Scottish school system confusion

[Wingingit44]

Can someone kindly help me work this out. Looking to move from England to Scotland with
ds1 (5 - July birthday, about to go into year 2),
ds2 (4 - Jan birthday, about to go into reception),
and dd3 (2 - December birthday, will get 15 hour funding in January).

Will one of the boys jump up a year... and ds2 miss a year?! Would dd3 still get 15 hour funding?

Thanks! :)

Thanks everyone this is all extremely helpful.

I was just curious about the moving up thing really.

That's interesting to hear that deferring is quite common.

So when people have said P1 is more structured then reception does that mean more desk based, more sitting and formal lessons? As opposed to the shorter teaching times and more play based sessions in reception?

Thanks

My daughter was doing structured desk based lessons in p1 not play (she complained about that alot 😂).

Im also not convinced that your child would be ahead of his p2 peer group because he is coming from england. I saw my niece's report at the end of p1 and the teaching targets were very similar.

My boy is 4 soon so will be the middle of the year, out of his 4 friends who have jan/feb birthdays 3 of them are doing an extra year at nursery rather than going into p1. Lots of research on the subject and lots of different opinions but for the reasons above I would defer if I had a child with a jan/feb bday especially thinking about the benefits in high school.

Thanks! Very insteresting to hear all of this. I didn't realise about kids starting later and not having reception so I have learnt a lot!

I was educated in both England and Scotland and everyone is much the same level on starting and finishing primary and secondry school. The difference in Scotland is that children start school aged between 4 and a half and 5 and a half, and there is no upper sixth. In England they can start at only just turned 4, whereas in Scotland they would still be in nursery at that age.

My DS was 5 in March, he starts P1 soon. Your DS 1 has just turned 6 so he's 8 months older. He should be in P2 regardless of the English system. It won't harm him. If he were to go into P3 he would be in a class where some children are nearly 18 months older than him, and he is 5 months younger than the youngest child. Now that really could be detrimental to his education and wellbeing.

If I were you I would defer DS2 (your call) and not worry about DS1 repeating a year.

Good luck with the move

Yes there is a lot of desk based learning in P1. I've read comments from teachers who've taught both say P1 is much more formal than Reception.

When are you planning to move? School holiday have barely 2 weeks left - I'm assuming you aren't moving before mid August.

One option for DC2 is to start Reception as planned but speak with teachers before deciding on P1 or nursery.
It might be you think deferring would be better from a social point. Starting school is massive then moving in a short space of time could be tough for him. Might be easier to start a P1 next year.

The easiest way to think of it is that both systems have 13 years formal education ( technically Reception is an optional year even if in practice most kids do it ): England has 6 years at primary, then 7 at secondary - 5 years up to GCSEs then 2 years to do A Levels; Scotland has 7 years at primary then 6 years at secondary - 4 years to Nat 5s (roughly the equivalent of GCSEs) then 1 year to do c5 Highers and then another year to do Advanced Highers (the equivalent of A levels) or indeed A levels or more/resit Highers or more/resit Nat 5s.

It's possible to go to a Scottish Uni after S5 (as I did) but most now go after S6.

Ds has just finished S6 and is off to Uni next month (eeeeeek!!!!). He only turns 18 later next month too - so will be 17 throughout Freshers Week . Technically he's in the middle of his age cohort - though in practice, because of deferrals, he's towards the young end of the year. In his S6 classes, he had a friend who'd turned 18 in January (and come to think of it, once his friends from primary school would've turned 18 last December ) and another (actually the boy who will be Dux) who will only turn 18 next February (cut off date is March)

If ds had gone to school in England, he's only be going into Upper 6th/Y13 this September as the oldest in the year.

FWIW, technically your dd, with a December birthday, could also defer, although in practice especially for girls it is unlikely that the nursery would support it and therefore you'd lose the funding for the free nursery place.

Late to the party here, but being English born living in Scotland, I have a bit of knowledge of both systems. I wouldn't view it as repeating a year at all for your oldest. Although they start school a bit later here, they learn fairly rapidly in P1 being that bit older and having had 2 years of play-based learning in nursery. The curriculum for excellence has quite a holistic approach to learning and so will be quite different I expect to what you were used to. There will be a wide range of abilities in every class and so the teacher will be able to cater to your child's level whatever that may be.

As has been said, deferring a place for Jan-Feb children is very common and just part of the system. I think it's particularly common for boys especially. All my kids are March-born and so have started school a year later than they would have done had we been in England and are among the oldest in their years. I was quite concerned at first with my twins who are now going into P4 as they were very able and I felt like they would have coped with school OK. As it happened, that extra year at nursery and being nearly 5.5 upon starting meant the difference between just "coping" and really flourishing and my youngest who is about to start P1 would have struggled I think had she not had that extra year. For your two younger children, you'll find that the transition between school and nursery tends to be very thorough (at least it is in my LEA). They first met their buddies from the school's P6 before Christmas and have had regular contact with them both at the nursery and the school since. There were about 5-6 transition events in the summer term where they got to spend time in their classroom, have lunch in the canteen etc. and so they are more than prepared to go straight into full days when they actually start.

In any case, I really don't think you'll regret moving to Scotland. I certainly couldn't leave now after 13 years and seeing the pressure put on friends and relations' kids in the English school system, I have to say I'm quite glad not to be in it!

Good luck with it all x