Advice for a Brit moving to Denver (Boulder, Broomfield: apartment, to rent)

[britgirllovesUS]

Hello, I'm hoping to relocate to Denver from the UK with my husband and teenage daughter very soon. Is it as good as it looks in all the pictures? How welcoming are the locals to Brits?
Plan to rent an apartment in the city rather than suburbs so to benefit from restaurants transport and culture is this a good plan. Any recommendations for school for 15 yr old in the city be appreciated.
thanks so much

[davidv]

Spend time reading searching through the forums here, especially the Denver forum.

One big difference between the UK and the US is the school system. The UK has a national curriculum; the US does not. In fact, in the US each school district sets its own graduation requirements. A school district in Colorado is based geographically and is fully contained inside of a county. Some counties have one school district, while other counties will have up to 6 or 7 districts. In the Denver area there are 7 counties and at least 15 different schools districts. The school districts are of varying quality.

Schools in the city (Denver Public Schools) are not very good. I can't really recommend that you live in the middle of the city and send your child to a DPS school. If you do insist on living near the city center (or centre ), then I would recommend Denver East High School. This is the only high school I would recommend. There are some magnet schools (public schools with a special focus that you must apply to to get in) in the Stapleton area that are pretty good including Denver School of Science and Technology (DSST) or the Denver School of the Arts. These are kind of hard to get into. If you live out in the suburbs, the school systems are much better. Search around in the forums for answers to those questions.

One more thing: the only statewide requirements for graduation is that students must take a US History class, and a US government class. These classes are actually very hard for someone who has not grown up in the country.

Good luck, and I hope this helps.

[mic111]

Welcome to Colorado. No it isn't as pretty as the pictures. Those are cropped to show the most scenic areas with greenery and water. We have very little of either. Sometimes photos are also color enhanced as with the high altitude alot of the time the colors appear very washed out in person. However, it is still pretty in its own way.

You will probably find a very warm welcome and I'm sure everyone will love your accents.

I recommend you find a place to rent along the light rail so you can get to downtown easily but still live in the suburbs for your daughters school. The restaurants will be nothing to write home about but then I understand English cuisine is much the same so perhaps you will be right at home.

You may want to think about seeing the sights while you are in the area. From Denver it is easy to reach the Grand Canyon, Great Sand Dunes, Mesa Verde, Yellowstone, Grand Tetons, Mount Rushmore, Badlands, Wind Cave and many other western National Parks. Not to mention Rocky Mountain National Park which is in our backyard. In addition you can camp out in the national forests in Colorado for free at any place you can find a spot. It is fun to do in the summer.

[RWR2012]

I'm in a similar situation - looking to relocate for 2 years next summer.

I was interested in living in the city but the advice I'm getting is look for a school one of the outer suburbs for my daughter (who will be 16 - grade 11, I guess) and to look for a school that offers an IB programme. Most people say the DPS schools are not recommended, although East seems to be the best.

IB is important as apparently UK education system is further ahead in terms of learning so they'd basically be repeating stuff they'd done for GCSE, so if you're looking for A level type course, IB is best as that will stand in good stead if you then want to go back to a UK uni.

City neighbourhood like Washington Park, Congress Park, Capitol Hill have all be recommended, as well as Stapleton.

Good luck!!

[Katarina Witt]

Originally Posted by davidv

Spend time reading searching through the forums here, especially the Denver forum.

One big difference between the UK and the US is the school system. The UK has a national curriculum; the US does not. In fact, in the US each school district sets its own graduation requirements. A school district in Colorado is based geographically and is fully contained inside of a county. Some counties have one school district, while other counties will have up to 6 or 7 districts. In the Denver area there are 7 counties and at least 15 different schools districts. The school districts are of varying quality.

Schools in the city (Denver Public Schools) are not very good. I can't really recommend that you live in the middle of the city and send your child to a DPS school. If you do insist on living near the city center (or centre ), then I would recommend Denver East High School. This is the only high school I would recommend. There are some magnet schools (public schools with a special focus that you must apply to to get in) in the Stapleton area that are pretty good including Denver School of Science and Technology (DSST) or the Denver School of the Arts. These are kind of hard to get into. If you live out in the suburbs, the school systems are much better. Search around in the forums for answers to those questions.

One more thing: the only statewide requirements for graduation is that students must take a US History class, and a US government class. These classes are actually very hard for someone who has not grown up in the country.

Good luck, and I hope this helps.

Actually, many school districts cross county lines. Boulder Valley has students living in three counties; Boulder, Gilpin and Broomfield. I do not think there are any schools in Gilpin, but there are several in Broomfield Co. St. Vrain SD has students in Boulder Co, Weld Co and I believe Larimer Co. I'm sure there are other examples.