England GCSE is equivilan to what Scotish qualification?

[Masooma78]

Hi! I have recently moved to Scotland in Newton Mearns from England. Schools are closed here. Still waiting to get my children get enrolled in a school. Head teachers are off on holidays. I am confused what equivalence would there be for my children here as my son was suppose to give GCSE in England next year but they r offering him S4 here which means he will sit N5 exams after 2 years. Can anyone explain how scotish education system is diffrent from England? Why is he not going to be enrolled for S5 so that he can give N5 exams? Is N5 exam is equivilant to GCSE? Sorry too many questions but I am totally confused. Please help me understand. Many Thanks!

I'm sure you will have thought of all of these but:-

1. What do you need to get a copy of for each of my dc attainment-wise? Here are there school reports and their old books. What else? Would you like a list of what topics they have studied in the last year?
2. What things do i need to provide for each child? Any text books? An Ipad? A laptop?
3. What is the school uniform policy and how strictly is it enforced? (You don't want to buy a blazer if no one ever, ever wears theirs).
4. DS1 was preparing for these GCSEs. Is it better for him to still do the exams or should he switch to NATs? Going subject by subject, which subjects do you cover and how does the subject matter vary between what DS1 has studied and what the rest of the class will have covered? can we make a plan to breech the gaps?
5. If there any subjects which really do not map onto each other - history, maybe - does it make sense for DS1 to study this at home and just take the GCSE externally?
6. Are there any upcoming school trips, perhaps associated with the individual subjects, that Ds1 could enrol for even if the enrolment time has passed?
7. What can I do at home to support Ds1's transition into the Scottish system?
8. If I need to contact the subject teachers, how do I do this?
9. Can you describe what happens in S5? How many subjects? Which highers are offered? Requisite NAT5 pass rates to get onto the higher courses? On a related point, how are the Nat5s graded, and how many nationally get the top grade (so you can understand how to interpret the info)?

10. How many of your students go onto to university? Which universities get the largest numbers? 11. How will you set my DC initially?

What I'd be concerned about, in your shoes, is to find out what NAT5s will be offered, to ensure attention is given to helping your DS1 catch up, and crucially not to be put in for NAT4s because its too much effort to get him to catch up on the NAT5s.

I wonder if they will suggest your DS goes into S4 instead?
The entry point into school is more fluid in Scotland. In England there is the rigid midnight 31st August cut-off, but in Scotland, there is more choice about "sending early"/ "holding back a year" when the child is born in the late winter. So, the age range in each year is wider than in England where the max possible is 364 days.

You will find that the uniform policy might be quite clear, but that it isn't enforced in the way that English schools enforce theirs. Very often if a pupil is wearing a tie and vaguely the right colour scheme it's considered a success in Scotland!

I found this list of set texts for English online.
www.sqa.org.uk/files_ccc/ScottishtextlistSQPN5.pdf

If its right, then its not good news as there is little or no overlap with English GCSEs. When I did o'grades, there was huge overlaps, but Scotland seems to have become less British and more proudly Scottish of late and that appears to e reflected in the set texts.

Trivial - you are right that it is definitely worth considering going back a year.

When we moved up to Scotland, ds1 was half way through the first year of his GCSEs, and we were worried that he would find it too hard to catch up with the first year of the Standard grade curriculum, so with his and the school's agreement, we put him back a year - and it was hugely successful for him.

From being one of the youngest in his year, he became the eldest, and it gave him an extra year to mature and grow up - and we are absolutely sure that this contributed massively to him doing well in his exams at school, and getting an unconditional offer to read Law at Reading. He graduated last year, and is working at a job he loves.

"If its right, then its not good news as there is little or no overlap with English GCSEs"

It shouldn't matter, it's a one year course and they shouldn't have studied any of them before anyway...so they're supposed to be new and covered in that year.

Absolutely awesome set of Questions. Many thanks TrivialPursuit. I will definitly make a list of these important questions and will make sure we know what will they offer him at this stage. Hopefully everything will fall into place successfully tomorrow though I won't want him to repeat a year since I know he is bright enough to catch up. He studies paasionatly and if given the right attention, (which if School wouldn't be able to then I will give) he will catch up. If it was my other child I would have thought taking a back step will be a wise choice...... you know all kids are different. I will obviously take the schools advice onboard as well as my sons before we make a desiscion. Thanks so much everyone for your kind help especially TrivialPursuit. I am relly greatful for your help bless you!