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Thread: finishing high school

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jan 2010
    Location
    southern california
    Posts
    12

    Default finishing high school

    Hi everyone,

    I have been searching on this forum for a long time about children relocating here, who are in high school. I have read that @ age 16 years, they don't have to go to school anymore. My son is 16 years old and in the U.S. he is entering 11 th grade. He still has 2 years to go to get his diploma. In New Zealand, do they get a diploma @ 16 years old? or do they mean they can drop out of school. Or is it that they can go to technical school and those interested in college continue on to prepare for college?
    If someone could please answer this, I would appreciate it.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Feb 2008
    Posts
    37,824

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Dec 2008
    Location
    NZ
    Posts
    370

    Default

    Keep in mind that US and NZ school years are completely different. We moved from the US, and our kids ended up effectively being moved up by more than half a year. For example, if your son were to arrive in September of this year, and he's a good student, he might only have to finish a couple of months and be done for the year.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    May 2013
    Location
    New Zealand
    Posts
    46

    Default

    In New Zealand most students leave school at the end of ‘Year 13’ (final year, usually age 17 or 18) or sometimes ‘Year 12’ (second last year, usually age 16 or 17). The New Zealand qualification is called ‘NCEA’ and ‘Level 1’ is covered in Year 11, ‘Level 2’ in Year 12 and ‘Level 3’ in Year 13.

    It's common for students planning on taking up a trade to leave at the end of Year 12/Level 2. In regards to tertiary education at a Polytechnic or an Institute of Technology ('technical school'), it depends.
    Before doing an apprenticeship for a trade (for builders, anyway, I assume with other trades too), students take a 'pre-trade' course at polytech.
    For other things taught at polytech, such as Nursing, Year 13 is helpful (Nursing students without Year 13 usually have to do a 'foundation' year at polytech).

    Any students planning on going to University ('college') need to achieve 'University Entrance' which is done in Year 13 at the same time as Level 3. I would assume most/all students applying for uni would also have Level 3 too.

    Leaving school after just Year 11/Level 1 is strongly not recommend, and generally considered a ‘lower-class’ ‘drop kick’ kind of thing to do. I would strongly recommend getting the full University Entrance and Level 3, unless you have a specific trade in mind. Year 13 is also supposed to be a really fun year where students bond as a group.

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