Where to go for expat school advice?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Huh, I used to live in London and I knew people who went to the American School and LOVED it. It seemed like a nice balance of academically good, but not super rigorous like Sidwell or NCS. It seemed like a fun place to go to school while also getting a good education.

What is wrong with the location of the American School? I lived in St Johns Wood for a while and loved it.

OP- nothing wrong with it but for commute reasons we would likely not be anywhere close enough to make it practical.

[Anonymous]

I have zero experience with London schools, but one of my students this past year is moving to London, and I believe the parents have decided to send him to the public school. This family seems to move every few years for the husband's job, but I'm not sure why they selected public since they did private school here. Best of luck to you!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Try looking for a Facebook group. I’m sure there are groups for American expats in London that could answer your questions and give advice.

Two Fat Expats (large Facebook private group for the expat community) could tell you the name of London specific groups. Lots of Europeans on there...

[Anonymous]

You can look at the ACS schools. ACS Hillingdon is in London itself. ACS Cobham is outside of London but a beautiful campus. The American School of London has busses if location is the only issue. Good luck!

[Anonymous]

Go to Mumsnet. It's sort of the UK version of DCUM, but larger and with more reach. This kind of question is really common on their Education forums.

[Anonymous]

Not the answer to your question, but....if I were you, I'd contact the Parents League in NYC. It's an organization for private school parents. I'd think they would have some suggestions since this question must arise with regard to kids in private NYC schools moving to London for a few years with the probability of moving back later. I would assume they've also helped British kids moving to NYC. So, while this isn't in their wheelhouse they may have info re private schools in London.

[Anonymous]

Strongly agree with Mumsnet suggestion!

We spent a year in Oxford when our kids would have been in 4th grade and 8th grade in the US. Smaller city of course, but has a range of excellent private schools and a complicated state school system. If we have sent the kids to state schools, placement would not have been determined until the start of the school year, potentially with terrible commutes. Our experience was that nearly all private schools were very open to late applications from transients; both kids loved their schools; the tuition was pleasantly low compared to here; curriculum did not line up with the US but that ended up being fine, and actually the focus on skills often ignored in the US has served both of them very well.

Missing 8th grade in the US system is pretty meaningless, and it’s comfortably in between starting secondary school and taking GCSEs in the UK. After that you’ll need to decide which system your kid is really in, which country’s universities they are being prepared for. IB might be a strong option if you will continue to have geographic uncertainty.

(Due to different birthday cutoffs our older kid actually was put into the equivalent of 7th grade in the UK, was one of the oldest in her year there when she’d been one of the youngest in grade at home, but when we got back to the US we just said “she was in YEAR EIGHT,” which was true, and no one realized or cared; off she went to 9th grade.)

[Anonymous]

You won’t get into a good London day school now unless you have some serious cash to throw at the problem.
The American school is the option most go for as it’s not hard to get into and you stay on the US calendar and system.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: I am French and when we briefly moved back to Paris, the only acceptable option for us was international schools with a joint British and French curriculum. There are a lot in Paris. We did not actually want the American School - not the right vibe, you're entirely correct

I'd look at any of the international schools in London that have the International Baccalaureate curriculum, which is recognized and respected the world over. If you're going to stay in the UK for years, you might want to do IB, so your kids can attend any college anywhere in the world. Please don't worry about future curriculum discrepancies for IB, the level is on par with APs, and if there are differences here and there, it's nothing that good tutoring can't overcome if you move to another country.

Enjoy London!!!

Why don’t you like the American School vibe?