Returning to school in the UK

[redsoxbrit]

Friends of ours may be reluctantly forced to return to the UK by July if the economic climate does not improve dramatically and are really worried about their 15 year old daughter. She has attended the local Spanish schools since she was 10 and, due to the system here, was placed in a lower class when she first arrived and also had to repeat her first year in secondario which means she will be, educationally, 2 years behind her peers in the UK. Does anybody know if any provisions can be made to accommodate this anomaly within a state school? Who would they need to get in touch with to discuss this? I am hoping that there maybe someone on here who has been in a similar position and can point them in the right direction. Any advice would be gratefully received as they really don't know where to start......

[pilgrim2]

They need to get in touch with the local Education Departement that serves the area to which they are moving. About three years ago (so it may have since changed) My son said that when he reached 16 he wanted to go to college in the UK so I started to make early enquires. Much to my sons delight (and my suprise as we had not lived in the uk for 3yrs) he was eligble for a programme call Fresh Start, to cut a long story short, he was allowed to start his college couse a year early, they also offered him the opportunity to do fast track GCSE s, and any other course that might fit in with his time table, he did his cousre, he is now in the final year of his egineering apprentice course. The only thing he did not qualify for was the 30 pounds a week for attending the course, but then only one student out of 12 did.

[redsoxbrit]

Thanks pilgrim2, I will advise them to contact their LEA then and see if similar schemes still exist