Has Anybody Ever Enrolled Their Thai/british Child In A Uk State Junior School?

[livingthedream]

Hi,

I am planning a move to UK for two -three years and would like my daughter to attend a local government junior school. She is 8 years old and has only ever been at a Thai nursery / junior school since the age of 2 - St Josephs in Mukdahan

She is bi lingual and has obtained excellent grades at school. I am researching the UK government schools admissions policies and getting bogged down so I thought I would raise the question here

as maybe some advice could be offered and potential pitfalls avoided. My children ( I also have a son 2 y/o) are both registered British citizens and have UK passports. I m not in a financial position to send her to a private school. I have been travelling between work in UK and Thailand for 11 years and have been married to my Thai wife for 9 years. I am an Officer in the merchant navy and have the opportunity to take up a desk job until I reach retirement age, this would mean having to be based in UK. I would gratefully appreciate any comments from members who have had any experience with enrollment in UK schools

many thanks

[swlondonmum]

I haven't but I will be this year, most likely to start in September. I don't know how much it varies for different councils but ours has most of the info online and you can check for availability in the year your child is going in to. Our two nearest schools have no places but a third one does (and it's a decent school so we are happy if he ends up there). We were told to apply to the ones without spaces if we wanted to as spaces could come up. We were told we can't apply until we are living in the address we will apply from (in our case, our house which we have been letting out while we've been here) which is a bit of a pain as we have to give two months' notice to our tenants. But they may be able to let you apply before if you have a job offer and confirmation of your address, even if you haven't moved in. If your kids have British passports I can't see any problems but it's worth getting in touch with your council if you have any questions about admission requirements.

Schools and availability vary so much so I guess a lot depends on where you will be living and what the school situation is there - what are the schools like, what places are available.

Are you planning to maintain her Thai while she's in the uk - our son is nearly 5 and is currently bilingual but I am wondering what is the best way to keep up his Thai when we are back.

[livingthedream]

Thanks for the reply. I still have a registered address in UK so can apply anytime but we won't be in UK until early next year. The council website is very good and provides a lot of info. My main concern really is whether our daughter can integrate and adapt to the

UK curriculum quickly enough, but I guess this will only become clear later. There doesn't appear to be any test or such to pass before being taken in. As for her Thai she will Skype, Facebook, phone her friends, cousins, grandparents, regularly so I don think it will suffer. My wife will ensure that our son learns to read and write Thai. I hope all goes well with your return. Many thanks for the reply its good to know other people are out there doing the same thing.

[roamer]

Thanks for the reply. I still have a registered address in UK so can apply anytime but we won't be in UK until early next year. The council website is very good and provides a lot of info. My main concern really is whether our daughter can integrate and adapt to the UK curriculum quickly enough, but I guess this will only become clear later. There doesn't appear to be any test or such to pass before being taken in. As for her Thai she will Skype, Facebook, phone her friends, cousins, grandparents, regularly so I don think it will suffer. My wife will ensure that our son learns to read and write Thai. I hope all goes well with your return. Many thanks for the reply its good to know other people are out there doing the same thing.

Hope this helps. My stepdaughter moved to the UK when she was 8. At that time her English consisted of being able to say "I'm fine thank you" in response to almost anything. We originally intended to teach the very basics before letting her loose in school. However when we went to the school (a state primary) to discuss admission the following term she wanted to start there and then, the school were happy to let her start the next day and we agreed but with heavy hearts, we were worried about her lack of English and ability to communicate.

Doh!! The kids took her in from the playground to her classroom and she never even looked back at us ! From that day on her English improved in leaps and bounds as did her happiness and general well being. The school was in Inner London, maybe it helped that they were used to dealing with the language problem from an academic point of view, but kids don't have language problems...they communicate.

That was 10 years ago. Today she just phoned me, bubbling with excitement, from her first days work experience at a vets and her application to study Vet Med at Uni takes place later this year.

We didn't originally intend to stay this long in the UK and returned to Thailand to look at schools when she was 11. But, hard decision though it was at the time we decided that her education and prospects were better in the UK and in retrospect I think it was the right decision.

Whatever else don't be over concerned about your kid "fitting" in or catching up with the curriculum, being bilingual is already a great start.

Good luck.

[cabanlit]

My daughter swapped International School in Thailand (doing UK currculum) for a standard junior school here. She loves it - all-round education better, and things like brownies, karate, gymnastics to do during the week.

No stupid Thai Soaps to worry about on TV either.

Don't worry - she'll be fine.

