Going into kindergarten after finishing UK reception

[markymark]

We're moving to California in July. DD will be 5 and will just have finished her first year at school. As her birthday is in March I think she'll be going into the kindergarten class, but I'm a bit worried that she'll be repeating a lot of what she has already covered.

Does anyone know what they cover in kindergarten and how it compares to reception?

I don't know, and I think it depends a lot on the individual school, anyway.
As an American ex-pat I have tried to take an interest.
From what I can tell, the children are developmentally similar so will have similar attainment levels. There will be a vast range of ability, just like you would get in yr1 in England.

If they really think your child is too advanced they will bump them up to 1st grade in a heartbeat. This happens a lot.

Thanks lljkk, I hadn't realised they moved them up that easily. I'll relax a bit! She'll have enough to get used to with a new school and new friends anyway I guess.

Think very carefully about bumping her up a grade, unless her birthday means that she'd be one of the older ones in Kinder, as you've got to consider the consequences of her being with kids that are older than her, physically and emotionally, during highschool. I'm not saying don't do it - just realise it's not all positive...

Also I wouldn't say it's common place at all, but it is a well known "tactic" in N.America for parents to defer their kids' school entry for a year so that they are actually a year older than their classmates. They are then more likely to be the ones that get the best grades throughout HS (and who are also likely to do the best at sports, because of their extra physical maturity/size) so they are statistically more likely to scoop the highly competative scholarships at the college entry stage!

It's very very common to have children out of their year group in the US, my DS went into 1st Grade when we moved here but the school moved him up to 3rd Grade after 6 weeks when it became obvious he'd already covered everything they were teaching and more.
I'm sure it varies hugely between school to school and state to state but 1st Grade was very similar to Year 1 so I imagine Kindergarten to be like Reception. However, at some point during 2nd Grade the children must accelerate as 3rd Grade appears far harder than Year 3!

I'm in California. The Kindergarten class my Dd was in (she's in 2nd grade now) is more like Year 1 in UK. Each year she does the same work pretty much as her UK friend of the same age.
It didn't used to be this way, but they do seem to have improved over the years and have lots of guidelines on what has to be taught in K. When we first moved here, my oldest had just finished in Reception class and it did seem like he was repeating, but he was only very small in size and 4 (august baby) so was very young and we didn't want him in with much older children.

I know many who deferred their children starting school a year, in different US states Even if they had a birthday 6+ months before the cut off. Gave the impression it was entirely at parental discretion. Their DC all attended Montessori nursery, too.

Not sure if that says more about me than them(?!).

I also have several relatives whose kids were held back a year in US system; again, this is very common. I don't think hardly anyone is ever held back more than one year, though 2-3 grade skips are not unheard of.

I would say the bigger difference in the education systems is at the other end; England seems to require much more maturity at age 14+; the pressure is much higher. That said, I was looking at an IGCSE paper recently and it looked exactly like the material I would have been studying in my 11th grade math class in the 1980s, so only slightly out of sync age wise.

I am in California with a child going into K this Fall. I can tell you that the laws recently changed in the whole of California regarding entry ages for each grade and they are being strictly adhered to.

If your DD is 5 before Oct 1st this year, they will go into K. They would not automatically put her in 1st grade (where many children will be turning 7 early in the year anyway)if she's good at reading and writing. Only if she is good at that AND has her birthday at the correct part of the year.

Next year all of California will be in line with most other States with a Sept 1st cut-off.

I have a DD who can read and write fluently and is accustomed to playing with her brother's 6 & 7 yr old friends, and sadly she still has to wait til this Fall to go into K. The private schools are even stricter with July 1st birthday deadlines.

Kindergarten - they learn numbers to 100, counting in 5's 10s and 2's. Some simple subtraction and addition. They learn their letters and simple 3 letter rhyming words "pan, man, can" etc Its not terribly advanced but if your child is advanced usually there are extra options for them in the classroom.

We did this. My dd has a December birthday so if we'd have gone into the public school system shed have been bumped up a year into 1st grade as the public schools have a 31 dec cut off. The school we ended up at has a sept 1 cut off but does allow children to join according to public school schedule.

We were thinking about letting her go into 1st grade but I'm so glad we didn't. Teachers expect chikdren in K to have a wide range of reading skills so although children are not expected to enter k reading, if they are then they should be encouraged to continue. My dd is among the top readers but there are a few kids who are better readers than she is who came through the us system.

She loves k, loves the creativity, loves being among the older children and I think it would have been a lot to ask to have in a new country, new school - and also pushed up a year and one of the youngest children.

What state are you in Kungfutea? Are you in Connecticut by any chance? That's the only one I know where the cut off is still end of actual year. The OP is moving to California where its quite different.

