English vs Scottish education systems

[desertmama1]

Hi there
Could someone please tell me what the main differences are between the English and Scottish school systems?

Starting age and cut off months e.g. in Scotland you are at least 4½ years old before you start although if you defer the start year you might be 5½ when you start.

School terms start earlier and finish earlier in Scotland- end of term is end of June and go back mid August

Scotland primary school is Primary 1- 7; secondary school is Secondary 1- 6 although you can leave before 6th year if you are over 16.

In Scotland you work towards National 5 qualifications followed by Highers and advanced Highers although you can take a mix e.g. my dd did 2 advanced highers and 1 higher in S6.

Don't know about the English system, sorry

Thank you for getting back to me.
Are primary school children assessed a lot?

www.theschoolrun.com/primary-school-assessment-in-scotland-explained

This explains about testing. Its about assessing progress rather than passing or failing.

Starting age and cut off months: in England you are at least 4years 1 day old (starting is year your turn 5 1Sept-31August) before you start though 'summer borns' can apply to defer by a year.

School year starts early September and finish late July (around 3rd week)

England primary school is Reception then y1 - y6; secondary school is y7-y11 and then y12,y13. Official school leaving is end y11, though you have (are meant) to be in some form of education/training until end y13

In England you work towards GCSEs (y11) (most take 8-10) followed by A levels or vocational qualifications such as BTECs.

The other big difference is school allocation.

In England each school has admission criteria. You get to put 3-6 schools on a list in order of preference and you are allocated the one highest up that you qualify for. The criteria have children with EHCPs at the top, looked after / adopted next then things like priority admission areas, siblings then distance.

Some areas of England still have Grammar schools at secondary whereby pupils have to sit an entrance test (11+) to see if they are clever enough (or in some areas more accurately if their parents have paid for tutoring enough) to qualify. The rest go to a 'comprehensive' but they may not be true comprehensives as the top 20% or so have been skimmed off.

Most areas have true 'comprehensives' which have the very bright and the average and the strugglers.

Formal assessment at primary:

• incoming into Reception to see their baseline
• phonics screening check in y1 to check how well the school is teaching the building block of reading which is phonics
• y2 SATs have gone now I believe
• a time table test is being trialled in y4
• y6 SATs in Maths & English though I think they might be going too

The Scottish System runs a thing called the ‘Curriculum for Excellence’ which is designed to educate and turn out well rounded children. It’s recently been reviewed by the OECD as a great 21st century education...until you get to the exam years when it reverts to 19th century straight exams. It has been roundly critiqued for this and found to be wanting.
The Scottish Government are going to dissolve the exam board and try something new to improve this.
There is one exam board and they are answerable to the Government.

The English system run towards and base everything on the yr2 and yr6 SATS. Children are judged, streamed and (depending on your prospective) written off at the grand old age of 10.
High schools sets are based on the SATS.

There isn’t one exam board for the country, so schools can shop around for the exam board that’s the cheapest.

Not sure which one is better tbh.

Children are judged, streamed and (depending on your prospective) written off at the grand old age of 10.

This isn't true in areas where all the schools are comprehensives.

High schools sets are based on the SATS.

Only as a starting point for year 7. There is a lot of movement between sets depending on how the child performs.

In Scotland, if a child defers so that they start at five and a half, do they skip a year at primary school or do they start secondary school at age 12?

@RampantIvy

Children are judged, streamed and (depending on your prospective) written off at the grand old age of 10.

This isn't true in areas where all the schools are comprehensives.

High schools sets are based on the SATS.

Only as a starting point for year 7. There is a lot of movement between sets depending on how the child performs.

In Scotland, if a child defers so that they start at five and a half, do they skip a year at primary school or do they start secondary school at age 12?

They start secondary at age 12. Pupils in the year above can be younger than those who deferred in the year below.

I had completed by full education in Scotland by age 17 and was in university.

Scots have a broader education with slightly less depth than the English. But Uni lasts for an extra year.

That said I managed at an English Uni fine.

It is harder to specialize in Scotland but you get a better general education overall I think.

In terms of performance, in the most recent PISA tests (2018), Scotland rated a little below England in reading, and substantially below England in Maths and Science. Scotland was ahead of England on reading in 2006, 2009 and 2012 but dropped behind in 2015. It has closed the gap somewhat but remains behind. Scotland was ahead of England in Maths in 2006, 2009 and 2012, fell a little behind in 2015 and further behind in 2018. Scotland has been behind England in Science since 2006. The gap has widened significantly in 2015 and again in 2018.

The link between parental wealth and educational achievement is much stronger in Scotland than it is in England. In 2015 Nicola Sturgeon committed to narrowing the attainment gap significantly by 2021 and said she wanted to be judged on this. According to Audit Scotland, she has failed. She has now committed to closing the gap completely by 2026. I hope she succeeds because this is important, but the failure to achieve any significant narrowing of the gap in the last five years does not bode well. As things stand, the performance of a school in Scotland is governed by the affluence of the area from which it draws its pupils to a far greater extent than in England.

@prh47bridge That's interesting (and worrying). I wonder if the stronger connection, is related to the catchment area thing. Even if most schools decide on distance in England, there are lots of other factors, especially in cities which might mix things up a bit.

We have just moved from the Scottish system to the English. I have an 11 Yr old dd. She was a deferred entry to p1 and will be going into secondary at 12 and a half. I think it is a better age to hit secondary at but the new school pushed hard for her to be put up to secondary after the summer.
So far, I would say the flavour of the two systems is very different. The English system has far more formal assessments, grammar and trickier maths. Far less open ended and imaginative play. Less emphasis on critical thinking more in how to figure out a square root. I am totally biased but missing the cfe, imperfect though it definitely is... Her new teacher almost fainted at the lack of commas in her extended writing

@rivierliedje
I think that is right. I taught in a wonderful decile one school and a lot of energy was spent on feeding, clothing and meeting the emotional needs of the kids before beginning to look at educational attainment. It's all maslow, isn't it?....