Help - moving from the USA to UK for primary school

[mummy123456]

Hello everyone

I just wondered if anyone can give me some advice on the type of work kids are currently doing in Year 1 at primary school. We are moving to the UK for Sept 2014 and I currently have a child in nursery and Kindergarten. They start school at 5 here instead of 4 so they will have to skip a year and move straight to Year 2 and Reception. I'm not so worried about my youngest as he is currently learning phonics and to recognise letters. He is also doing basic counting and trying to write his name. I am more concerned about my Kindergartener who will have to skip year 1 and move straight to year 2. He is only just starting to bring home books to read and has sight lists to learn. We are on the last list which contains words like:

near
everyone
wouldn't
need
kind
different

etc

Once we finish this list he will start the lists again and learn the spellings.

He doesn't have writing homework yet and is still learning to write between the lines. He is still practising letters and trying to write sentances. They teach print writing here not cursive. I fear this could be way behind that of the UK.

In maths he is doing addition and subtraction but not multiplication or division.

He has separate special teachers for science, social studies, drama, art, language (French and Spanish) music and PE. Do they have this in the UK?

I don't know if anyone can give me advice on what I may need to help him with or if they have any experience of the two systems and how they may differ. It is very informal here and they really try to make school work fun. I wonder how that compares.

I appreciate anyone replying to this and thank you for your time.

As a 'late applicant' you will more than likely find your children in schools with places - these generally are schools that are graded as 'requires improvements' or 'inadequate'.

No, really that isn't true if you look carefully. DD's school is graded good but has such a high turnover of expat children that there are nearly always places in each year. Children seem to come and go around the core group who will be there all through at quite an astonishing rate.

I know a local "Outstanding" school which often has places. It's in a deprived area but from my time working there, I would be very happy to send my children there (in fact I did think about transferring my youngest).

My dc are moving mid year primary - the schools I contacted said not to worry about levels and things as they will do that themselves, plus all the other worries about settling dc.

If its mid year you are moving, schools manage that themselves, so contact the schools you like the look of and ask if they have places. Speak to the head about the school, quiz the receptionists and you might be lucky like me and a teacher be passing and happy for a 5 min chat on the phone.

I wouldn't worry too much about the rating as it can be deceiving, people come and go, and often its the feel of the school when you visit.

If you plan to start sept, you will have to go through the LA, but you can always pre empt by calling the school and finding out likelihood of places.

If its mid year you are moving, schools manage that themselves Even if a school says it has space these are usually allocated by a formal In-Year application process through the LA.

My experience is you call the LA and they tell you to call round the schools mid year. Then you just turn up and they do the paperwork.

I am pleasantly surprised by how easy it is, in the UK.

If you can access these games then he can do some fun practice at KS1 level.

Some areas, especially where there are high levels of expats or military families usually have a quick turnover of places at KS1 level. We moved to Stoke Newington during the summer holidays when DD1 was 5, with no school place organised and it only took us 3 days into the new school year to secure a place at our closest school.

My DD goes to an independent school in Surrey. Am happy to share the Reception/Y1/Y2 curriculum by term if it helps. Please PM me.

Depending in whether your DC go to a private school or not they may find it easy/bit challenging to academically cope, but being early years they will eventually catch up & become comfortable.

The 2014 national curriculum is more challenging and my year 2 child is expected to write stories in cursive handwriting. Children in his class know all their time tables, adds fractions such as 2 and 1/5 add 3 and 4/5 and know how to add numbers such as 165 add 400 in their heads.