Transition from Scottish to English education

[Lindyloo17]

Hi all, we are currently living in Scotland and are moving very soon to London. However, I have just been made aware that my son (who has just turned 5 and in his pre-school year at nursery) will have to skip primary 1, or Reception as it's known down South and go with his peers into year 1 (which is our equivalent of primary 2).
He's an intelligent boy but has obviously never experienced school and to go from such a play led, easy going environment like his nursery to skip a whole year of school seems completely unrealistic.
Schools have said there's nothing they can do and he has to go into a class based on his age and d.o.b.
Has anyone came across this before and could offer some suggestions or advice. It's making us completely rethink the move and therefore my husbands job security. Due to sign the lease for our new house in London tomorrow so we don't have a lot of time to consider things. Thanks in advance.

Aw, thank you blondegirl73, I am trying! And thank you for your personal point of view, good to know you survived it.
Thank you Chocolate, I didn't know this - 6 months behind seems easier to catch up on. I completely agree Mrz that he will need support. You have all given such intelligent insight into it and it's much appreciated. Littlejohhnydory, I will check that out on fb, thanks for that.

I am sure your son will be fine. I don't think he will need help with "catching up", it's more he will need a little mothering as he adapts to his new school. I hope he is happy at his new school.

I've just re-read your original post and I honestly don't think it's a problem. As far as I know from comparing my son's starting at school with my friend's son, reception is the equivalent of nursery and then p1 and y1 are very similar.

Can your son read?

No he can't read, we have bought the stage one learn to read books but have held off so he could learn at the same rate as his peers. My niece was overly prepared for going to primary school and her teachers said she was bored being so far ahead. Wish I'd started now, think I'll give it a go as he is showing a willingness to read.
Are they required to read and write in year one?

Year 1 children aren't "required" to be able to read, however the majority of children entering year 1 can read simple books and can write a really simple sentence. English schools use phonics in the early stages almost exclusively. At the end of year 1 your son will have a phonics check.

I suggest you get some of the Jolly phonics materials. In particular the jolly phonics activity books. Try the first book and if your son likes then its worth getting the other workbooks.

www.amazon.co.uk/Jolly-Phonics-Activity-Book-1/dp/1844141535/ref=sr_1_11?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1433333050&sr=1-11&keywords=jolly+phonics+workbooks+1-7

Its best to start of with some decodable readers. The grey paper ruth miskin books are the cheapest.

www.amazon.co.uk/Read-Write-Inc-Phonics-Storybooks/dp/0198462530/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1433333241&sr=1-4&keywords=ruth+miskin+read+write+inc

The Oxford Reading Songbird books are very engaging, but cost more.

www.oxfordowl.co.uk

is a really good website with some free e books, but there are not many decodable books on it. Its better for readers who know some phonics.

The Jelly and Bean books are very good.

www.jellyandbean.co.uk/

and so are dandelion readers.

www.phonicbooks.co.uk/dandelion-readers/levels-1-2-3-books-1-14-2-15/

You might be able to find some books second hand on ebay to keep the costs down. Some parents swear by Reading Chest, but I have never used it.

I suggest you don't stress too much about the learning gap. Maybe spend ten minutes a day on phonics as he is still very little.

Make sure you know how the letter sounds are pronouced if you are going to teach your son phonics.

jollylearning.co.uk/gallery/audio-2/

There is a jolly songs CD that is fun for playing in the car to make learning phonics a bit more interesting.

It might seem like semantics but at the end of reception children are "expected" to be able to read and understand simple sentences and to write simple sentences that can be read by others. That's the Early Learning Goal and children will be assessed as emerging (not yet meeting the expectation) expected or exceeding expectations.

If you have an ipad I would recommend the Sounds Write app www.sounds-write.co.uk/apps.aspx the first unit is free and the whole initial code is something like £2.29

Hi OP. If you are thinking of using Jolly Phonics to do a bit of catching up, they teach at first 42 sounds at a rate of 6 per week. If you were to spend a little time each day, 6 days a week, on learning one sound, you'd be finished by early August. You'd then have about a month for further practice. Obviously, it doesn't mean that your DS will have caught up necessarily by then in terms of reading and writing, but it should go a long way to helping. I second the idea of their activity books - they are quite fun, lots of colour, activities, puzzles etc I've heard good things about the CD of songs & think you can view songs on YouTube. Definitely listen to the guide of how to say the individual sounds. It's free on their website & I'd check it out even if you don't use other Jolly Phonics materials. Saying the sounds correctly goes a long way to helping your child learn to blend the sounds to read words and later to assist with spelling words. I would avoid the student workbooks, the little black and white ones. They seem to jump quite quickly in degree of difficulty and are definitely not nearly as fun as the full colour A4 size activity books. For fairly cheap graded reading books that are decodable, have a look at The Book People which often offer a few different ones. Some I've got from there in the past (all by Oxford Reading Tree), include: 'Songbirds' series (lead writer is Julia Donaldson), 'Learn Phonics with Traditional Tales' & 'Floppy's Phonics Non Fiction Fact Collection'.
In terms of maths, practise some of the things mentioned by Mrz. And build your way up in terms of difficulty. Search Pinterest for ideas for 'reception maths'. Or if you want some instruction have a look at the thread on here that asks about maths websites that teach. But however you approach maths, lots of physical hands on activities is the way to go!
Hope some of this helps. Most of all have fun getting to know your new home & local area.

Hi Lindyloo.

I am in Richmond and certainly at our school we have had lots of children join Y1 or Y2 with different amounts of previous formal schooling or none - we get lots of international children coming from different systems and even with different languages and I would imagine it will be similar whichever school you end up at as Richmond is an area where lots of expats seem to end up. There's a girl in my daughter's Y3 class who joined at the beginning of Y2 with practically no English and no previous experience of reading/writing who is doing just fine now (probably better than most, in fact). It will be hard and you will need to support your son but the school will help you and he will get there in the end! All our primary schools here are pretty good so I think you will be OK. Good luck!

He will take his lead from you - if you are happy an confident about it, he will be fine.

My daughter was 4 and a half when she went into p1 in Scotland and was reading before she was five. I'm sure in England the children are still at all levels after reception.