Moving from Scotland to England - what do I need to know about starting nursery?

[Twiga]

dd will be 3 first half of September, if we'd been staying here in Scotland she was due to start nursery after the October Hols. Am I right in thinking that with a sept birthday she'll start at the beg of the school year in England? Is it still a case of going to the local nursery with birth cert and putting her name down? Can I put down at more than one? Anything else/useful i need to knwo about it all?
Thanks

[Twiga]

bumping - anyone?

[dylanthecat]

I think shes will start next year 31st of Aug is the cut off date so September babys are nearly 4 when they start and August babys just 3.I think in some areas they might also have an intake in Jan but I dont know about that because the schools around here only do sept.I just went and filled in a form I didnt need a b/c and you can put her name down for as many as you like, if you want a popular one that might be a good idea, my daughters nursery has a waiting list and one place has come up so far and the boy who took it moved from another nursery.

[dylanthecat]

a little boy in my daughters playgroup missed starting school by 3 days and will be starting nursery with his little brother who was born in the August,but will start later than him because they stagger the intake to start the youngest first

[Fimbo]

I moved from Scotland to England seven years ago.

It depends on the school tbh. Our cut off point is something like 3rd September. Our school only has one intake a year, so your dd would not start until the following September assuming her birthday was not the 1st, 2nd or 3rd of September. Some schools though have an intake in January.

Your best starting point is the LEA website for the area you are moving to.

[Twiga]

Oh gosh, does that mean that they only get the one year at nursery in England then? Here I'd expect dd to be at afternoon nursery once she's 3 then to go for mornings once she's 4 (pre-school year), then P1. Shame as she'd def be ready for it come Sept - what's the alternative in England then? Not really a big deal if she's not at nursery as I'm at home full-time and I guess we'll just keep doing toddler groups. Birthday 14th of Sept.

[Fimbo]

It's a weirdy system (well to me as an outsider).

Where we lived in Scotland, my dd would have done 2 years at nursery then P1.

Here she did nursery for one year, then they join school into a class called "reception" which is just like being at nursery with an emphasis on learning through play and they fact they are part of the school.

My ds is a December born, so he will be one of the older children in the class. He will start in September and do part-time (till 12) to begin with and then after the October holidays will begin full time although it will be up to us as parents whether we feel he can cope with going full time or not, as it won't be compulsory until he is 5.

But again what I have outlined above is for my school. Some schools let them stay for lunch and then you collect them.

Whereabouts are you moving to, Twiga?

[Fimbo]

I forgot there is also something called "rising 5's" in some areas, but I am not entirely sure how that works.

[Fimbo]

Sorry my messages sound confusing basically in England it is this:-

Nursery (3)
Reception (4)
Year 1 (5)
Year 2
etc

[Twiga]

Fimbo, we're moving to Brighton - dh has a neonatology post there from the start of Aug. Sorry I'm prob being really thick but dd is our eldest so not done all this before - am I right in thinking then that she will go to nursery at 3 but just not as early as she would have here? As her birthday is sept (14th) do I need to get her name down somewhere as soon as we move?

[Fimbo]

Yes put her name down, as soon as you possibly can.

She will be funded in the term after her 3rd birthday, which in your case will be after the October holiday.

That means she will get 5 x 2.5hr sessions paid for by the government. If you want her to go for any longer you would need to pay. It actually works out quite well having an "older" child as you don't have to pay for long!

I think there are a few Brighton mums on here, they may be able to give you more pointers.

Hope this helps in the meantime. Good luck with the move.

[Twiga]

Thanks Fimbo, that really helps - looks like she'll start at around the same time as if we'd stayed here so that keeps things simple. Not worried about her doing more than the free time to be honest as we do quite a bit of other stuff anyway toddlers, music that kinda thing and I'll still be taking ds so not a prob. Thanks, I'd only really sussed what we needed to do for here so trying to fig a new system was looking a bit daunting, appreciate your time.

[Twiga]

Hi again WW! We just found out last week and I've not got round to telling too many folk yet - we're quite excited actually, it's the perfect job for dh at this point in terms of training and really feels right iyswim?! Was going to hold off posting until I'd spoken to friends but been issues on my mind as you can see so thought I'd just go ahead - bit scarey as it's about as far from Scotland as you can get but we're keeping the house on up here as could well be back up at the end of the 7months contract.

[IneedacleanerIamalazyslattern]

Sorry not even that relevant but where in Scotland are you moving from? Never heard of the 3's starting after the OCtober hols thought it was usually January.
Reason I ask as that sounds better thatn my area lol, do they only have one primary 1 intake in your area or 2?

[Twiga]

We're in East Lothian - I'm just going on what the school sec here said when I put dd's name down. Certainly seems to depend on area as we moved here from Aberdeen and my understanding for there was that she would have started after Christmas at somepoint and we would have had to put her name down in the Feb once 2 whereas here everyone said to get name down asap after 2nd birthday.

