Gap year

[nina1on]

Probably silly quiestion. Are the children allowed to take a gap year if they have been offered a place in a secondary school? Or if you take your child for a gap year, the place is lost
Lets say, if you take your child due to a family reason ...Thank you

[hermanmunster]

do you mean not attending year 7?

If it is an oversubscribed school and the child does not attend then another child will be given the place - when you return you will have to reapply

Also kid has to go to school somewhere... what were you planning?

[nina1on]

It is oversubscribed.Grammar place from Sep 12 Year 7. It just my DH might be send abroad for a project and he is thinking of taking us too

[hermanmunster]

I asked about this for a term (child already at GS). Basically response was that either the kid was at school or if not they were either registered at a school abroad and hence didn't need the place (and it would be given to someone else) or else were truant and summat had to be done about that!

All really annoying .... I got the feeling that the rules were being set by the LEA rather than the school and they had to treat everyone the same whether parents were doing an academic exchange, working abroad or family just returning to home country for a while.

I gave up on the idea ! - DDs prep school wouldn't have minded provided I paid the fees..

[Ally]

In theory it sounds like a lovely idea of going aboard with your OH due to his work commitments. But having been there done that - got the t-shirt and considered and rejected it 9 years later. Unless you're planning on moving for at least three years it not worth it. It might seem impossible but your family will survive and possible become stronger. It'll end up being so much less stressful.

As a family we moved to the US when DS was 15months, so easy in theory. We sold cars, rented out the house, half possessions in storage / half shipped. Got married ( without telling the parents ) so I could have the Visa. Started to settle in to a new life, just signed a long term lease on a property etc. But then we have to come back after just a year for DH to be made redundant. DH had a new job within a month of being back in the UK.

If we had known it was only for a year. We wouldn't have rented out the house, sold the cars etc DS and I could have easily swanned around between the UK and the US spending as much time in either county as we wanted. All in all the 6 months either side of the move have to have been one of the most stressful times of our life.

4 years ago DH was in the situation of having to suddenly work out of the US office for 9 months with the offer of a permanent role if we wanted it ( green card etc ... ) We might have looked at the offer differently if it had been full expat again. So OH was working in the US, flying home approx every 6 weeks for upto a week. Yes it's hard work - suddenly having to be a temporary single parent. But as you know it's only for a period of time you just get on and deal with it. Moving your DC abroad for just one year will be really hard on them at their current age. They'll lose contact with their peer group. Email and syke help retain contact, but it's not the same. and then find it hard to reestablish friendships when they return as after just a year, as their friends will have move on. Also in the country you're planning on visiting/living a year It isn't really long enough for a 11yr old DC to establish new friendship bonds.

Good luck in your decisions.
Ally

[nina1on]

Thanks for the comments, Ally. That's what I have been trying to tell my DH. We did have the same story as you: we moved once thinking it would be permanent, had an interesting experience in Emirates...and after 1,5 years had to come back to UK. Now he is heading this Arabian direction again but the children are already older and finding schools becomes a problem (especially when the older one will begin secondary). Or well, will keep on trying to convince him