To ask about moving to england

[fishfingersandwichextrordinair]

Hi all

I live in Scotland and have a DS who will be in March 2019. As per the Scottish education system, he is still in nursery and won’t start primary 1 until August next year.

My DH could potentially be in line for a great promotion next year which would need us to move to Manchester round about June/July. I am happy to do this but there’s just one thing troubling me. My son won’t have completed reception as it does not exist in Scotland and he is in pre school nursery until June.

If we relocated to Manchester would he just start year 1 (or whatever the p1equivalent is down south)? Would not having completed reception be detrimental? Obviously up in Scotland we don’t have such a thing so I’m not sure what the script is if we move.

Can anyone advise?

5 in March that’s supposed to say!

He would start in the class based on his age so if you move in June he would go into Reception until the end of term (schools break up around 23rd July next year). Manchester schools have a lot of children joining through out the year from all over the world and the kids get upto speed pretty quickly. Very few schools allow children to be in a different year group compared to their peers. It's up to the head ultimately but generally doesn't happen in Manchester.
Be prepared if you do move that a lot of schools are oversubscribed so you might not get into your preferred schools. Not all councils have catchement areas for schools and class sizes are restricted to 30 pupils are Year 1 and 2 as well as Reception.

As thecraftyfox says, it's age based.

There's no evidence that DS will be behind having had no formal schooling at the age of 5. I think reception gets young kids used to discipline, but pre-school will be doing the same.

I’m not looking to delay him starting school.

I’m just wondering if he’ll be at a disadvantage having not completed reception year?

Reception involves a lot of learning to read, count etc. Some children pick that up then and others in year 1, especially if they were younger when they began reception.

Im under the impression p1 is more "real work" than reception is but not as much as Year 1. Sort of half way between the two which fits with the ages.

Reception is play based so may be similar to your childs nursery year. I would certainly seek to start reception in the June if you can so they have half a term to get used to school (we tend to break up later than Scottish schools - end Julyish.)

In my experience there is a huge leap from Reception to Year 1 as they move from learning about school routines and a bit of learning to a structured day at desks. So he will be making that leap with them. It would be good to be able to do that gently by joining reception though.

There will be a real mix of abilities by the end of reception. I think they aim to be reading simple sentences and spelling phonetic words. However some will be ahead and really reading/writing and some will still be taking off.

Similarly in maths being able to recognise and write numbers and do simple sums before year 1.

However the abilities vary and I am sure he would soon catch up!

I don’t think P1 is a half way. It’s hit the ground running work.

My own DM is a recently retired school teacher of 40 years and was mainly a P1 teacher. I think year one and P1 are comparable.

That makes sense. Does your nursery teach basic reading and maths? If so they will be fine!