Moving to a primary school from international school in Spain

[Monsy]

We are planning a move back to the UK from Spain later this year. Our DS and DD are at an international school here. Although DD doing well in reception year, our DS is in year 2 and we feel the teaching and class management are very poor although he speaks spanish fluently (it is also expensive!).

He missed the reception year as he was at a spanish school before where they start literacy later, and I feel is more at Year 1 levels than year 2 (he is a May baby). Therefore, we have decided to move back and look at state primary options. Would he get the extra help at a state primary he needed or might he need extra tuition to get back on track? Thanks for any help or suggestions.

It really depends on the primary, I think, and where he is. My ds1 had/ has all sorts of troubles with school, though is a November baby. He's never had individual tuition at school (though in Y2 his table had a TA to themselves pretty much), nor has he had private tuition as I felt the effort of school was enough for him, but we have helped him at home in a more low key way. He's now Y4 and has gradually moved to about the middle of the class from nearer the bottom. He's also been in a small group to help his confidence and his listening skills. The only children who receive one to one help are very much in need.

I think in a good state school, the teacher will identify where he needs help, and will either do it themselves, use TA, small groups or you can ask what you can do as well. Unless he is very far behind the lowest in the class, he won't be getting individual help outside of class. It will depend where you move to. We live in East London. There are a lot of resources, but also a lot of poverty and very high level needs in the class. My dsis is a teacher in Norfolk and has a lot less resources plus, in my opinion, the teaching is not as good although the level of needs (eg. English as a second lang, children in poverty is a lot lower).

You may be surprised at Y1 levels as I have twins in Y1 and they are at very different levels! I went on a school trip yesterday and had 5 in my group - the abilities were vastly different. One of the boys could hardly write or hold a pencil, 2 were writing loads and one could spell everything perfectly, other 2 were somewhere in the middle. My dd is in the top group for reading but reads quite slowly, my ds the same but is a very fast reader - they are in different classes. I would assess it when you come here, based on his class and the help he is already getting. Just try not to put too much pressure on him as moving back here will be a big deal in itself.

Thank you MerryMarigold, that is useful. We are thinking of the West Sussex area, but it will depend where can find a house to rent.

Good luck!

My DCs (Y5, Y3 and YR) all started school in the UK last September. They'd all been in local schools in the country where we were living so had done all their education in Romanian. They are now at a large primary in a naice area and have come on in leaps and bounds.

They've all had extra help from TAs but not individual tuition and I would say are now in the middle to top ends of the classes.

Their school isn't really used to children in this situation (I accept it's pretty unusual since English is their first language but not their first language of education IYSWIM), but they've had enough resources to help the DCs through.

Good luck!

Thank you for that thanksamillion