An online forum on Educating Service Children run by the House of Commons Defence Committee

Schools

We would like to hear from Service schools abroad and from schools in the UK: if you would like to share information about your school or add links to your own websites, we would be very interested in receiving them.

This is your opportunity to tell us about your achievements, and also about any challenges you are facing.

  • Would you like to tell us something about your school, or put up a link?

previous discussion | next discussion

Moving service families when children have started exam courses

Posted by HelenDennis on 24/05/2006 - 13:17

We are going to be in a similar position to the family in Northern Ireland. My husband (RAF), his 15 year-old son and I were recently posted to Italy. There are two good schools nearby that accept teens but they both teach the American system not a UK curriculum or the International Baccalaureate.

The issue we have is that our posting is for the standard 3 years but it takes 4 years to complete the American High School Diploma so we are due to leave 6 months before graduation. We're assuming we'll be posted back to the UK at that point but we don't know of a school in the UK where he can finish this diploma. Therefore we will have to apply to extend our tour here in order for our son to graduate.

However, I was told by CEAS there is no guarantee that we would be allowed to extend on these grounds, even if it means a child will have wasted years of expensive education by leaving before their qualification is attained. They have actually seen that happen in the past and for that reason their advice is not to take children 'abroad' with you when they are approaching exam age.

When we were offered this posting (at quite short notice) there was no information on education at all, let alone any warning about the specific graduation requirements of the American system and we didn't have time to research it in this much depth ourselves.

We didn't want to send our son to boarding school when we thought there were adequate education facilites in Italy. Had we been advised of the local situation we would have kept our son in the UK for the sake of his education in case the worst happens in two years time.

Is this right or fair? The only ones to suffer are the children who get left behind- with no qualifications their lives are ruined. Who is responsible for ensuring service children are able to complete their education and come out with some form of qualification while their parents are moved around?

back