UK kid in US school

[pawre]

Hi

My DD will be 5 yo for the fall (end of Aug/Sept) term. In the UK she would be in Year One/grade 1. In the US she would be in Kindergarten.

She will be attending a US curriculum international school.

Haven't spoken to the school yet but just wanted to know what others think and have experienced.

We need to decide on which grade she should move into. If she goes into the grade number as if we were in UK I know she will be the youngest child. Eventually we will be returning to the UK and of course don't want her to be behind. I should mention right now she isn't in a "big" school yet but in a little international preschool/kindergarten. The workload includes writing, phonics and soon reading! I was told.

What do the schools prefer? What are the disadvantages and advantages to each?

thanks in advance!

[Decorhate]

You may find it hard to get the school to put her in anything but kindergarden...

A friend moved when her dd was in Reception here and she had to find a private preschool in the US as she was too young for Kindergarden. I do know someone who managed to get their son into Kindergarden for the Fall term where he turned 5 at the start of that term (so would have been one of the oldest in Reception) so maybe there is some discretion...

When is your dd's birthday?

[Decorhate]

Oh just noticed she isn't at school in the UK at the moment - I would just follow on with the local system & worry about the future when it comes. UK schools will have had children moving back from abroad before & be able to accomodate that...

[howdoo]

Do you mean she will be 5 at the end of August next year, so will go into Kindergarten in Sept 2011 (just to be sure I've got you right!)?
As US schools run a January-December system (as opposed to Sept-August in the UK), she will be in the younger half of the kindergarten year. If you put her into first grade, she would be more than a year younger than most of the other kids in her year, which is too much IMHO.
My DS is still 4 (very late birthday) and he is in kindergarten. Some of the kids in his year are already 6, as they have been held back a year by their parents - this is not uncommon in the States. The upshot of this is that he is being influenced by kids who are a lot older than he is. I don't regret not holding him back a year, but it does mean he will always be the youngest and more susceptible to peer pressure I think.
You should have a chat with the school - it may be different anyway as it is an international school.
Finally, I wouldn't worry about the academic side of things at all. If you move back to the UK when she is still little, she will be fine. And if you move back when she is older, I have heard that from third grade in the US, they really increase the workload, so she probably won't be behind anyway.
HTH

[MrsSchadenfreude]

Howdoo and Pawre - the international US system that our two are at runs a September to August system. They are pretty strict on children being in the correct year as well. And US Kindergarten seem to do pretty much the same as UK reception/Yr 1, in that they are learning to read and write.

Mine are now in grades 4 and 6 UK years 5 and 7) and despite being there a year haven't picked up a trace of an American accent! They do get a lot of homework - DD1 gets over an hour a night (always maths, French and English or sometimes science and always reading and completing reading journal). DD2 gets 45 minutes and if it's not done, then they have to stay in the next day at break/lunch and finish it. The standard is at least as high as the equivalent level in UK schools, if not higher. When DD2 arrived, she was given a month to finish learning all of her times tables up to 12 x - in UK she was still fannying about with 6 and 7x and doing them in an odd order. The standard of English seems high - DD2 was expected to know how to punctuate and use speech marks and paragraphs, and she was only starting to do this in UK.

I am thinking at the moment that we will either keep them in the US system or put them into an international type school when we go back to UK, so that they can do the IB. But that's a few years off yet!

[anonymosity]

It depends on your state and your county of residence. Where I live now the cut off date is 1st Sept, a few miles down the road in the next state, its 30th Sept, on the opposite coast its 2nd Dec. Moveable feast - and will make a difference. The local education authority will have its own website with this information, you just need to run a search. Good luck.

[madwomanintheattic]

we have a similar situation north of the border - our dcs are in a canadian school and the cut off date is the end of feb for grade admissions. kindergarten is also a year later than the uk, so some british parents find that their child who has completed yr r turns up and is told that they must begin again in kindergarten. in truth, the kids are little eno9ugh for it not to matter a jot, and most parents look at the school division's criteria and get on with it - it's very difficult here to get them put into the the grade they were in the the uk (ed psych testing etc). the kids get a buit confused ('but i've already done yr 1/2/3/4') but they adapt really quickly.

it's done at province level here too - so you need to check with your local school board and ask which grades your dc's will go into - you likely won't have a say yourself.

[alarkaspree]

I live in New York City. Here the public schools have a cut off birthdate of 31 December and most of the private schools have 1 September. The public schools are totally inflexible about what grade your children go into, but ime the private schools will let you go into the grade above if you have a September birthday and they think you're ready.

I'm a little confused though by your description of UK year 1 as equivalent to 1st grade. Going by the age of the children, Pre-K is equivalent to reception, Kindergarten is equivalent to Year 1, 1st grade is equivalent to Year 2.

[pawre]

Hi thanks for all your comments. most helpful.

so many differences! and I'm from Canada too! :)

titles..sorry if i got it mixed up.

do all US kids go into pre-k? cos in Canada we didn't have it and i never went into it.

another thing, maybe i should make another post. but do all schools in US get bible study? my dd will have it in her school and tbh we're not very religious and not keen for it! :)

thanks.

[anonymosity]

In state schools, its actually illegal to have religious classes. If you have a church school, or a synagog school the amount of time spent on religious stuff varies.

[lljkk]

I'd be shocked if an American public school had "Bible study" Whose bible? Unthinkable.

Many American kids haven't been to any kind of preschool, because their parents couldn't afford it :(.

Kindergarten is a bit more like Yr1 than like Reception. Some states actually have admissions tests for kids to go into kindergarten (those who fail have to defer for a year).

[anonymosity]

Lljkk have you heard of Headstart ? - its preschool for any child whose parents must both work full time and /or who cannot otherwise afford the cost of preschools. Big success in Baltimore / DC.

[lljkk]

I dunno much about Headstart. My cousins in California had to pay for preschool for their DD - she is now 7yo. They both work full time and pretty hard up, had their house repossessed recently.