[livingthedream]

Thanks for the positive replies - the children will benefit greatly from a change in culture and as you say kids are great at adapting and my daughter makes friends easily and she will have plenty of stories about Thailand to regale her new found friends with.

[swlondonmum]

Thanks for the reply. I still have a registered address in UK so can apply anytime but we won't be in UK until early next year. The council website is very good and provides a lot of info. My main concern really is whether our daughter can integrate and adapt to the UK curriculum quickly enough, but I guess this will only become clear later. There doesn't appear to be any test or such to pass before being taken in. As for her Thai she will Skype, Facebook, phone her friends, cousins, grandparents, regularly so I don think it will suffer. My wife will ensure that our son learns to read and write Thai. I hope all goes well with your return. Many thanks for the reply its good to know other people are out there doing the same thing.

Hope this helps. My stepdaughter moved to the UK when she was 8. At that time her English consisted of being able to say "I'm fine thank you" in response to almost anything. We originally intended to teach the very basics before letting her loose in school. However when we went to the school (a state primary) to discuss admission the following term she wanted to start there and then, the school were happy to let her start the next day and we agreed but with heavy hearts, we were worried about her lack of English and ability to communicate.

Doh!! The kids took her in from the playground to her classroom and she never even looked back at us ! From that day on her English improved in leaps and bounds as did her happiness and general well being. The school was in Inner London, maybe it helped that they were used to dealing with the language problem from an academic point of view, but kids don't have language problems...they communicate.

That was 10 years ago. Today she just phoned me, bubbling with excitement, from her first days work experience at a vets and her application to study Vet Med at Uni takes place later this year.

We didn't originally intend to stay this long in the UK and returned to Thailand to look at schools when she was 11. But, hard decision though it was at the time we decided that her education and prospects were better in the UK and in retrospect I think it was the right decision.

Whatever else don't be over concerned about your kid "fitting" in or catching up with the curriculum, being bilingual is already a great start.

Good luck.

I used to work in schools with kids whose first language wasn't English and your daughter's experience sounds exactly what I saw lots of kids go through, so I agree that the OP's daughter will be fine. 8 gives them some time to make friends and ease the transition to secondary school, though I worked in a secondary school and kids generally managed fine, even though it was harder the older they were. Location makes a big difference and if there are quite a lot of non-English/mixed nationality kids it does usually make things easier and I could imagine it being a bit harder in an area where there aren't many foreign/part foreign kids around.

We are also moving back for the education and prospects - it's hard as my husband loves being back in Thailand and it does have good aspects as well, but deep down I feel that our son will have better opportunities and a more international/open upbringing in London. I don't know where you lived in Thailand but we're in Isaan and although it's a lovely place, it feels so closed-minded (if that's a word!) coming from London!

Glad to hear about your positive experience -like most parents I often wonder if I'm making the right decision so it's always good to hear good experiences (obviously I just ignore any bad ones!)

Edited April 5, 2013 by swlondonmum

[swlondonmum]

Thanks for the reply. I still have a registered address in UK so can apply anytime but we won't be in UK until early next year. The council website is very good and provides a lot of info. My main concern really is whether our daughter can integrate and adapt to the

UK curriculum quickly enough, but I guess this will only become clear later. There doesn't appear to be any test or such to pass before being taken in. As for her Thai she will Skype, Facebook, phone her friends, cousins, grandparents, regularly so I don think it will suffer. My wife will ensure that our son learns to read and write Thai. I hope all goes well with your return. Many thanks for the reply its good to know other people are out there doing the same thing.

Thanks. My husband is (by his own admission) not a good teacher so would struggle with teaching any reading and writing but the speaking and listening side will be fine (plus as you say there is skype etc and we do have done Thai family in London as well). And there are lots of Thais in London so I will just have to make a bit of effort to find some half Thai kids the same age nearby if possible -I might be able to swap some English teaching for Thai teaching if necessary!

Re the test, there are no tests to pass as in a state school, kids are accepted regardless of academic ability (because they are only classed by age, there's no repeating a year etc like in lots of other countries).

They might actually assess her English if she's below the level for her age (depends a lot on the school as well) - the department who deals with it is EAL (English as an Additional Language) and usually comes under special needs, but the main focus is just giving kids help if they want/need it. Though it sounds like her english is good, and I found that kids whose english was near perfect were very reluctant to be singled out for my help or treated differently to their friends. If anything comes up its just best to chat with her teacher and work out what's best for her together.

Edited April 5, 2013 by swlondonmum