Dear forum mates,

There is no specific reason you would be likely to know how to answer this question, besides the fact that some of you are English, but I'll ask anyway. I'm, for some time now, wanting to live in England for a while. It comes to the fact that the second semester of this year is probably my last chance to do so in the next few years (for matters mostly related to scholar issues), but I'm having difficulty to find a way to do so. My initial idea was using some student exchange system, but any other way that fit my needs will be enough. Some important stuff:

-It must happen in England, preferentially London, but may be in other areas.
-It must last from 3-6 months and must happen after June of 2008 but before February of 2009.
-It must not be too expansive. I couldn't afford to pay more than 200-300 euros a month for accommodation plus schooling.
-It must be available for someone already in Europe but not European, with 16 years, studying in a high-school.
-It must allow me to study regularly on a high-school there.

I'm taking pretty much anything that attends those necessities. Do any of you know of any package, student exchange program or alike that could be useful to me?

Thanks a lot!

P.S.: I'm also willing to give my soul for it, if anyone is interested. It's kind of pure, ya' know?

Sorry, can't help you there, but if you have interest in Canada...

Doing a student exchange to a high school would be difficult, especially around age 16... What qualifications are you doing? Here its GCSE at age 16 unless you're 17 before September this year. I don't know if other schools teach other qualifications and if so, they'd be the private expensive ones.

It would be a lot easier during Uni or as a gap year.

We get a lot of exchange students in the sixth form here, but as gladstone said we're talking very expensive private schools.

Is there a sane being on bartforums? Yikes!
Find some way to England, I hope you have a good time

Thank you all for the answers. They raised me a few other questions, though:

-What exactly prevents me from joining public school at the age of 16?
-What is GCSE? Wikipedia wasn't very satisfying in that matter.
-What would change if I were 17?
-How expansive is private school?

I don't know, but as for the last question, it'll be expensive, especially in London. I don't live there and I can tell you that. Possibly nearly as much as it takes to go to university. A few thousand below...

I'm not aware of any schemes for joining state schools as an exchange student - they're only free because the government pays for them, and it only does that for UK citizens, I believe.
Private schools are normally more expensive than unis as the government covers a large amount of the cost of uni if you're a UK or EU citizen. You're looking at £7,000 a term up.
GCSEs are the government qualification taken at age 15/16 (school year 11). A Levels are the government qualification taken in modules between 16 and 18 (school years 12 and 13, also known as lower and upper sixth form). You normally take around 10 subjects for GCSE and three or four for A level.

^Usually 3 A-levels. But seeing as 6th form isn't compulsory, you'd be hard pressed to find an exchange for any length of time. Exchanges during a university time aren't unusual, but I guess that's not what you're after.

Bear in mind that we have the sterling, not Euros, so even €300 is only £200. I don't live in London, but we charge our lodger about £85 a week. As for schooling, if it's a state school, then it should be free. If you were to arrive between July and September, you'd be coming during the holidays, so you might want to find a summer job, such as those that 6th formers take on; a Saturday job can really boost your income.

So what you do very much depends on your age; I'm guessing from your info that you wouldn't be interested in anything much below 6th form. If you are thinking of attending some sort of college, rather than state school, they do cost more - anything post 16 that isn't a 6th form costs.

Hope we can help.

Personally I'd suggest waiting til uni and doing an exchange year then - much easier to set up and stuff.

There's a few organizations you can go with during your holidays, but I'm not sure if they work whereever you are or go to England. My friend did one of those charity overseas things, I think she went to Tibet to build houses or something. And my godbrother went on an aircadet exchange trip to the UK, and It was fully gov't sponsored, actually, I think they paid him.

Random wrote: As for schooling, if it's a state school, then it should be free. If you were to arrive between July and September, you'd be coming during the holidays, so you might want to find a summer job, such as those that 6th formers take on; a Saturday job can really boost your income.

Free education is only for UK citizens though, and in order to get a job you'll need to go through a large amount of paperwork.