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Primary education

Join our Primary Education forum to discuss starting school and helping your child get the most out of it.

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Original poster

Will schools let DC from another country be put up a year?

19 replies

chicaguapa · 04/09/2011 21:54

I have friends moving over from Spain next year and their DC are at primary school age.

Two of them were born in December and in Spain they start in the September of the calendar year they attain age 5. So in Spain if your birthday is between Sept-Dec, you start school a year eariler.

According to their dates of birthday, the DC will be going into Y1 & Y6 in Sept 2012 in the UK. But they are in fact already starting this year in Sept 2011 in Spain. My friends were wondering if they could enter school in the UK in the year above.

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noodleseverynight · 04/09/2011 22:08

I can't see any benefit in that tbh - why not just slot into the system with their peers and take the time to settle into school? I'd be surprised if a UK school would allow it.

EdithWeston · 04/09/2011 22:13

Probably not- in the state sector (private schools might have more leeway).

Is this a permanent move? Because, if so, they would probably do better in the normal age-related UK year group (especially as there may be a fair amount of social/linguistic settling in as well as academic). Also, I don't know how closely the curricula compare between Spanish and UK systems - it is possible that what is done in those years in Spain is different from UK expectations.

And the move for the older child might mean looking for a year 7 place - ie secondary school. It might be better all round if the transitional year was at the top of a primary school, not the start of secondary.

noodleseverynight · 04/09/2011 22:13

Umm... And it's late and I'm tired, but I don't see how the starting age means they're in the year above, given that lots of children here start at 4?

mercibucket · 04/09/2011 22:20

Agree with noodleseverynight - I'm confused

mercibucket · 04/09/2011 22:21

They started school when they were 4? Same as in the uk?

mercibucket · 04/09/2011 22:21

They started school when they were 4? Same as in the uk?

Panzee · 04/09/2011 22:22

There is no leeway in state secondaries. It goes on your age alone.

rocketty · 04/09/2011 22:23

OP - if their birthday is between Sept and Dec, they will be in the correct UK school year. If their birthday is between Jan and Aug, they will be a year behind the UK.

Given this, I doubt they'd be put up a year in the UK.

clam · 04/09/2011 22:25

They will have to go into the year group that their age dictates - here, not in Spain. So, all children born between Sept 1st 2004 and August 31st 2005, for instance, will go into the same year (sorry, not sure if that'd be Year 2 or 3 - too late to do the maths for that! )

Feenie · 04/09/2011 22:33

According to their dates of birthday, the DC will be going into Y1 & Y6 in Sept 2012 in the UK. But they are in fact already starting this year in Sept 2011 in Spain

A child going into Y1 in September 2012 would start in September 2011 in Reception in the UK, at the same time.

I think you and your friends are missing out Reception class in your calculations, perhaps - it's Reception, then Year 1, Year 2, etc. Some children are therefore 4 when they begin, and don't turn 5 until the June, July or August afterwards.

DoodleAlley · 04/09/2011 22:36

I agree with rockety

IndigoBell · 05/09/2011 18:06

And of course unlike Spain where's there's a rigid curriculum everyone follows, in the UK we use differentiation. So a child should always be given work at the right level regardless of what class they are in......

They may well find a Y6 classroom in the UK far more challenging than it's equivalent in Spain.

Original poster

chicaguapa · 06/09/2011 13:17

Thanks everyone. I'm confused by the calculations too. I think you might be right though. The June one would have started a year earlier than in the UK, compared to Spain.

I've mentioned the differentiation in the class and that the oldest would be better not to go straight into y7. The reason they wanted it is that it would be easier to find a y2 place than y1, based on conversations with admissions teams.

But it looks like they've got their calculations wrong, and it could well be because they are missing out reception.

Thanks.

OP posts:

LawrieMarlow · 06/09/2011 13:37

When were the children born?

Original poster

chicaguapa · 07/09/2011 19:26

Dec 2001, June 2003 and Dec 2006.

I still don't understand but they are insisting that the two December ones will be repeating a year in the UK.

OP posts:

Feenie · 07/09/2011 19:30

Okay, in September 2012:

Dec 2001 child will be in Y6
June 2003 child will be in Y4
Dec 2006 child will be in Y1

SarkySpanner · 07/09/2011 19:32

The dec 06 child would currently be in reception if they were here now. And so would go into year 1 in 2012.

Add 5 years for the older dec birthday.

Greythorne · 07/09/2011 19:34

Are the DC balanced bilinguals (Spanish /English)?

If not, they will take a few months to get up to speed in English, so even without the confusion over starting years, I would think being out up a year woukd be senseless.

SarkySpanner · 07/09/2011 19:37

And from what you say the youngest child would only be starting school in sept 2012 if they stayed in Spain... A year later not earlier.

But this is all academic. They will be put in with their age group.

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