Possible impact of 3/4 year move on GCSE/Uk qualifications

[Pilch]

My husband has been offered an excellent 3 to 4 year opportunity with his company to move to Australia (Sydney) to grow the business. 
We are concerned about the potential impact on our daughters education / qualifications in particular. She is about to go into year 8 in the UK ( and would be taking her GCSE’s years 10 and 11). She has been offered a place in Year 7 (Aus equivalent) at Kambala high school. As there is no qualification done now in Australia at Year 10 and HSC or IB isn’t done until years 11 and 12 we would potentially be moving back before she has any qualifications and too late / in between school years for GCSEs. Does anyone have experience of this move and whether further education (NVQs or Alevels) would be impossible without GCSEs or Aus equivalent?  To add to this our daughter is also very concerned and anxious about a potential relocation. Any advice hugely appreciated. 

[Marisawright]

I think your first step should be to talk to Kambala.   They may have had experience of students returning to the UK in that situation.  

My experience is some years old, but in the past, schools that offer the IB have been far more flexible about entry requirements than schools that offer A levels. They have to be, because so many of their students come from overseas countries.  So that would be your other avenue of research -- approach UK schools that offer IB.  

 

Edited August 25, 2023 by Marisawright

[Quoll]

Could she board with family or friends and spend holidays with you?  Another option, if she were to come, might be to home school and do GCSE by correspondence.  There is (but I can't find it at the mo) an online school which offers GCSE/A levels in Australia but I think they charge through the nose for the privilege!!!!.  
I'd actually be talking to her UK school for advice on what she can and cannot do without. 
It's a really unfortunate time to be taking a short term break from education. 

 

[Nemesis]

5 hours ago, Quoll said:

Could she board with family or friends and spend holidays with you?  Another option, if she were to come, might be to home school and do GCSE by correspondence.  There is (but I can't find it at the mo) an online school which offers GCSE/A levels in Australia but I think they charge through the nose for the privilege!!!!.  
I'd actually be talking to her UK school for advice on what she can and cannot do without. 
It's a really unfortunate time to be taking a short term break from education. 

 

The boarding idea could be the winner. I know the distances involved were different but I spent my last 3 years at school boarding with family friends after a family situation and house move which was hugely disruptive at the wrong time. My last year of O levels and both of A levels were spent with holidays with the family, and the rest of the time in my own room, managing my own studying, with helpful friends and neighbours - I think I stayed with 5 families overall. It was amazing as I had far more freedom than if I'd been at home, yet I had continuation of my studies at a school I loved, and I learnt how to be independent and stand up for myself; even managing a weekly allowance taught me loads. 

And my teachers were stunning. They knew the family issues, and the reasons I refused to move with the rest of the family, and they really went out of their way to help when needed. 

A friend in the same year as me when we made Lower Sixth (first year A Levels) even trotted me out to her parents as an example of what she proposed doing when they moved to Germany that year. It worked, she got to board with friends too. The sadder side of it was that both her sister and mine, 2 years younger, had to move schools, loathed their new homes, and flunked their O Levels badly.

[ramot]

There is this fixation that you have to take exams at a certain age or your life will be ruined.  

Having had no option but to leave  our 13 year old in boarding school in England, when we  moved to Brunei, because at that time there was no available schooling there, I would never do it again if there is an option. She felt abandoned, as did lots of others in the same situation. Her guardian, it is advisable to have someone in England ,  was her Godmother, ( who was fantastic with her) and she spent occasional weekends and half term holidays with her. Although posters have stated that the OP’s daughter can spend her holidays here, it’s a very long journey for her to fly on her own, if she isn’t used to long haul flying, and  it’s traumatic saying goodbye at the end of the holidays, and unless you have experienced having a child at school on the other side of the world, you probably don’t realise how hard it is to be so far away.

We were in a lucky position of cheap or free school holiday airfares, and our daughter even came for half term holidays when she was older, and I flew back several times a year to be there for important events as my husband worked for an airline, and we  kept a small house there as we had 2 sons at university there as well, I’m not sure how I would have coped being so far away, if I hadn’t been in the lucky position of very cheap fares.

What would I do in Pilch’s position?  I would bring her daughter here to Australia, and go to school here, and take advantage of a great life experience. Then when you return to England, accept she might be older than other students and go to college to take her GCSE’s, or look into distance learning, or see if there is an International school in Sydney and are the fees are affordable.

Although we obviously coped, England is a long way away,  there are  decisions to be made, upsets to be coped with, and  trust me with a girl teenager they are very hard to cope with long distance.

Wish you good luck with whatever decision you make, 

[InnerVoice]

17 hours ago, ramot said:

There is this fixation that you have to take exams at a certain age or your life will be ruined.  

Having had no option but to leave  our 13 year old in boarding school in England, when we  moved to Brunei, because at that time there was no available schooling there, I would never do it again if there is an option. She felt abandoned, as did lots of others in the same situation. Her guardian, it is advisable to have someone in England ,  was her Godmother, ( who was fantastic with her) and she spent occasional weekends and half term holidays with her. Although posters have stated that the OP’s daughter can spend her holidays here, it’s a very long journey for her to fly on her own, if she isn’t used to long haul flying, and  it’s traumatic saying goodbye at the end of the holidays, and unless you have experienced having a child at school on the other side of the world, you probably don’t realise how hard it is to be so far away.

We were in a lucky position of cheap or free school holiday airfares, and our daughter even came for half term holidays when she was older, and I flew back several times a year to be there for important events as my husband worked for an airline, and we  kept a small house there as we had 2 sons at university there as well, I’m not sure how I would have coped being so far away, if I hadn’t been in the lucky position of very cheap fares.

What would I do in Pilch’s position?  I would bring her daughter here to Australia, and go to school here, and take advantage of a great life experience. Then when you return to England, accept she might be older than other students and go to college to take her GCSE’s, or look into distance learning, or see if there is an International school in Sydney and are the fees are affordable.

Although we obviously coped, England is a long way away,  there are  decisions to be made, upsets to be coped with, and  trust me with a girl teenager they are very hard to cope with long distance.

Wish you good luck with whatever decision you make, 

Totally agree with all of this, especially the fixation that (the British) seem to have about taking exams at a certain age. In my experience the only GCSEs that really matter are Maths & English (essential for entry to some HE courses), which could easily be taken externally on her return to the UK. Based on the information the OP has provided, one assumes that the family would return to the UK in time to start her A 'levels, or stay in Australia so that she graduates Year 12 and gets her high school certificate.

The OP mentioned that her daughter is already concerned and anxious about the situation. Imagine how anxious she is going to feel about being left in the UK while the rest of the family jets off to Australia for 4 years? It's an absolutely terrible idea - I'm already feeling bad for her.