back at 16 without the right bits of paper - not only will it be oversubscribed, because its not compulsory schooling they don't have to take anyone, and therefore they don't take kids unless they have the right bits of paper. If they are coming from overseas and have records from their aussie school, references, and seem like bright kids you may be lucky and get them in somewhere not too bad, but as I say, in my experience you will be left with the dross schools at A level. Nowadays however, a lot of places don't just do A levels but a whole host of Level 2 (same level as GCSE) and Level 3 (Same level as A level) qualifications for their post 16 students. I would imagine most schools would probably ask your children to do level 2 qualifications to start with, perhaps alongside AS levels, and maybe put in for an early assessment for those (there are generally 3 assessment cycles every year, in Jan, March and then May where they can take the exams, depending on the subject - some have them in Nov as well), so they get their Level 2 bits of paper in a few things, and then can go on to take their AS levels for the rest of the year, and then onto A levels in their final year. Or they may say, take some Level 2 qualifications in year 1, take AS in year 2 then take the A levels