New Zealand again - curriculum for 7 year olds?

[SSShakeTheChi]

Hi everyone,
considering taking dd to NZ for a year once she finishes her first year at school here in Germany. They start school here a year later (aged 6) so she'll be a year behind. I'm wondering what NZ school children have covered in maths, other subjects by the time they turn 7.

After her first year of school here, she'll have covered addition and subtraction of numbers up to 20, time, seasons, weekdays, money in maths. Apart from that just reading and writing in German. I taught her to read English at home. She's fine with all of that.

Would she be very much behind if she joined a class of 7 year olds do you think? She has no experience of actually writing /spelling in English.

Hi there! Hope you get some advice, are you sure you'll want to come back after a year?!

You're on to me!

Well, I want to try it admylin and see. I may (ha ha) develop an odd (very odd) craving for German supermarkets. Dh is currently looking at buying a house and it is making me feel very worried. In fact he nearly did last week. You never know, maybe I'll decide when I'm away that it will be better for dd if we stay in Berlin after all. I would like to give it a try though

Go for it!

Hi SSSshakeTheChi

My DS is 7 and we live in Auckland. They start school here ON their 5th birthday. If they turn 5 between May and December they go into Year 0. If they turn 5 between January and May they go straight into Year 1. So it depends on when your DD's birthday is as to how 'behind' she may be.
DS was 7 in November and has had 2 full years of school.
Reading is the main focus in the first two years from what I can see. I really don't think your DD will be that behind. And if she is, but is of average or above ability she will catch up pretty quickly if she goes into a decent school where they work to help her. Maths wise, DS is just getting into 'real' maths and is loving it. He calls 'real' maths, stuff you write down. They did lots of mathematical topic stuff in Yr1 and yr2 but it was very oral and games based (driving home the theory that good foundation of basic facts learned mentally sets them in good stead for the future. Watching DS and his progress I really agree with the methods)

Speaking from my own personal experience. I was at kindergarten in Holland up until I was 6 and a half when we moved to the UK. I couldn't speak English, let alone read it. I couldn't even read Dutch. Every one in my new English school had been at formal school for 2 years.
I learned very quickly and by the time I was 7 and a half I was reading Enid Blyton like a pro

HTH and I can really recommend living in NZ although I am actually going to be moving the Aus very soon [oops]

Thanks for that ghosty, that sounds very reassuring. Are they doing much writing and getting tons of homework? I'm always a bit reading the UK school homework threads.

Didn't know about those staggered school starting dates. Dd's birthday is end of September. Here all kids born 2000 started school August 2006.

Like the sound of the maths teaching. That's the only thing I've found dissatisfactory about dd's school. Think our maths teacher is crap but it may also be the approach, very much writing based. Think the oral/games approach sounds very good.

Whereabouts in Oz? That's my other option actually. My sister is married to an Australian and lives there with their 3 dds.

I didn't realise they staggered it like that either Ghosty - DD's birthday is Dec 7th so that's going to be slightly confusing....

sorry can't help SSShake - as you see I know bugger all about schools!

We are off to Melbourne in April

So if your DD was born September 2000 she would be in Yr 2 now in NZ (She would have started September 2005 in Year 0. In January 2006 she would have started Year 1 and January 2007 Year 2 ... so in fact she would have started formal school 8 months later in Germany IYSWIM? Year 0 is a very very gently does it affair)

Homework: We took a while to work it out and to start with DS had a ridiculous amount of reading it seemed but I have sorted it with the teacher ... DS was being over zealous . He gets a reading book home every night and a worksheet once a week (has 4 nights to do it in) - not that hard for my DS really. And a list of spellings to learn. (Reading and spelling is ability grouped)
We read every night and go over the spellings every night (total time altogether 30 minutes tops - usually 15). Do the worksheet on the Tuesday night (takes DS 15 - 20 minutes)
Maths: Current philosophy is that they don't teach 'algorithms' too soon. They want the children to have good mental grounding ... to encourage them to do quite complicated stuff in their heads ...

MrsJC ..
Your DS could either start school on his birthday and have 2 weeks then a 6 week holiday before he goes into Yr1. OR the school might want him to wait until the start of the new year.
DS (dob: 30th Nov) had 3 weeks of school because he was adamant that he was starting school ON his birthday The school said he could start after the holidays if i wanted him to.
Nobody expects them to go to school ON their birthday - it can be the day after if you want but many children are geared to "I am 5 so I go to school"

BTW - has there been a birth announcement anyway MrsJC?

"Anywhere"

That's so clear now. Thanks so much ghosty. Eight months doesn't sound so dramatic, so I think she would be ok with that, although she wouldn't be top of the class I'd imagine.

Can you give me an idea of the kind of books your ds is reading? Like how many words a page and how difficult is the vocab? Not sure if it is easy to answer that one! I could do some work on improving her reading in English here during the summer holidays I guess. Does the school year start in February?

Mrs JC don't you worry about school, you're supposed to be getting that baby out! What you need (worked for me unintentionally) is a FOOT MASSAGE. How old is your ds?

DD is 2.3
my DS (!) is still on the inside, the pain. no birth announcement yet - grrrrrrr

oh oops sorry ! Has your mum arrived yet then?

SSS ...

DS is in the top reading group in his class and is reading well above his age - (proper chapter books, fluent reader etc is reading the Faraway Tree to himself at night) ... so probably best not to use him as a guide - but the range of ability in his class is pretty wide (she has about 5 reading groups from what I can tell) ... I don't know if ALL school ability group their readers but I don't think it is a bad thing - keeps the good ones stretched and helps the ones that are struggling. Each group seems to have no more than 6 children in it and children who need it go out for extra teaching ... so I don't think you would need to worry if you work on her reading a bit before you come.

Hope that helps

Thanks ghosty for all the info

just chipping in here to add kids don't have to start school legally until age 6 and that's been the case for a few kids at ds's school. IMO they learn little more in year 0 than they learn at day care if they go or with you at home i.e. spelling their name, basic counting and word recognition, colours etc. Ds certainly didn't except of course learning it in maori too that was a new one for us.

Thanks sibble, this is sounding do-able now!