Good schools

We are planning a move to the London area with our 5 kids, aged 5,6,8,11 and 14.  It's for 2-3 years then back to the States.  My husband will be working in Westminster.  I'm looking for a 4-5 bedroom home with good schools.  I found an article on the BBC website listing the 10 best neighborhoods (according to all these different statistics!)  Crowthorne and Wargrave, Berks were on the list plus Rickmansworth, St. Albans and Chorleywood in Hertfordshire.  We are provided a very generous housing and transportation allowance.  I've checked out these areas on all kinds of websites and they look good.  Does anyone have an opinion on any of these?  Or somewhere else to recommend?  Unless we get a schooling allowance, I think American schools are out of the question.  Plus we'd really like to experience British culture.  So the school system is definitely important.  But I don't want to move somewhere where I'm going to feel isolated, either.  Help!

Forgot to mention that I'd really like to live somewhere charming!  Not asking too much, am I?!  Thanks!

We have three in private schools here. Their schools are fantastic and worth every pound! We looked into the state schools in our area and they were crowded,and did not rate very well. We live in a fantastic part of London called Blackheath (se3) The state schools by us have class sizes of about thirty or more per class. My daughters class size is 18 and my sons school is capped at 14. The American school is just way to pricey,unless someone else pays for it! Private schools by us vary from about 5 to 8 grand a year per pupil.

In my opinion and I may be wrong,your oldest two might find it difficult to go to an English school for two years and the back to the U.S system. I would be concerned that it could affect their chances of getting into a good college. 

Goodluck

john

Thanks John!  (That's my husband's name as well!)  I have been thinking about somehow sending the older two to a private school.  It's encouraging to hear that there are some schools that aren't $15,000/year!  I hadn't looked at Blackheath.  Would it be a good commute to Westminster?  I'll check that out.  Thanks again!

Just remember that a private school might still use "A levels"...if you can stay long enough for your oldest one to graduate in the UK, then transferring back wouldn't be an issue.  Otherwise, the narrowed academic focus in those last two years could be more difficult in transferring back/graduating from US school.  We're actually going back a year earlier than planned so that my daughter won't start A levels here - it just makes her life easier that way! 

I just looked at your other post and saw your oldest is going into the 8th grade...so maybe it could work for her to stay in a UK curriculum because the 9th and 10th grade years are similar enough to the classes they would take in the States.   Probably the only difference would be that instead of just one science class for a year, they pop back and forth between physics, biology, & chemistry for two years, and foreign languages are started earlier.  My son is in 6th grade, and they take both French and German.  When my daughter started her 8th grade year here, she was already behind two years in foreign languages compared to the other students, and that's probably the class that she lacked confidence in because of that.  I'm not meaning to scare you - I just wish I had been more prepared when we got here...I thought that the move would be the hardest and once they started school things would fall in place!  It did....about a year later!!  LOL.

So are the kids required to take a foreign language class or can they choose not to take it?  I think it's great that they study a foreign language but it is definally hard if you are moving over there with older children.  At what age do they start studying it? Do they have to study two languages?

Things may have changed since my day but at my school we learned French from age 11 and German from age 13.  French was compulsory for 3 years and German for 1 year.

At most schools a language (usually french) is required----however exceptions can be made for unusual circumstances---my daughter moved here at age 14 and would have just been too far behind to try to pick up french at her age level so the allowed her a free study time during that time.

Helena

This is all so helpful.  My daughter has already had a year of French here, and she's very good at it.   I took four years in high school.  I'm not very good at understanding it as someone speaks it but I can certainly help her with homework, etc.  My 11 year old son is entering 6th grade this fall so, hopefully, he would be coming in at a good time depending on when we end up there.  Any ideas on where we might want to live?  The whole school thing has me a little flustered!  I think I've done enough research to have a basic understanding of how things work.  But it seems that you can move to an area with a good school and not necessarily be allowed to enroll your kids there.  I'm a bit of a control freak so it has me concerned!  I'd hate to choose a community because of a particular school and then there's no place for the kids!  Here in the states, the public school for your area is the one your kids go to.  It doesn't matter how many kids already go there.  You're guaranteed a spot.  Can I enroll the kids mid-term?  It's unlikely that we would be there by September.  How does that work?  My three youngest should be OK.  They're entering kindergarten, first and third grade.  The youngest has some developmental delays and is mildly autistic.  He's expected to "close the gap" and we're putting him into a regular class.  But he requires some speech, language and occupational therapy services in the time being.  But I've noticed that many of the schools I've looked at there have services for special needs.  I, obviously, have lots of questions!  I'm really grateful for all the help!