Schools for shy kids.

[Katie1920]

Hello all, I'm currently living in Australia, and moving back to the UK (Devon/Somerset area) at the end of Feb. I'm really excited to be moving home after 6.5 years over here.
We come home with two extra little people, our 4.5 year old girl/boy twins.
In Australia, you don't have to send kids to school at 4, you can hold them back a year, which is what we would be doing if we were staying. The Australian school year starts in January, so they could start this year - if we weren't moving home.
The reason why we were holding them back, is that they are both really shy, and gentle kids. It's taken them a long time to cope with Pre-school here, and it's still not smooth sailing.
I'm so worried as it's going to be massive moving country, but moving schools, and starting in a proper school, not just a pre-school, is going to really affect them.
Can anyone in the Devon/Somerset area advise on some good smaller schools?
I'm so stressed I can't even think straight about what to do.

[AnyTheWiser]

Hi Katie, it might be better to post the same question over in MN Local for Devon and Somerset, so that some people with local knowledge can help.
Good luck with your big move!

[Katie1920]

I'm new to this site, where will I find MN?

[butterfly990]

MN is abbreviation for Mums Net. You need to go to "Menu" and then choose "Local".

I am Australian and live in North Somerset. My experience of pre-school and then primary school is very positive. The primary school my two younger children went to was next door to the pre-school and they shared some of the facilities and often spent time mixing in the playground etc.

The first term they split the class in half and started them with sessions of say 9-11 (group A) and 1-3 (group B)for the first week and then the next week including a lunch session and then the next week a full day and then introducing the first half of the class to the second half.

To be honest about 90% of the class had already attended the pre-school and so knew each other. The school also had the reception teaching assistant spend the last term in pre-school to help them with the transition to reception class.

I hope this helps.

[AnyTheWiser]

If you're on a pc/laptop- at the top it says 'topics>>Education' then click on topics, and 'Local' is one of those- there'll be one for Devon, one for Somerset.

I'm not in that area at all, but I imagine that the smaller the village, the smaller the school, so that might help a little?

[merlottime]

Assuming that you are after state schools, then depending on how over subscribed schools are in the area you may move to you may not get much choice, if any unfortunately. I think they will go into Reception year, but as the year is half way through you will only get offered schools that have places. You also probably can't apply until you have a UK address, and any info local authorities can give on current vacancies may not be the situation in February (unless a school is very under subscribed). So you may be best off targeting areas where there are several schools in easy reach to give you the best chance of finding something. Good luck.