Mary Said:

Move to London??

We Answered:

I would suggest you wait until your kids have completed their schooling. In the UK state school system - especially in London - there is a lot of indiscipline and teachers are not allowed to physically discipline unruly students. There is a minority of unruly disruptive students in every class and children as young as 5 have been known to attack their teachers (biting, kicking). Your children could be easily led astray; and if they are particularly courteous polite children, might well be bullied. It is not considered 'cool' to study too hard or even attempt homework assignments. I have step-children in Jamaica and I would never bring them to school in London. Jamaican schools may be poorly equipped but they still teach respect and self-discipline.

June Said:

moving from US to London?

We Answered:

Firstly its very difficult to get into the country unless you are married to a UK citizen and even then it is expensive.
The kids don't do grades. Nobody fails, they just move up to the next year. At high school the work picks up as the kids are aimed at the GCSEs. The kids will then be sorted into "streams" so the high flyers will be in one class and the plodders in another. Between the ages of 14 and 16 you need these two years at one school or it will mess up your coursework. If clever enough you can stay on another two years at school to do some higher levels to either prime you for college or some sort of vocational training like catering, photography, forestry etc.

Personally we found that the US schools were well run and polite and pleasant places for the children. The UK ones had bullies, swearing kids, low standards and poor control of discipline. If you email me then maybe the Mrs will tell you more about it.