Moving From UK to Atlanta (Schools and houses) (Decatur, Norcross: low income, fit in)

[sherryuk]

Oh I have been lurking on this forum for a while and couldnt quite find an answer to what I was looking for. We planning on moving to Atlanta in 2011 since we have to work on the visas and my daughter will have finished her primary education here so we would be looking for Grade 7 place for her...She will be 11 years old (the kids here start school at 4 so she seem to be a yr ahead of her us peers. We also have a son who is 1 year so he will be 3 when we move so we kind of have to think about him too.

Now for my questions I have...I have heard good about AIS as we are thinking the Baccalaureate will be good as we are not sure if we gonna be living in states full time. My concern seem to be that its highly competitive and house prices in the areas around this school are very steep. Our budget will be around 300k to 500k so just wanted a suggestion of other decent residential areas around this area.

I noticed most of the other private schools do not offer IB and there are other public school which offer these. How good are the public schools and are there any recommendations. Plus we are thinking for my little one we may want him to start in a public school and then move him from middle school to the Baccalaureate AIS since paying for them two at the same time maybe a bit much fo us

The main reason we are going for the IB even though she is in public school now is we are thinking we may be back here in the UK when she starts university and I have noticed that if you just have high school qualifications from the usa you will need to do an additional 2 years here to do A levels and then University so the IB will be more suitable for us...plus we are expats here in the UK too so we just dont know where next we maybe

[RainyRainyDay]

Sherry, I think you'll find that in the US there's a wider spectrum and more variety of absolutely everything, be it shopping, banks, houses, schools, etc. The US has amazingly cheap consumer goods (useful to the low income segment of society) and amazingly expensive high-end shopping as well. It has some of the world's greatest universities, plus colleges that are probably a lot weaker than any British university, and masses of everything-in-between. When you say that US high school graduates need an additional 2 years in the UK before they are ready to tackle A levels ... well ... I suspect that as in all things USA, that would vary a lot too. It doubtless all depends on the high school and the graduate.

Moving a high school student internationally is always a big challenge. As you know, the IB program can seem like a safe choice for international portability. I hope some other forum member can offer some informed opinion on the quality of IB offerings in Atlanta area schools, as I'm not informed about this.

Another option that's popular in US public high schools for academically inclined students are "AP" (Advanced Placement) courses. These are supposedly at first-year university level, with curriculum and national exams set by a national organization called the College Board. I have the impression that proponents of IB and AP can argue quite contentiously about the relative merits of these programs, but certainly both are academically demanding.

If you can afford AIS I think it's very expat-friendly and would provide your kids with an easier transition. However, if the fees are a problem, I think you don't need to despair of American public schools. You just need to be a bit selective.

[lastminutemom]

Have jobs first and know where they are. Commuting here can be a real bear and public transportation is limited.

IB in the public high schools, where it is offered, is quite different than a private IB high school because students can either cherry pick the classes (for example, take IB Literature or Drama) or earn a full IB degree. Many public school students take many IB classes but don't pursue the full degree. Keep in mind that public school IB programmes are a fairly new phenomenon. I am guessing that the oldest (Norcross High? is less than 10 years old or so) and so there isn't a lot of data.

A few years ago, most public schools here were seeing about 10 students take IB classes for every one that finished the programme. What we found when researching this, is that at least at the public schools, the rigor of the IB programme was such, that with the exception of kids who really were genuises, it was hard to be particularly well-rounded (ie sports, drama, other extracurricular) and get that degree. This may very well be the same at the Atlanta International School -- I know that their courses are rigorous.

Once you know where you are working-- then make the other decisions. If you already have jobs and know where they will be, post the location and we can go from there.

[roxyrn]

I live in an area with a large amount of British transplants and I find that they underestimate the US system- often placing their kids in inappropriate grade levels for age and academic abilities. When these kids move to the states they need time to get used to new settings, jargon, customs, etc so my advice is not to push and let them have time to adjust, fit in and have some fun.

The most important thing for kids today is to learn to be resilient. They will have plenty of time in their lives to take college level courses. I would focus on finding a community that offers activities and a lifestyle that you will all enjoy.

[sherryuk]

lastminutemum...we are self employed and will just set up our offices in the area close to where our home would be since our business is mainly online

Last 3 weeks we visited the area mainly around burford and flowery branch. We had a tour of the spout springs elementary school in flowery branch and we just didnt feel it was for us...I am not sure what but we just disliked the school and it also seems to be an okish school results wise. I liked some of the communities there esp sterling on the lake BUT it has 600 families and thats gonna grow to 1800 so that part kind of put me off a little. The main dissapointment was the school for us but she will be in middle school which we didnt get a chance to see but I am not too hopeful. There is another new world or lanuages school but its new so still no track record...We are hoping we may be able to move next summer if things move a bit quicker.

We are really not fixed as to which schools but from my research we had
1. AIS ( though we are really worried about getting a place at AIS and the house prices here seem a little steep )....Are there any reasonably priced areas for our budget around here?
2. Decature....we like the ability of being able to walk around and the schools seem to good and it seems its a mature surburb...It seems we may find something here at the top end of our budget.

we arent very fixed and are willing to consider other options. My daughter is gifted and excels in maths and she is above average for the english and reading and science....She is also very much into dance and singing and has got some awards for it....and she will be 10 or 11 when we move so thats grade 6 or 7.....