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!

Yes the social aspect is one to consider too, we will be coming from a more innocent perhaps place and I worry it all might be a bit of a shock to her

In our LA you’d be classed as international new arrivals and your DD would attend a school centre for a couple of weeks until a primary school place could be found. Sometimes additional funding is available for TA support if needed initially.
I know that this service isn’t available everywhere.
As others have said, there is likely to be a wide range of ability in her new class and teachers are used to differentiating.

Just to add some schools are religious and have additional requirements eg baptism certificate. Not sure if you are a particular religion but if you are check whether supplementary information form is required.

I haven’t read all the posts, just your posts OP, but I am confused why you are comparing her level of learning in your local language to what she will be doing at school in England, when you have already taught her how to read and write fluently in English? The level in the local language will be totally irrelevant when she starts English school. She sounds fine to me. My bright Year 4 9 year old struggles with Harry Potter.

This will be even more school dependent. I was at small village school where everyone was polite and well behaved. Some of the other primary schools that fed into my secondary school had kids that had been smoking since they were 9 and truanting. Such a culture shock when I went for the trial days!!

I think it has confused people where you mentioned about her leaving the alphabet. But she’s way beyond that in English. Which is what will matter when you move.

So don’t worry. She’ll be fine! :)

We had loads of families move here from
Hong Kong in the past couple of years. One child barely spoke or understood English. She’s doing great now!

Do you think being in a class with kids 15 months younger than her will help either? She’ll be 10 when some of them are still 8 - that is a big difference.

There will be plenty of July and August born children in her year, if she was born in July she won’t be the youngest.

She’s got another year to go, I originally wrongly read it that she was starting this September.

You also started saying she was really behind and only just learning her letters and now suddenly she can read Harry Potter!

So I am somewhat confused

Nevermind…it is confusing trying to explain about the two different systems and what they’ve covered

Newquay Cornwall

I just Googled and found 6 primary schools in the Newquay area.
All appear to be Trust schools i.e. not directly run by the Local Authority
( someone has already explained this to you )

3 of the schools belong to one trust, two belong to another and the 6th school belongs to a 3rd trust.

That is very similar to where I live in Devon.
Out of 30 ? Primary schools in Torbay, ( which is the Local Authority name and it's made up of Torquay / Paignton and Brixham ) only three ? now are still run by the local authority, ( or maybe by a Church ) all the others are run by trusts whether they include the word Academy in their name or not.

Generally tho children are put into the year which they should be in according to their age, state schools do not tend to like children being a year behind or a year ahead, generally they also do not like a child ' repeating ' a year except in exceptional circumstances.

But it doesn’t matter about the 2 different systems really. As long she is doing fine in English reading, writing and maths, that’s all that matters for a UK primary school.

Truth be told, everything else they do is just filling time - As we all found out with home learning during Covid!

Ok, my mistake. At 7 she’s still behind, but the good news is that it does give OP time to get her DD up to speed for Y5 entry in 2027.

I agree with others @Dontliketheheathelp if she is reading Harry Potter and doing the kind of maths you mention she will be fine. It is pretty irrelevant that the curriculum in her school is more at a yearR/yr 1 level (though she must find it very dull?).

Btw can I ask why Cornwall? I am assuming you have family or other connections there? Is it there you are originally from? If yes to all that then ignore me, but otherwise I might look at somewhere less isolated and less £££ for houses (and hard to find). I used to live in a seaside town (not Cornwall either, more accessible tbh) and it was very lonely and empty in the winter. I would not have wanted to bring up a tween/teen there.

That's not "learning the alphabet". From what you were saying it sounded like she was only just beginning phonics - which would be Reception work.

