I always said we wouldn’t know how our
teenager had fared academically until we returned to the UK and saw how
difficult/easy it would be for her to slot back in to the UK system.
She has now spent her first half
term at UK sixth form college, and she has received a glowing report. In fact she is already out
achieving many of her classmates, most of whom incidentally achieved A* and A’s
in their GCSE’s.
This may be a sad indictment of
the UK comprehensive education where there is obviously a disparity between
GCSE’s and the work now required for AS level, or it could be that our teenager
is quite brilliant. Realistically it’s probably a combination of both.
In California I met East Coast
mums who berated the west coast education system. When we left the UK in 2009, the teenager’s
teachers tutted at the potential harm we were about to inflict on her academic
prospects. When I knew we were about to return to the UK I contacted sixth form
colleges enquiring about the teenager’s eligibility for A levels, and was told again
that the US system is still considered to be behind the UK’s. There were doubts
that she would be able to keep up.
We may have just been lucky, but
after three years in the US, first at a state Middle School in an ethnic community
where a B was commonly known as an Asian Fail, and later at a small private
High School, I can see that our teenager has suffered no harm. Her education,
and her work ethic, has only been enhanced.
I’m not saying the US system was perfect; it definitely had
its flaws, and there are obviously gaps in the teenager’s knowledge which did
limit her subject choices for A Level. But for any one seriously considering
emigrating to the US, especially from the UK, and worrying about this
particular point, then don’t.
There’s far worse things in the US to worry about!
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