Transferring to uk state system from abroad - August born dc?

[Nutellanjam]

My dcs are currently in the Swiss (state) system, which has a different cut off for the academic year than in the uk. Here it is 30 June, which means that my dc1, who is an August birthday is the oldest in their current academic year ( ie they are in the year below the equivalent academic year they would be in in the uk, where they would be the youngest?)

My worry is - because we are considering a move back to UK and dcs would transfer into uk state system- would dc1 able to transfer into the equivalent school year to the one they are in now ( ie August born / but oldest in year) or would rules say that they must go into the class above? That would worry me in that dc1 will basically be having to go "up" a year ( from what is used to) as well as entering a whole new school system. Hope this makes sense! Does anyone have any idea how this might work or how I could check? Thank you ,

. (nosy)
I think they will go on birthday. Does your child speak & write English?

Are you moving to England/Wales or Scotland? Scotland has a different cut-off date (1 March) and is also more flexible regarding deferrals, so you can have an age range of 18 months within a school year cohort.

Very little flexibility in England so August born will be youngest of the year group. How old is dc 1 as ime the earlier they move the quicker they catch up and broader the ability range anyway.

I had the opposite situation with dd who had been in an International school that used a December cut off. DD had a November birthday, she went from youngest in year 3 to oldest in Year 3 here, and so repeated a year. This is the policy for DDs private school "Occasionally we may offer places to girls one year ahead or behind their standard year group if we
consider, as a matter of professional judgement, that this would be in the best interests of the pupil
and the school.
For entry to the Junior Department, a girl?s age within the year group, especially if one of the
youngest, may be taken into consideration."

What year is your DC? I have known a few people move from Switzerland to UK / International Schools and I think the greater problem is going to be the difference in approaches to learning, especially pre age 7. I would talk to the schools you are considering and compare milestones etc. I would have thought they would want to show flexibility if they are going to have to develop literacy and numeracy skills that the swiss don't embark on developing until children are more mature. The alternative is to support him with tutoring in the areas of the curriculum that differ.

Yes would be moving to England -and spoken english fine, written less so! Child would be 10 ( 11 in aug ) so I guess would mean they had to go straight to secondary??

I think schools will keep children in their year group.
My youngest son therefore went straight from nursery in Norway (where they start school aged 6) to Y2 in London, missing both Reception and Y1. A massive leap for him! HT got the senco involved and devised and Independent Plan for him, to get him up to speed with reading and writing and spelling.

He was shell-shocked. He came to school and found Y2 children sitting and taking notes, whereas he could not even write more than his name, let alone read.

A year and a half later he is in the top set for maths and science, a free reader and in the middle set for spellings. He has had to work his socks off, but the benefit is that he now takes any homework in his stride.

I suggest you raise your concerns with the HT when your dc starts the school and explain. They will most likely evaluate and see if they need to take any steps to take your daughter up to the expected level.

I just saw your last post. I think you need to ring the Local Education Area where you are moving to and ask.
Would you want him to go straight to secondary? Or would you prefer him to get one year in primary to get him up to speed?

Unfortunately you've missed the application deadline for secondary (I doubt you'd find a sympathetic lea tbh - at secondary there will be some kids with very poor levels of maths and writing so you wouldn't have an argument that a secondary couldn't cope with his needs). Missing the deadline means you effectively won't be offered a place until all normal applications have been placed, meaning you end up with a less popular school no-one wants!

Where were you thinking of living?

OP all is not lost, there are a few threads on here posted by people coming back as late applicants. If you get a house close to the school you should go to the top or near the top of the waiting lists and sometimes they do move, especially in London area or where there are good indies.

re doing Year 6 / going straight to secondary, I would consider the impact of being by far the oldest in class when those growth hormones swing in, and he is potentially a head taller with deep voice and beard, they hate being different!!

Copthall, if he's an August birthday he's only going to be at most a few weeks older than the next youngest in his class if he goes down a year. So puberty way before the others unlikely!

OP I'd say it depends on your child and how he's doing academically and what his educational experience has been until now. Also do you intend him to join a state school or an independent one? You may find more flexibility in an independent.

duchesse point taken but it is an increased chance and OP will know if they are a family likely to mature early. We have a local prep that has a very smart uniform with a blazer with bicolour piping in red and white. It looks so sweet on the 7 year olds but then you see some poor near 6ft near 13 year old with bum fluff desperately trying to sink back into the background in spite of it!!

However I do think that if OP can afford it a prep might provide the best environment in which to adjust to the different emphasis of the UK system. We certainly found the indies DDs attended were far more interested in the positives of their experiences as well as helping them adjust to the differences. The state schools wouldn't even talk to us until they had a place. We also had an 11 year old, had missed the application date and were not able to register on waiting list until we were resident at the address in July, even though we owned the house and could prove we were taking possession. To be fair that is the process not the school, but we were very close to the school and in fact a place did come up three weeks into term, so it wouldn't have hurt to have at least talked to us in anticipation.

Which county are you moving to? Some LEA do allow applications for Y7 secondary places from overseas British passport holders with evidence of return, rather than insisting on having a UK address. Try looking at overseas applications section of LEA's website. Also I agree with Copthallresident re late applications still being a good possibility - for example, some of the most popular secondaries in Surrey have 15 to 20 places a year turned down each year with parents taking up independent places. Most of these places are rejected after the initial offer so are reallocated to the waiting list, so a late applicant high up the admissions criteria will have a good chance.

I would also expect a good state secondary to cope well with his catching up - they will be used to children coming in from a range of primaries, with children having learnt different languages, having variations between extent of prior teaching in many other subjects. Most have reading recovery schemes for those arriving with poor literacy and aim to have these children catch up within first couple of years, etc.