[Twiga]

Not sure about number of p1 intakes, sorry.

[IneedacleanerIamalazyslattern]

Hmmm East Lothian not moving there lol FIL lives in Dirleton. Up here dd started in January after the christmas holidays she was 3 in the October. She was enroled in the March everyone starting through that school year had to.
Reason I asked about p1 intakes was that I am internally battling with myself about dd starting school this year.

[ja9]

TWIGA!!!

was in abdn on sun and S&J were updating me on your situation, but this is not what they said!! My goodness, BRIGHTON... that's miles away!

you sound quite upbeat about it though... good for you for being so positive .

thinking of you 4 lots.

xx

[sunnydelight]

Hi Twiga. I really don't want to be negative here, but the system is totally different in England so you probably need to know this We are now in Sydney but my 3 kids were all born in Brighton and we lived there for 12 years. If you go onto the Brighton and Hove Council website and look up FIS (Family Information Service) that's probably your best source of info.

Your daughter won't be entitled to early education funding Spring term 2009 (not after the October holiday - I just checked it on the B&H Council website) so there is no option to start a funded nursery place in September. My daughter turned 3 in February 2006 and she received "nursery funding" at the private nursery she was in from April 2006; she then got a place at a nursery class attached to a school the following September (the year before she would have started school). My older November born son was offered a nursery place at Tarnerland starting the September before he turned 4.

There are two very popular State nurseries in Brighton - Tarnerland and Royal Spa (both in the Queens Park area near the hospital) but you basically put your kids name down on their second birthday and then they draw from the waiting list. They have a morning and an afternoon class (2 1/2 hours per session) of around 20 kids each. I'm not even sure they would put your name on the waiting list if you're not living in the area, and it's probably too late anyway, but it might be worth checking out. There aren't that many schools in Brighton with an attached nursery class and remember, it is no guarantee of a reception place in the same school, so if you don't live in the school catchment you might want to think if you want to send your child to the nursery class of a school that you won't get her into later.

There are a LOT of private nurseries in Brighton, but the good ones all have waiting lists. Have you any idea where you are going to live? that's probably your best starting point. The other option would be playgroups.

If your OH is working at the RSCH Queen's Park/Hanover is a fantastic place to live with a young child. Queen's Park is the nicest park in Brighton (in my opinion of course!) with wonderful homemade caks and you're not that far from the beach. There are LOTS of young families around, good family friendly pubs and until your family outgrows the (mainly) smaller houses around there it's a brilliant place to be. We moved around there when DS1 was 2 and I thought that I would never leave Brighton (by the time we had 3 kids that changed a bit!!!).

There's a great Brighton mumsnet crew - keep an eye out for their meetups and good luck.

[sunnydelight]

That would be cakes, not caks!!!!!

[Twiga]

Thanks for the info sunnydelight, if I'm totally honest my head is completely minced trying to figure all this out. I thought all 3 year olds were now entitled to a nursery place automatically (maybe this is just here in Scotland), really not understanding why dd would have to wait until the apring term under english system. Is the spring term the term after Easter? It seems from what you're saying she would only get just over a year of nursery before starting school. We're only going to be in Brighton for 7 months so I guess consistancy through to p1 class issue irrelevant but it seems ridiculous that there will be no nursery provision at all.

Anyway, thanks too for the heads up on good places to live, we're hoping to rent somewhere as we're just there a short while. Had heard that Brighton a nice place and we're going to be just a couple of hours from some family do we're quite excited about our short term mood. Will def check out who's around on a mn front. If you think of anything which might be helpful would you please post again? Cheers!

[tassisssss]

wow twiga, this is a huge move for you guys...we're praying for you as you get your head around it all.

on the nursery thing, it's a postcode lottery in Scotland and not a legal entitlement from 3. as you know our dd is almost exactly a year younger than yours and we're faced with the possibility that the lovely nursery where her big bro had 2 years provision could be full by the time she turns 3 and she might only get a year there. if it's not full it's possible she'll get started after October...this year there have been kids who've started after Oct, Christmas and a wee girl started on Monday, but last year C's class was pretty much full from the August and a wee guy I know who turned 3 in the October was only offered one afternoon a week

anyway, i hope it all comes together for you and i look forward to catching up soon...we need to make the most of these few months near each other!

[Twiga]

Hey Tassisssss! Hope you're keeping well and not to huge and fed up. This whole nursery thing is a real headache, if only there was one single system throughout, it's all very confusing! The other aspects of the move sould be fine, just got to figure out the whole renting our house/renting down there thing. Really think it will be a positive 7 months but it is a very long way away from up here and we'll miss it a lot. Of course you guys are always welcome to take a trip south - nice warm climate, beach .

[MABS]

know little about state school system, so can't help there really. Know a lot about Neonatology at RSCH tho!, the unit is being rebuilt at the mo, but should be finished by 5 June. Amazing place, they are fantastic, am up there quite a lot.