Moving to the UK, how far behind will my child be?

[thequeenofconfused]

My son is 5 has had no formal education of any kind as compulsory school doesn't start here for another couple of years.
He can recognizes numbers to about 10 but no letters or words, he knows English as we are a bilingual family but I'm sure his use will be far behind that of his peers.
potty training wise he is in pullups, still using them to poop, but okay for wee, he should be okay at school in underpants, what happens when he has an accident?
What should a 5 year old know to 'fit in' with other children of the same age in the uk?

Sort the potty/toilet thing and don't worry too much about the rest.

You can get a watch to help with potty training, it has an alarm to remind the child to go to the loo, that might be an idea, especially if you set it to approximate uk school times.

Where are you coming from and moving to? Schools in big cities often have children from other countries arriving with no English so don't worry too much.

Thank you all again. I will see daycare and explain for them to help me, 4 to me seems very young for bottom wiping.

We are in Tajikistan and we are moving to the East mid-lands Derbyshire.

My three year old bottom wipes. I do agree. Final check and clean before bath time in case he missed anything.

If concentrate on self care. A good school will quickly catch him up academically. I'm a governor at a large school in london with lots of children who join with no English. The school has support in place and within a few months they are usually fluent and within a few more months they are caught up academically.

Some of children enter school just turned 4 in England, and they expect them to be able to take care of themselves.
I don't think a lot of children having problem potty training by the end of nursery/pre-school here.
I think it maybe cultural difference, but he may suffer self confidence problems even if school accepts him as not potty trained yet, since he is one of the older one in the class.

For academics, don't worry too much. I moved to US when I was a child, from non English speaking country. I caught up within a year.
Children are capable to pick up very quickly.

It used to be the rule that children had to be toilet trained before entry to nursery and it was very unusual for a child to reach age three and not be able to go to the toilet and wipe.

I think you ought to look I to medical explanations because 5 is rather late not to be able to use the loo and wipe. Most children go through the tricky potty training phases and then quickly want nothing more to do with nappies and wipes. It seems unusual that your son has not got to the point where he is self motivated to wipe himself.

I'm in France but pre-School starts at 3 or just before. Kids have to be toilet trained first though. If it turns out that they haven't got the hang of it not they have to restart a term later. This includes wiping. So it's largely a cultural difference. Here potty training is done at 2.

Can I say he doesn't need potty trading he needs to be straight on the toilet. He's not going to be using a potty at school.

Possibly a bit of a boy thing too as my dss was happy to have any one wipe his bum at 5, as he was the youngest he'd been babied. The horror displayed by his DSSisters made him up his game pretty instantly. Independence is a big thing for me and my kids.

I think toilet training should be your main priority although it won't prevent him attending school.

I once taught a child in Year 2 who had no previous formal education and she caught up with her peers by the end of the year.

Does he recognise English letters or just cyrillic? Could you teach him to recognise and write his name?

you sound really lovely op, not much to add but echo those above and good luck with the move

He recognizes no English letters at present, i am working currently on recognizing his name and letter phonics in English alphabet. I think 'a' is the only same sound in both. We are lucky as he only knows a few Russian letter sounds so he will not get confused.

Wallywobbles thank you yes we are using toilet to teach. we also have public squat toilets to confuse matters in old towns but we are teaching on a modern sitting toilet of course. He can urinate standing.

I wouldn't worry too much about some of the horror expressed on here about the toilet training - as others have said there are big cultural differences in raising children even within Europe - I have Polish friends who were happy to spoonfeed their children for long after itnwas considered normal here (which is about 15 months ), French toddlers seem to be on formula/milk soups/puree until they are almost school age etc.
Partly the British push on independence is due to the early school starting age. My oldest started nursery school at 3 years 3 weeks old and had to be completely independent at toileting and wiping etc. My second is 3 years 2 months and still in pullups and not good with poos and is considered a bit late - luckily we have til September to sort it.

His self care skills are the ones to focus on - competency in toileting and dressing himself (including buttons and zips).

I wouldn't be too worried about phonics - as long as you make the school aware, they will have their own approach and it can be harder to get a child to unlearn one approach before adopting the school's.
Things like holding a knife and fork, if he is going to have a school lunch, and carrying his own things rather than you carrying them for him are much more beneficial at this stage. Children who carry their own property know what they have and are much less likely to lose or forget things.

If all the children attend our school could do those things by the time they arrive our teachers would have a far easier time focusing on teaching rather than having to get them ready to learn.

"they will have their own approach and it can be harder to get a child to unlearn one approach before adopting the school's. " good phonics is good phonics there is absolutely no reason to unlearn

I would see whether he can enter into reception level.
Have no idea if this is possible

I think one of the first things is to remove the pUll ups. Because of his age his brain probably associates them with pooing. If they have gone half the battle has gone. Some children don't like pooing into toilets as they don't like hearing their poo hit the water. If this is the case stick some cling film in there for a while.
Do buy him some pants. I see lots of kids start school from some parts of the world who wear shorts with no pants underneath. School will expect pants!

These might be of interest. Free delivery.

www.bookdepository.com/search?searchTerm=star+wars+phonics&search=Find+book

You are all very helpful. I have underpants for him already.

AgentOprah i think the difference may be cause by the fact that traditionally here washing rather than wiping is done so its okay to assist children with it longer.

Not sure if they deliver to Tajikistan though!!

They aren't really suited to beginners

Removing his pullups will be okay to do at home Mary21 but I'm unsure his daycare will like it as they may say messy clothes are unfair work on them.

Don't daycare normally help with potty training by that stage?

Not here, daycare is basically a cheap form of day childcare with fun activities, they won't potty train. For that you would need a nanny but we are not rich enough to have one.
Early Education Programs are in very early infancy here.

Things are changing but slowly.

Is there a reward you can treat him too if he becomes clean and dry?

As everyone else has said the Pullups are the first thing to sort out, if you can't get rid of them completely teaching your DS how to change his own ones will help.