Please tell me about UK schools

[Dontliketheheathelp]

We’re British, have lived abroad for a few years and due to return next summer-2027
Dc will have just turned 9 at that stage (late summer birthday)
What year will my Dc go into, would there be opportunity to go into the year below, due to being very young for her year and having started school later where we are and therefore behind others?
Also, what is the difference between a normal Primary school and an academy?
When would we need to apply for the school and what are the criteria for hoping to get into the one we hope for-is it due to being in the catchment area?

Any info greatly appreciated!

She easily reads Harry Potter independently in both languages?

I think they might, but i’m not sure at what age that starts really

Then to be honest..... I think she will be fine.
Just maybe work on some Year 3 maths at home.

That is fine. I don’t understand why you thought that was Y1 curriculum though - you mentioned alphabet, counting to 100 etc? I’m a bit confused.

Your post is extremely confusing because you said she is learning her numbers and alphabet - yet now she can do maths questions easily and read chapter books aimed at 9 year olds when she is 7.

It is very hard to advise you when your story is changing from one post to the next.

If she's doing that then I'm not sure why you said she's learning the alphabet of the country she's in.

If she's confident in reading books like that she can't also be at the stage of just learning her letters?

If you are relying on state schools the biggest barrier will be securing a school place in the area you want to live in. Many schools are oversubscribed so you may not have much choice where you send her. Numbers per class are capped so you could.move into a house next door to a school but if the year group is already full you wont get a place. You will go on a waiting list with your local council and they could offer you a place anywhere in their area, meaning you may have to travel or join a less desirable school.

Once you have a shortlist of towns you might relocate to ring local schools up directly to ask if they have spaces in the appropriate year group and start from there.

I’m slightly confused here op, you said that at school she was learning the alphabet of your country and numbers up to 100 but now you are saying she can read and write in both English and the language of your country.

in England children are taught to start recognising the letters of the alphabet usually in the preschool year if they are at nursery/a pre school or in reception (first year of school if not).

a few children enter school reading reasonably well but it’s not massively common.

so separate out what she is being taught in school from what she can actually do.

maybe find a reading age test in English and get her to do that?

England up until recently had ks1 sats which tested progress and were done at the end of year 2. Maybe get her to do a past paper to get a sense of where she is?

https://www.satspapers.org.uk/Page.aspx?TId=4

There is a lot of scaremongering on this post. I’ve taught in schools with a lot of turnover and lots of children joining from overseas at random points (university city) and the children have almost always been completely fine and have “caught up” to British curriculum quickly. If your child is bright she will adapt, just don’t let your anxiety rub off on her. It’s exciting and a privilege to experience two different systems. Good luck with the move, your daughter will be completely fine.

Yes i’d need to do both Year 3 and Year 4 in the following year though, hopefully that’s achievable alongside her other work in another language

Where are you currently?

My nieces in Germany started school at 6 (one just turned and the other a couple of weeks before she turned 7). They covered the alphabet in the first couple of months and were reading at a near fluent level before Christmas. This takes the English curriculum until the end of Y1 to achieve. My German nieces were doing comparable work to Y3 by the end of their first year. The maturity of starting later means the curriculum could move faster and more directly. They didn’t need to be coaxed the way R and Y1 need to be in England. I am sure you will find similarly.

Y3 and Y4 are big consolidation years in the English curriculum - probably to embed all that learning they were not developmentally ready for in the first place!

Year 5 isn’t a scary jump up at all and teachers in England are generally familiar with new to the country students and will support her transition over. If she’s not ready, she’ll be supported where she is at, a teacher won’t just push ahead and ignore her learning needs.

Finally, as a teacher, research and my own experience shows that in-year (ie 1st sept-31st August) age gaps are not distinct after Y2. She will be fine. You are focusing hard on age 9, but what about by age 12 or 18?

Also worth noting if you did enter year 4, it’s possible that the secondary school wouldn’t honour the deferral and would insert her into year 8, which I think is way worse than needing a bit of extra support in Y5. This happens in cases of deferral when the school is over subscribed. They see your daughter as out of place and if they don’t have room in Y7, but do in Y8 they can do this, leaving you to either accept the Y8 place or find another school that will honour the deferral.

That’s what they’ve done this year in class, we’ve done different things over the years at home for fun in English

So she’s almost 8? In that case I wouldn’t be so worried. You’ve got an entire year to catch her up with the maths and English will just happen more naturally. I’d just start doing some maths with her at home. White rose or bbc bite size, Twinkl etc

If she can do basic sums now up to 100 and start learning times tables it will get her going. You can learn loads in a year.

The maths curriculum is cyclical so don’t worry too much. There is always opportunities in every topic for the teacher to go back to the previous time the topic was covered to make sure it’s solid before taking it further. Your daughter will be fine.

I mean if she is reading Harry Potter independently she is probably not as behind as you think. Maybe focus on catching her up in maths, my DS is in Year 4 and timetables seems to be a huge goal as they have a multiplication check this month. If you are really concerned though I wonder if when moving to England you could home school for year 5 and 6 ready for school in secondary?

I don’t think you have an issue :)

It’s not changing at all. What she’s doing at school in another language is maybe different to what we’ve done at home over the years
I know that they are coming to the end of learning all their letters (sounds, handwriting etc) they write in sentences and their maths has gone up to 100, basic shapes and so on, which sounds like Year 1 to me. She’s always been an excellent reader and from a young age we did letters, reading and writing at home for fun, so tne English part she has off me

She has read with me since she was little at home, she knew phonics from me at home. She has now been learning all that but in another language because they don’t start that until Year 1. Up until then they play and do creative activities only

Yes, it's great that she can read and write fluently in English and that she's used to working at home. I agree with everything @cantkeepawayforever said here - you have time to work with her to bring her up to year 4 level.

If she's reading Harry Potter she's way beyond learning the alphabet stage, I was quite worried when you said she's only just learning the alphabet and counting to 100 at age 7!

If you keep working with her I think she's going to be just fine, so don't worry🙂

Yes I tested her reading age around Christmas and it was 9.11, i’m not concerned about her reading

Thanks so much

On a positive you’ve got 14 months to work with her. She’s obviously very receptive to you teaching her at home/you are good at teaching her if she’s reached a good standard of fluency in English already.

So she's significantly ahead in reading and able to do year 2 maths and English work which would be similar to her current cohort if she was at a UK school.

Why do you keep describing her as behind?

I don’t know if she is behind because I can’t envisage her doing or even being in Year 5 in a year and a bit. I remember Year 5 being much more challenging than what she has done so far at school
It’s difficult to explain if you only know the uk system, it’s very different where we are

I think rather than worrying about the year she will go into I would find the school that will allow her to thrive best not just academically but as a whole person.

My daughter is an August born and one of her best friends is more than a year older as he was deferred. She is also tiny and although she will go into year 2 in September when she is 6 she wears as 3-4 aged school uniform. She is bright but socially and emotionally it is more obvious that she is younger and the school are supporting her with this and we are helping too as there are the odd times when she is slightly out of step with her peers. It usually means that we have half a term of her struggling with friendships as they have had a leap with social relationships and she hasn't. By the end of the half term she's usually caught up and all is right with the world again