No, new york. But the school we are in has a sept 1 cut off (officially anyhow).

While the academic work done in Kdg is very much as Anonymosity describes, there is a lot more attention paid to social and emotional development in US Kindergarten than you are likely to find in the UK. Children are expected to take a lot of responsibility around the classroom and wrt their own personal care (coats, jackets, mittens, zips, laces, etc). Solid civic virtues are practiced and classroom etiquette is emphasised.

On the 'three Rs' end, your individual child's academic progress to date is what the teacher will work with. She won't be left spinning her wheels -- there will be challenges, and all 5 year olds have plenty to learn in a group setting. You will be expected to be an active partner with the school in fostering your child's progress.

Don't be tempted to move her up. Up to 3rd grade academics is not where it's primarily at in the US early childhood scheme of things. Reading, writing and arithmetic happen, but not at the cost of other important elements of the foundation that is being built in those years.

My DS has a July birthday and we waited a year; he'll turn 6 this summer and then start kindergarten in September.

I'm in Minnesota. Our schools have a September 1st cut off date, but most people hold their summer birthdays until the following year. By the end of the kindergarten year they should know the "sight words", simple adding, all the numbers through 100, etc.

The kindergarten year is hard because it's the first year, though many kids have been in preschool, and some are reading while some don't know the letters of their own names, depending on their individual abilities and what they've learned at home.

I say go with your instincts as to what your child is capable of achieving. I grew up in Georgia and was the youngest in my age group (late August baby). By the time I was in high school, where we mingled with different age groups, I spent more time with people from the next year up than my own and when I graduated, I did so as valedictorian. Being the youngest does not necessarily mean that a child will struggle at school.

We had exactly the same situation only my DD who had finished year 7 at high school and the Australian system insisted she went back to primary school for year 6 so you can imagine she was unimpressed.
What we did was give it a term to see how she got on and then moved her to a very academic private school where she's still with her social peer group but they promised to extend her if required.

That's really interesting about the change in the cut off date, thanks anonymosity. Her birthday is in March so looks like she'll definitely be in kindergarten.
She has already covered a lot of the areas being talked about academically (counting to 100, basic reading etc), but sounds like it wouldn't be necessarily sensible to go for grade 1, anyway. hmmmm, much to think about. Just want to get talking to her new teacher really, must try to be patient as that is still months off!

I wouldn't worry if she has covered some basics, they go a lot of group based work, and they group according to ability and moved them from group to group easily.

What I meant to say was if there is a child or some children up for a challenge, they will form a new group and work at a higher level with them, My Dd had to be challenged for reading, she could already read all the K stuff on starting K, so the teacher went into the 1st grade class and based all her reading work on that, they don't hold them back if they are ready to move to the next level. Now in second grade she gets 4th and 5th grade books for reading.

My son is in 1st grade and there are 4 levels of reading groups within the class at the moment. As each child progresses, they can move up into the next group. There is also a boy who is highly advanced in Math and he gets extra, more challenging homework to do, accordingly.

markymark if you want more information feel free to send me a mumsnet email.

a useful website is www.schooldigger.com

you can search elementary (and middle & high) schools by state, county, and get their rankings - the rankings are based on the exam results of 3rd to 5th grades but reflect the general teaching standards at each school if they are consistently high or consistently low. When they swing in roundabouts its clearly very much to do with just the individual talents of the kids.

we live in an area where our local elementary school is high ranking and this has an impact on the cost of housing - purchase and rental prices. its a good idea to make sure the first place you rent is in a decent area or you may have difficulties either getting out of your lease, or petitioning to move to the next area's school, etc.

Find the school first and then try to find somewhere to live in the School District. If there are a few schools in the District with some good and some not so good, check the street boundaries for each school. For private schools the School District issue doesn't apply.

In some areas realtors are not permitted to give out information on school rankings so you may have to do some digging yourself.

Ds2 arrived for 1st Grade. He basically repeated year one. I'm glad he did as the social transition was big enough. They have to learn a whole new set of social norms, language and sports. By 3rd Grade, American schools have caught up with UK schools. By 6th Grade, in the core subjects, many of the more competitive school districts are surpassing them.

I agree with that assessment Cat. Resources in good school districts are gobsmacking.

The resources in Los Angeles schools are entirely down to parent contributions and parental time. We have fairs, auctions, formalized donations, its endless and necessary.

Its one of the more impoverished areas of Education in the whole USA. And California ranks at the bottom of all the states, educationally - in terms of rankings, finance and safety. Its tough, but if you can find an area where all the local state schools - elementary, middle and high options look good, I would go for that area.

Some states are open enrollment too...you can enroll your kid at any school you're willing to transport them to.