Scottish Education System for a newbie

[IWanders]

My dd did her first year of primary in England she would have been coming up from reception into year 1, we have been advised to put her into year 2 when we move to Scotland mid September.

As I am new to Scottish education I just wondered if parents with experience thought year 2 would be the right year. We will be living in Scotland for about 2 years so I was also wondering about SATS and the phonics test they do in England. Do they do these in Scotland or are there equivalent tests?

I am not putting dd into school in England for the 8 days before we move as we will hopefully know which house we will be living in and have a school for her so I would be hoping to ring the school and find out what work I need to start her on at home before we move. I also wondered if there is anything else about Scottish schools I need to be aware of before we move. I know the schools went back on the 15th of August and am very annoyed we couldn't be moved sooner as dd will have missed quite a bit of work, by the time we have moved she will have missed about a months worth of school, do you think the missed work and moving from an English to a Scottish system will put her at a disadvantage or will she be ok.

I am really anxious as you can maybe tell, we have already done new school new friends and a move mid term to a new education system is a bit scary as I no nothing about the Scottish school system. Thanks for any help.

I'm sure you don't need to worry. Lots of English children swap from the english system to the scottish system. Your daughter's teacher is quite likely to have experience with other children in the same situation as your DD.
Scottish primaries have no reception year- it's called primary one- and is for children who had reached the age of four by the end of the preceding august. However, jan/feb children often wait to go to school until they're five and a half.
The new scottish system is called the "Curriculum for Excellence". It doesn't do SATs (NO school did SATs until twenty years ago!) I think there is a move within the English primary ed system to reduce SATs.
You could ask your DD's new school for the name of the reading scheme they use. Some of the schemes, eg 'Oxford Reading Tree' have easily available supplementary books to buy. Or, with a bit of luck, it'll be the same one as her old school uses. Also which phonics scheme they use. (Materials available online).

Are you moving to the greater Glasgow area? If so you will have a long weekend 21-24Sep!!
Good luck with your move. I'm sure it will all be fine :)

Thanks yes we are moving to the Glasgow area so she will just start school and then be off for awhile may be a good time for her to settle down before going back into school until the half term.

I was worried about SATs as the school she has just left puts a huge emphasis on them, relieved she won't have that pressure. Thanks very much for your help as I wasn't having much look with Google. :)

Have a look on the Education Scotland website for information about the Scottish Curriculum. It is very different from the English system. The HMIe website will give you access to inspection reports for schools.

There is now no Govt led formal testing in primary schools and no league tables to compare schools. The vast majority of schools teach reading using phonics but, again, no testing. Interestingly we teach times tables the opposite way than in England so watch out for that.

How do they learn their tables in England. I'm being a bit thick today and can't think of an opposite way to learn them.

Repeated addition
Arrays

In England they are written as:

1x2=2
2x2=4
3x2=6
4x2=8
5x2=10 etc.

In Scotland they are written as:

2x1=2
2x2=4
2x3=6
2x4=8
2x5=10 etc.

So pictorially they look very different when taught with counting materials. If you buy audio or posters you can get 'The Scottish Method' (prob just in Scotland ).

We moved when DD3 was at exactly the same stage. I think she had a week at school before the October holiday (2 weeks here, though possibly not in Galsgow) which was a nice introduction.

DD3 is a Jan birthday though, which meant it was suggested she started at P1. In retrospect though, I wish we hadn't, and had said just to go with P2. She's now in a composite class and much happier.

There were a lot of small differences for us. Hopefully some of those are restricted to the DDs school though, and you may not notice any difference.

The times table thing was a great relief for me, because having been taught the Scottish way myself, I could never remember how to say it the English way. i.e.

2 x 2 = 4
2 x 3 = 6
2 x 4 = 8

rather than

2 x 2 = 4
3 x 2 = 6
4 x 2 = 8

It sounds like a daft difference, until you try to repeat them by rote!

The fabulous new CfE is being resisted by some of the more "established" teachers, so be aware that some teacher may appear significantly more "traditional" than you are used to. The has been a very difficult adjustment for us. On the upside, you may find yourself in a school embracing it wholeheartedly, and "topic" things aside ie your DD will learn about the Picts, not the Anglo Saxons (try and explain that difference to her - great hilarity in this house).

Good luck, Glasgow is a great city for kids, loads to do. We're heading there tomorrow for the day.

what month is her birthday in?

x-posts,

also just noticed I didn't finish the topics bit.

Many blank faces, and circular discussions about who lived where and when.

Oh, and she'll likely have to learn a stupid badly written "Scottish" poem in January, which apprently celebrates Burns. Grrr

Oh lord yes! Alec Salmond has a lot to answer for. Poor quality 'scottish' poem in January -here you come!

I did have an English teacher friend who got into lots of trouble teaching a Mary, Queen of Scots topic. Lots of parental complaints

She's a January birthday but I think she will be in year 2 thanks for all the replies I was really worried as I have only known the English system and if feels kind of like I'm starting primary first day nerves all over again, especially the unknown. When we have an address, (we can't choose our house which is a bit frustrating) we will check out the local schools website and hopefully if we can visit the school if not I will be ringing the school for a chat and see what there doing this term and how we apply and where we buy a uniform. I'm guessing we will apply through the school as we are to late for admissions.

The timetables is very interesting I'm rubbish at maths so maybe this system will work better for dd. I will be interested for some Scottish cultural history as I've never encountered that before. So thanks again for the help. :)

I did have an English teacher friend who got into lots of trouble teaching a Mary, Queen of Scots topic. Lots of parental complaints

completely confused by this

She taught the topic as Mary being the villain of the piece and not the hero.

ooops ... a balanced view then

with a jan birthday you could choose between p1 or p2 entry, but if she's going back down south I'd put her in p2

Lol at memories of JK Annand!

if she has already done reception then P2 would probably be best for her as P1 is the scottish equivalent of the reception year. You will be just in time for the September weekend which is then closely followed by the October week holiday.