Best Schools if thinking going back to UK

[sky123]

Hi,

I wondered if anybody has any experience or knowledge about the best schools for a child to attend if they are thinking of going back to UK when the child is say around 14 years old. Which schools will be easiest to transfer to the British schools? I note a lot of the international schools and ESF are starting teh IB program. Is this now common in the UK? Any information is appreciated. Thanks!

[barbwong_130]

You don’t say how old your child is now. If he is still in the primary school I don’t think it matters too much as all children learn similar stuff in primary school. The choice becomes more important as the child reaches secondary school.

The IB programme is for the last two years of school, age 17 and 18. You can do it by either doing IB middle years programme or GCSEs up to age 16.

Most schools in England are still doing GCSEs at age 16 and A levels at age 18. Some of the private, independent schools are starting to do the IB. And Scotland is different again.

I would look for a school that is studying IGCSEs at year 16, e.g. West Island School (I assume most ESF schools are.) I think this would be the easiest to swap back to any GCSE board of examiners in England.

My 17 year old son was studying at the Canadian International School and he decided that he wanted to study A levels rather than the Canadian exams. (He is particularly good at maths and the sciences and hates reading and wordy subjects – so A levels suit him better than either the Canadian or the IB system.) When we applied for the school to study A level maths and physics they were happy to take his Canadian qualifications for most subjects but asked that we study IGCSE maths and physics outside of school. This is what we did but it was a lot more work for him than if he’d been studying this syllabus at school.

[bekyboo44]

I would say the best schools to send your child to now would be a school that follows the British curriculum- that way when they go back to school in the UK they would have learnt the same and the same way as other kids in the UK.

I believe most schools in the UK still do GCSE's and A-Levels.

[syuan]

I heard that Kellett Schools is very "British".