Moving school from England to Scotland

[Impro]

My son is moving from and English school to a scottish one. His age allows him to start in scotland at s3 when he would be starting year 9 in England. I'm worried that because scottish schools make their standard grade choices at the start of s3 when in england he wouldn't choose gcse's until year 10. Has anyone had experience of moving and the levels the child is at? Thank you

[prettybird]

If he is going into S3 in August, he'll be doing the new Curriculum for Excellence qualifications and none of us know how that'll work at the Standard grade level.

[bookbird]

if your DS would have started year 9 in England, our equivalent is S2.

placing Mistakes due to birthdates are quite common, because you have an end August cut-off for starting school, but ours is the following March.

if he joins an S3 year group, he'll essentially miss a year of schooling.

HTH, and welcome to Scotland

[prettybird]

P1 is the equivalent of Reception, so S3 is the equivalent of Y9.

However, the Scottish system does have more flexibility that the English system, so kids in that year will have birthdays from late August 1997 (although more likely the oldest would be December 1997) all the way through to February 1999.

So depending on when your ds' birthday is - and how mature you feel he is - you could choose either year. Although I'm not sure how flexible our system is once you've actually started school - they might take the year he was in and do the direct translation.

Also, don't worry too much about him having to choose his subjects earlier (technically under CfE they're not supposed to choose until S4 (not sure about that, as my ds only goes to secondary this August) but in practice more schools are still getting them to make choices in S3. However the prid pro quo for that is that in S5 he would do a wider ranger of Highers than he would A Levels.

[bookbird]

Perhaps my response was too cut and dried for something that is so open to interpretation.

You can see, it's all down to birth dates and the fact that there is one more year of education in England than there is in Scotland (14 years in England including reception, only 13 in Scotland).

One way to look at it would be to work backwards from S4 (end of compulsory education and when they typically sit their first qualifications here). In Scotland, almost all pupils are 16 the year they sit these qualifications (oldest in the year is 16 in the April (some exceptions of late entrants who are 16 in the Feb or March) youngest is 16 in the December to following February.

[AceOfBase]

I would just like to put it to you from the point of view of someone who has moved from an English to a Scottish school themselves (though I did year 5 to s1). I was not put in based on my age in fact I was turning 15 literally during exam time in s4 (may) and so was the youngest in the year by miles. If you think this will happen to your son I would seriously consider putting him in the next year down as the age gap was awful for me and meant in the later years of school when my peers were allowed to do things like parties at weekends and even pubs in 6th year I was too young and was not allowed or invited in many cases. It put a huge dent in my self esteem and really affected my enjoyment of school even though the actual work wasn't so bad and I was bright enough to do the work a year early if I could have moved down a year I would have.

[prettybird]

It does get complicated, doesn't it, especially with the different cut-off dates! I don't see it as one year less education, as technically Reception is not compulsory.

Both systems have the same legal requirement - you must start schooling by the session after your 5th birthday.

[prettybird]

AceofBase - good point about the social considerations.

[tumbleweedblowing]

You'll probably want to check how the local authority in your new area are doing the CfE. In most areas they won't be choosing subjects till mid S3. However some do still plan to chose at the end of S2, and if you are thinking about going private, it is another whole different ballgame.

As has been said already, birth month is key. When we made the move DD2 and DD3 went back a year in our minds, because they are now a year further away from starting secondary. Actually they are still the same time away from leaving school, and it was DD1 who jumped forward a year. Stupid us had spent 20 years in England, and never realised that they spend 7 years in secondary there, not six like in Scotland.

It doesn't seem to have done DD1 any harm though. Even as one of the youngest in her year, she's just come out top academically for the year. Socially, another whole thing...

CfE might come as a shock to you all in terms of number of subjects though. Only 6-8 in S3/S4 depending on where you live - nothing to do with ability.

[2rebecca]

Kids just do their standard grades slightly earlier than GCSEs in England due to the difference in the birthday selection cut offs in Scotland. My son has just finished standard grades and is 15 1/2. I don't see a problem with them specialising a bit earlier as they get on to more serious stuff and get more streaming in their classes.
If he's average or bright then I'm not sure holding him back will be doing him any favours. My son did 8 standard grade /int 2s which was the norm at his school.
I'll have to start looking at the new system with my daughter but find it very confusing as do her school.