Is there an equivalent of the august born baby issue in the Scottish eduction system?

[snookie28]

I am keen to understand whether educationally there is a best and worst time to have a birthday when starting school in scotland. I understand that the cutoff point is different to in England - end of Feb? Does this mean that children start school between 4.6 and 5.6? My DD was born in Sep 2006 so will she start school in Aug 2011 when she is almost 5?

Is there a tendancy for children born in February to struggle as they are a year younger than others in their class? Would there be an advantage to having a March birthday

Although I was born and now live in scotland I was educated in England so am trying to get my head around the system up here. Incidentally I was the one of the most extreme Aug babies as my bday is 30th Aug and it never seemed to cause me any issues at school.

[NaeDanger]

so glad you asked this!
My ds was born in sept 2005 and i don't have a clue about the education system here (being canadian) what about the free nursery place? when do they get that?

[Tamum]

There's no issue, because you can keep your child back a year if they're not already 5 by the time school starts in August. It's a fab system IMHO. The cut off is the end of February usually.

[clayre]

if a child is born in feb they go to school at either 4 and a half or 5 and a half. My dd could have gone in august at 4.5 but i decided to keep her at nursery till 5.5

[Tamum]

Oh, and in practice few children with February birthdays do start that year, many of them stay back a year. It's a nice, flexible, self-regulating system.

[clayre]

Naedanger your ds should start nursery october 2008 providing the nursery has places

[tissy]

my dd was born late January, so is one of the youngest in her class. She was 4.7 when she started P1. Luckily she's been OK, but it seemed very young to me.

Free nursery place-- erm, can't remember, think it is the term after the third birthday it starts! 3 x half day sessions per week??

[snookie28]

Thanks for answering my queries and giving me more information regarding nurseries - something I hadn't even thought about. I felt kind of stupid not knowing but most of the threads on MN discuss the english system.

Now all we need to do is move from Glasgow out to East Renfrewshire like everyone else is doing for the "better" schools

[Tamum]

It's not stupid not to know at all, and you're right, the Scottish system doesn't get mentioned nearly as much on here.