@Dontliketheheathelp honestly, if she’s already reading Harry Potter, she’ll be fine. My DDs didn’t start reading that until they were about 10. You can work with her on her maths, perhaps with the help of a tutor. It’s terrific that she’s bilingual. As @clary said, i think Cornwall may be a tricky place to move to - beautiful, interesting and characterful but also very expensive with lots of local deprivation because of seasonality of employment opportunities and locals being squeezed out of housing by wealthy second home owners etc. It’s also under-supported in many ways (i think there is only 1 A&E hospital for the whole of Cornwall). It sounds like you have family there but if you could cast your net wider, you might be better off.

I don’t think she finds it dull because she’s learning to write in the language so it makes it more challenging. However, the maths is too easy and she will need stretching with this
Yes all family are there

She is learning the letters in their language this year

I have a summer baby. She’s 15 and taking all her GCSEs. Maybe an extra year would boost one or two of them slightly, but socially and emotionally she is in the right year group. She’s ready for sixth form college in September. I really wouldn’t worry about it.

Do you mean that's what the school curriculum is supposed to teach her this year?

Because if she's reading Harry Potter in the other language, then she's clearly not going to be learning her letters this year. As she already knows them. Or else she wouldn't be able to read complex books in that language.

She can't just be learning the letters in that language though if she can comfortably already read Harry Potter in both English and that language?

Surely you can see why your posts have confused people?

They are teaching this.

i’m guessing because i’d already taught her to read when she was much younger-in English, she’s able to transfer those skills over

See above

Tbh her English sounds brilliant because reading pretty much underpins everything else, doesn't it? Having a solid foundation like that will mean she's able to catch up more easily in other areas.

Maths may be a relative weakness, could you afford a tutor for an hour a week? She may benefit from some additional one to one rather than competing for attention in a class of 30. By Y5 over here they're also doing more science and world studies, but I wouldn't sweat that too much - it's often more a basic introduction to science through experimentation, rather than core learning. Think teeth, bones, body, carnivores v herbivores, stuff that probably interests many kids that age and can be learned by going to hands on museums (like the Science Museum in London over here).

I think you're right to be cautious and fwiw I think our children start school too early over here when many are just not emotionally ready for the cognitive load.

Also worth considering how your dd learns - is she good with theory/ taking in verbal instructions, or does she have particular strengths in visual learning but lack verbal comprehension? I don't mean this to highlight deficits, just that when she does go to school in the UK, I'd be highlighting to teachers any strengths she has which may compensate for any relative weaknesses.

Back to the school choice, OP, regardless of the year of entry - it’s great you’re thinking about it way in advance, but the problem here is that finding spaces in schools beyond the “applying for the school at the normal entry point for that school (eg reception, or y7)” is that you just have to see what spaces happen to be available immediately at the time, or a few weeks in advance. Schools won’t hold a place for you even if you ask a year in advance. They’re generally reluctant to go over the top number for a class too. So you have to rely on one of the schools near you happening to have a space in the y5 class at the time you arrive.

If none of them have a space nearby, they might find a space further away, or in a different school to the one you want that is undersubscribed. I know someone who moved back from overseas with 4 children and at the start of the school year had three of them in totally different schools scattered about, and one with no place at all for a few months. People sometimes end up looking at private schools in this situation.

I would look at the council website for where you want to move to, and find the “in year admissions” page. Maybe this for you? https://www.cornwall.gov.uk/schools-and-education/schools-and-colleges/school-admissions/changing-school-or-joining-a-school-during-the-school-year-in-year/

Even though you can’t actually apply for ages yet, I’d get in touch with them and find out how over / under subscribed the schools are at the moment - it may be that some are always very full with waiting lists, or some regularly have spaces and you might get lucky.

The good news though (though it’ll seem way too far ahead for you!) is that you’ll be well established before it’s time to do the secondary schools application in y6. V good to be in place before that happens.

Best of luck - if your child can read well in English, and sounds like she’s good at maths, then she will be fine, I’m sure.

Being taught to read in English doesn't mean you're suddenly able to read complex books in another language.

It makes no sense that you're saying she is only just learning the letters in this other language but she can also read fluently.