too burdensome - reading novels ready for the GCSE, learning about a particular period of history syllabus like Romans or Elizabethans, doing a residential week of computer programming camp, etc.

RollingStones

Gosh, I'd forgotten about the long summer break. How much fun is that going to be?

My daughter is absolutely humanities focused. English, literature, history, drama... so that's really helpful information there.

Anyone looked at a private school? Teacher pupil ratios from what I can see are astonishing