Moving abroad with or without your children

One of the most important aspects of a move abroad is your children and their happiness, so you need to plan well in advance. If you want your child to be able to return to the UK eventually to finish their schooling, you will need to make sure they keep up to the required educational standard.

Children often settle into a new place better than most adults. Generally they make friends and pick up new languages much more quickly than their parents. They, however, do need to hear about the move from you early on in the decision-making process and to be included in conversations and decisions about the move. You will need to be confident and upbeat about the exciting journey ahead of you. If you have misgivings, keep them to yourself, or your children will pick up on them.

If your child is staying in the UK, make sure you:

• Arrange boarding school places well before you move - most have very long waiting lists.
• Appoint a legal guardian that the school can contact locally in emergency.
• Give your child a mobile phone with numbers inserted of locally resident family and friends.
• Give someone locally a cash fund for emergencies.
• Inform the school of the names of any adults permitted to take the child off school grounds for days/weekends away.
• Arrange an account at a stationery and/or bookshop for any schooling requirements.
• If your child is moving with you, you will need to:
• Sort out school registration in your new country well in advance. You will need to take this into consideration. If you are in contact with an estate agent or developer they may be able to advise you of good schools or put you in touch with clients who have previously moved to the country you’re moving to. Otherwise the local UK Embassy of your chosen country may be able to help, or the British Embassy in your new country. Expat websites are good points of contact and people are happy to help, since they probably experienced the same problems themselves when they first moved. There are international schools in a number of countries and some countries have English language schools, usually near big towns. Bear in mind that these can be expensive and you will need to consider where you will be living in relation to the school’s location.
• Find out if your child is up to the required standard in your new country – and get extra lessons if not. Ideally you should enrol the child in language lessons before setting off and if you all did it as a family this could be viewed as an adventure.
• Take along school reports from the past year if you still have them and give them to the child’s new school, as this will give them an idea of your child’s capabilities.
  

Before moving overseas it’s important to prepare! Start the emigration process off on a solid footing – get your Emigration Guide today at: http://www.EmigrationGuide.com/Guide.htm

Kim
The Overseas Guides Company
Visit my main website at: http://www.emigrationguide.com/