Years 11 and 12

[Guest pauladean]

Hi

 

I have been reading the various threads regarding finishing GCSE's in UK and then moving to Australia and then having to complete years 11 and 12. However I am still a little confused.

 

My son is 16 (was 16 in March) and is taking his GCSE's as we speak. We plan to make the move later this year. How would this impact my son. We were thinking that he could have a good summer off and then start school in Australia in January 2009. But I gather then, that this would be his year 12. How would this work? Would he basically have to go back a year? What qualifications would he get after these 2 years? Are they the equivalent of A levels?

 

Also, the 2 years 11 and 12. Can you pick your subjects as you would with A levels? Do you go to uni after year 12?

 

I know there is a website for the education department in Western Australia and have trawled through this but can still not find my answers. Does anyone know of an email address for them?

 

Any help or comment would be most appreciated.

 

Thanks

[Guest gothicqueen]

no idea but bumping this as Iam going to be in a similar situation with my daughter when we hopefully go next year, she should have just finished her GCSE's when we go too

[Quoll]

You might like to email the district office in the area you are most likely to be living in. District offices are listed here Education Department of Western Australia - Schools Online

 

Your son will be coming at a difficult age. Usually the final two years are sort of a consolidated course which culminates in Year 12 assessments which lead to a university entrance score. It is very much like A levels in that different subject are chosen but the choices are wider and students take more than 3 subjects. If he can bear it, he would be better off doing the full two year course but that would mean being with kids quite a bit younger than he is. The district office will give you the best advice for what to do.

[Guest PennyM]

We are moving south of perth in august and our son is taking his GCSE's at the mo. Like you I have trawled the sites. I have spoken to the local high school who suggest our son joins yr 11 for the rest of the year (they finish i think in nov) then does yr 12. They said to get his GCSE results looked at by the curriculum council. Where in WA are you heading? We were in WA for 2006 and are heading back soon. I know our son isnt that keen 'on going back to school' and the friends he made in 2006 are in yr 12 now but i think it is the way to go. Anyway be good to hear if you have heard anything else re their options. Cheers

[Guest Pete.R]

Hi

 

We are in the same situation, one of our son's is 16 and also taking his GCSE's we were over in Australia last August and visited a school in Caloundra, Queensland as we had exactly the same concerns about our children, at that time we had planned to be in oz for August this year and we were told that our 16 year old would go back in year 11 and then start year 12 in January, they would assess him and take into account how long he had been in the country when he takes his final exams as they mark their exams internally rather than externally as we do in the UK, the school didn't suggest putting him back a year,

 

Hope that makes sense and may be of help.

 

Wendy x

[nurse sue]

Our son is 17 we have been here since April he did GCSE in Uk and went on to 6th Form school here in australia advised only needs to do year 12 but restricted to choice of subjects which he accepted as a must 8 weeks down the line as he is applying to go to Taffe school told him would not get certificate for year 12 and they do not recognise his GCSE's and he needs to go and do year 11 and 12 again:arghh: He is raging and wanting to pack his bag and return home spoke with school who denied giving us the original information re just doing year 12 we have a big meeting at the school.

just wanted to advice people to get in writing what the school :no: suggest is best school pathway and GCSE's are recognised just want to spare any one the stress tears and anxieties they we are experiencing

[Quoll]

Down our way, GCSEs are considered year 10 equivalent - to get credit for year 11 & 12 courses you have to have done some of the A level coursework. It is an incredibly difficult time to move kids. Sue, I hope they can sort something out - I believe one of our local universities here (University of Canberra) is trailling some sort of bridging course specifically for people who dont get their year 12 because they have been deemed too old to go into year 11 or have chosen not to. I dont quite know how it works but a counsellor friend was telling me about it quite recently.

[samozsoon]

Our son is 17 we have been here since April he did GCSE in Uk and went on to 6th Form school here in australia advised only needs to do year 12 but restricted to choice of subjects which he accepted as a must 8 weeks down the line as he is applying to go to Taffe school told him would not get certificate for year 12 and they do not recognise his GCSE's and he needs to go and do year 11 and 12 again:arghh: He is raging and wanting to pack his bag and return home spoke with school who denied giving us the original information re just doing year 12 we have a big meeting at the school.

just wanted to advice people to get in writing what the school :no: suggest is best school pathway and GCSE's are recognised just want to spare any one the stress tears and anxieties they we are experiencing

 

 

Hi

We have been here since Jan this year and our daughter (17 next month) went straight into year 12 and is studying for her HSC as we speak.

Her school we're ok about her just doing yr 12 but they did want proof that she'd completed yr 11 somewhere, so she took her gcse certs in to school. Not sure what they did with them, they had them for a few weeks but they gave them back to her and said everythings fine.

