Relocating to the UK can be a significant life change for families, and navigating the education system is crucial. While GCSEs may seem far off for younger children, preparation begins early. This guide offers valuable advice for parents of all school-aged children on supporting their child’s academic success and ensuring they are well-prepared for the challenges of GCSEs.
Key factors to consider include:
- Timeframe: The closer the exams, the more focused your preparation needs to be.
- Prior learning: Understanding your child’s previous curriculum and English proficiency is essential e.g. how confident, fluent, and accurate is your child at speaking, writing and reading in English?
- Academic goals: Know what your, and their, academic goals are to guide your child’s study plan effectively. Be aware that:
- a pass (grade 4 or higher) in English Language and Maths is a requirement of most post-16 courses (e.g. sixth forms for A Levels or IB, or colleges for apprenticeships or T Levels) as well as many jobs
- GCSEs are required to move onto higher study, and then onto university. Most expect a pass in at least five subjects, and fewer than 8 may limit your choice of universities
Many aspects of this article relate to English language proficiency and how to improve it. This is because strong English skills are fundamental for success across all GCSE subjects. English is the primary language of instruction in the classroom, and your child will need to:
- Read and comprehend various texts.
- Understand and respond to exam questions accurately.
- Write clear and concise answers in all subjects.
Even subjects that may seem less reliant on reading and writing, such as Business Studies and Geography, involve essay-based assessments. Similarly, Science subjects require students to provide in-depth written explanations.
Consider how much time you have before exam day
5+ years to go – It seems odd to think about GCSEs when your child is still in primary school, but the truth is that the preparation for them starts this early. The whole English curriculum, from Key Stage 2 up is structured around preparing students for the GCSE milestone. This means that the earlier your child integrates into this education system, the greater their chances of success and excellence are. Parents can help their children with this by encouraging wide and varied reading, ensuring they keep up with homework, and maintaining good communication with school teachers.
4 – 5 years to go – Your child is joining UK education in secondary school, and while they do have lots of time to prepare, they may struggle to make good progress if they have fundamental gaps in their knowledge and skills. In our experience, students who do not have a broad vocabulary, make grammatical errors when speaking and/or writing, or already struggled with some subjects prior to moving are likely to find it challenging to catch up with their UK peers on their own.
3 years to go – Most schools begin preparing for GCSE study directly in Year 9, laying groundwork in areas like how to understand the exams, what the mark schemes assess, and the beginning of GCSE content. If your child has a very strong background in English (can read, write and speak fluently at a similar level to their UK peers) then they may well adjust on their own. However, if they have not developed skills like textual analysis or essay writing, or do not read many books independently, then they will likely benefit from additional support.
2 years to go – This might feel like a lot of time, but it will pass quickly. Moreover, some subjects include school assessed controlled assessments that may take place in Year 10, meaning they have less time to prepare. If your child cannot confidently read and understand their set texts in English or struggles to structure analytical points into paragraphs, this is a sign to seek additional support such as tuition.
1 year or less – Your child will be significantly behind in their GCSE studies unless they have begun them already before leaving (as GCSE courses are usually at least 2 years). We would recommend a meeting with your child’s Form Tutor or Head of Year at school to discuss their plans for supporting your child and to get an indication of predicted grades. Additional tuition is almost certainly going to be necessary to fill knowledge and skill gaps quickly.
Things you can do to prepare:
- Enrol your child in tuition – this may be as a long-term supportive measure, or as an urgent intervention closer to exam day. Our best advice is not to leave things to the last minute wherever possible.
- Buy workbooks they can complete at home (we like the CGP Targeted Workbooks levelled by year group). This requires a parent to keep their child on a study schedule and help mark work, which can be challenging for working parents or those who are not confident with English themselves.
- Encourage your child to read widely and regularly. Ideally, these should be books that challenge and interest them from a range of authors and genres. We can’t emphasise enough how important reading is!
Arrange a conversation with your child’s teachers or Head of Year if you have questions or concerns. It can be difficult to know how to do this though, so check out our webinar on this subject for more advice.