MrsMoo Posted January 22, 2011 Share Posted January 22, 2011 Hello to all PomsInOz My husband has just been given the opportunity by his company to move us to Canberra for 12+ months. Relocation package is excellent etc but...there is a big but. My twin sons, aged 13, are currently in Year 9 at school and, if we go, would completely miss Year 10 of their GCSEs, having to go back to the UK to start Year 11 having missed half of their modular assessment and probably jeopardise their GCSEs entirely. If we were able to stay longer in Australia, say for 2 years, to the point where they were 16 (the equivalent time to finishing their GCSEs) would they leave their Australian school with any qualifications that would allow them to return to the UK and do their 'A' levels? If the above all sounds like gobbledigook, just say :embarrassed: and I'll try and rework it. Thanks for your help Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caramac Posted January 22, 2011 Share Posted January 22, 2011 It would be very difficult I think. I brought our children home when my eldest had missed just the first term of her GCSE courses and she had quite a bit of catching up to do, including her major English piece of work. I don't think we'd have done it if we'd had to wait until she'd missed the whole year - she would have missed far too much to be able to catch up. The Australian schools seem to study similar things, but in different depth, so what the boys study there may well not be relevant for GCSE. For example my middle daughter did latin there, but they looked more at the culture rather than the language whereas here they study more of the language. That meant she couldn't catch up when she came back and has had to take classical civilisation instead. The eldest one said she did genetics in more depth there, but other things here. We also found that the girls were 2 -3 years ahead of their cohort in the sciences and maths (so their teachers told us) which isn't a problem if you're staying, but would make it difficult to move back halfway through the GCSE course. I don't know if your sons' school is the same (they all seem to do things slightly differently), but our lot start some GCSE courses, especially in the sciences, in the summer term of year 9 and the core module exams are in the summer of year 10. The other thing is that at 16 in Australia your sons would take their School Certificate, but I'm pretty sure that wouldn't be enough for them to start A levels here. I'm not certain about that though and it may be worth checking with your school and education authority here. What a shame this opportunity has come now and not a year ago - life is never straightforward! Good luck with your decision. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quoll Posted January 22, 2011 Share Posted January 22, 2011 Oh dear, the timing isnt good, is it? I think Caramac has said it all - it would be very difficult for the kids to slip back into the UK system. They really get nothing here until the end of year 12 and that wouldnt really equip them well for a UK uni entry. I think in theory they could go back and just do A levels but I dont know that a uni would look very favourably on that and the content of the work here would make that a significant challenge with a lot to catch up on. Also, depending on their birthdate they may be in year 8 here - do they turn 14 before 30 April this year? - if not they are year 8. Good luck with whatever you decide! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
salkims Posted July 27, 2015 Share Posted July 27, 2015 We are currently in a position that you are going to land yourself in if you end up taking the plunge to move the kids in OZ and believe me, it's hard. We are currently applying to get our (yr 7 & year 11) back to UK education. We are banking on the fact that we are still UK citizens & Homeowners and hoping their old school will take them back. I'll pm you of the outcome in few weeks if we successfully get the kids back to their UK old school. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
itegoa Posted July 27, 2015 Share Posted July 27, 2015 We are currently in a position that you are going to land yourself in if you end up taking the plunge to move the kids in OZ and believe me, it's hard. We are currently applying to get our (yr 7 & year 11) back to UK education. We are banking on the fact that we are still UK citizens & Homeowners and hoping their old school will take them back. I'll pm you of the outcome in few weeks if we successfully get the kids back to their UK old school. OP's twin Sons have now likely finished school and are well into higher education. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tina2 Posted July 29, 2015 Share Posted July 29, 2015 I think I would be seriously considering boarding school in the UK and have your children fly out for holidays to Aus. The last thing you want to do is jepodise your kids education for just one year in AUs Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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