 

BTW we are in NSW.

 

Hope you get your son sorted.

 

Sam x

[Guest harrison family]

Hi all,

 

We are hoping to be in Perth by Jan 2009. Our Daughter is 16 and doing her GCSE's at the moment, she has been told by a friend who lives in Perth that she will go into Year 13 which is equivelent to year 12 in the UK. How much of this is true is anybody's guess.

 

I have emailed the Education Dept of WA to ask them, so once I get a reply i will pass it on.

[Guest pauladean]

You might like to email the district office in the area you are most likely to be living in. District offices are listed here Education Department of Western Australia - Schools Online

 

Your son will be coming at a difficult age. Usually the final two years are sort of a consolidated course which culminates in Year 12 assessments which lead to a university entrance score. It is very much like A levels in that different subject are chosen but the choices are wider and students take more than 3 subjects. If he can bear it, he would be better off doing the full two year course but that would mean being with kids quite a bit younger than he is. The district office will give you the best advice for what to do.

 

Thanks. I took your advice and emailed the district office. They did not really answer the question and suggested I look at the curriculum! I think it is something that will have to be sorted when we are there. Very frustrating not actually having a definative answer.

[Guest jackief]

Hi there,

I am in the middle of visa application - playing the waiting game. My daughter will be doing her GCSE's June 2009 after which we were planning on coming over to Brisbane. After much persuading she is finally coming round to the idea, but after reading this thread I am getting more and more concerned that she will not like having to go back to school. She has always wanted to go to college and do A level maths, chemistry and physics and hates the idea that she would have to do all subjects up to the age of 18. Am I right in saying that she must do all suject areas and cannot focus on subjects of interest like our A level system??

Also if we did stay in the UK for her to do A levels - would that get her a place in university in Australia?

Cor I thought the form filling was bad but the education bit is far more stressful. As my daughter keeps saying - I don't want to ruin her life. How stressful this is!!

[Guest kate35]

Hi there,

I am in the middle of visa application - playing the waiting game. My daughter will be doing her GCSE's June 2009 after which we were planning on coming over to Brisbane. After much persuading she is finally coming round to the idea, but after reading this thread I am getting more and more concerned that she will not like having to go back to school. She has always wanted to go to college and do A level maths, chemistry and physics and hates the idea that she would have to do all subjects up to the age of 18. Am I right in saying that she must do all suject areas and cannot focus on subjects of interest like our A level system??

Also if we did stay in the UK for her to do A levels - would that get her a place in university in Australia?

Cor I thought the form filling was bad but the education bit is far more stressful. As my daughter keeps saying - I don't want to ruin her life. How stressful this is!!

 

Don't worry. So long as your daughter does not select the IB at her new school, she will be able to specialise in her preferred subjects, to a degree. I'm uncertain of the Queensland system, but if it is like the Victorian one, then the only required subject is English (or English Language or Literature). However, five subjects are generally required. On the bright side, subjects such as Maths, Chemistry and LOTEs tend to get scaled up on the final ranking system (it is a bell curve, so the students' scores are scaled up and down, depending on the degree of difficulty of their subject).

A-levels are accepted in Australian universities.

[Guest christel]

Hiya

My daughter is just completing year 12 in Western Australia and I found it very confusing too, so Im going to quote for a letter I received from the Department of Education and Training

 

"It is imperative that C grade averages are maintained in Y12, as the Western Australian Certificate of Education (WACE) graduation requirement state that students must complete 10 subjects over years 11 and 12 with a C grade average in 8 of those, four of which must be taken in year 12. Students must also have a C grade or better in English to Graduate. "

 

That is a Graduation Certificate i.e. it means that they have attended school and taken these subjects over 2 years and have C grades as its their semester (terms) marks that enable them to get this certificate.

 

Then there are TEE subjects. Teritary Entrance Examinations. These are totally different from the above, these are University Entrance Exams.

 

My daughter is taking TEE's but will not qualify for a WACE certificate because she has not been here long enough (she schooled in the UK up until the end of last year) to accumulate semister marks.

 

We can get whats called 'Recognition of Prior Learning' validated by the Cirriculum Council of Western Australia, which means that her school here communicates with her school in England and and jointly they will assess the hours/test results/grade results on her subjects taken in the UK, then we pay a fee, then she graduates. We are going through this process now.

 

Hope this helps somewhat but it is confusing because they then go to university here for 4 years, whereas we go for 3 on degree courses, but as far as I can work out, their first year of university would be like our year 13, but ours is under the education system and theirs is not so they start running up HEX debts from an initial get used to uni type studies x