Arriving from another country

[wellhelloyou]

Hi. We are from the UK however live abroad (for nearly two years) however we are looking to move back to Scotland later this year.

Our wee one is five this November so it's my understanding they would have started school this August if we were living in Scotland.

We are looking to arrive back to Scotland, most likely, between end August to October this year. However, I'm really confused about schooling.

The main complications are

1. we don't know where we'll be living (as this will be dictated by where we find employment) and then finding a rental that is commutable. Therefore I have no idea even which area we'll be in to look at which schools to approach.

1. as we would be arriving back into the country after most children of this age are already at school and then we will have a short period (hopefully) where we settled and find work/rental will the late arriving into a first school year have a big impact on our child? In the country we're in our wee one wouldn't start school until January 2020. They do attend day care (nursery) four days so are social however they are an only child so there are a few issues we're working through making and keeping friendship groups.

1. what would happen if we find a job and rental but all the schools in the area are full/won't all allow us to make an application for our wee one to attend?

I am just a bit of a worry-pot and wan't to try to make this as smooth as possible for our wee one. We don't have many family who have been through the school system with kids recently and I've tried to read information/contacted Scotland Education Board but I'm none the wiser.

I had considered applying to place our wee one into next year's intake however they are really ready and keen for reading and writing. We don't push it but they love to write letters down, spell words and their counting is great. They're doing great at daycare and we've been told they're kind, clever and confident.

I suppose I'm probably worrying too much but when it comes to your children you just do don't you. When you add a bit international move into the mix it just feels perhaps a lot for a wee four year old. I myself moved primary schools three times before age 7 (due to us moving houses three times) and so it can't have too much impact at that age perhaps but I did have four other siblings who were at the same schools etc. so that definitely helped.

Can anyone help with a bit of advice (perhaps calming words!) and also the actual way you would go about applying? I am worried we will find work, then a rental and then apply to schools but there will be no room. I'm also worried this could be a bigger deal for my wee one than I'm thinking.

Thank you for any help/advice.

Apologies for the spelling mistakes.

Sorry I also meant to say I'm speaking of council/government primary schools not private/independent/fee paying.

Take a deep breath OP! This will all work out, but you can't approach schools until you've decided where you're going to be living, and you need to find jobs first. So focus on job hunting, then you can do house and school once you've figured where you need to live. It is worrying and stressful trying to sort everything out, but you can't put the cart before the horse!

As for friendships and all that malarkey, again, take a deep breath. Your DC is only 5 and DC start new schools and leave old ones mid-year pretty regularly, thanks to job moves by their parents. In the short-term it can be a bit tricky, but your DC is so young that after a few months it really won't be a big issue.

Thank you @juneau for your kind words. I shall try to breathe a little deeper and slower!

I do feel like I'm trying to race ahead but in reality of course there's nothing I can do at this stage anyway. I am a natural born worrier but also a natural born organiser so the two don't hold hands always! I suppose I just wish to glean as much knowledge as possible before arriving back into Scotland.

I'm still worried however that we amazingly find work and a lovely rental but no schools in the area will take us. What would happen then?

I've also tried to look up ratings or reports on primary schools however whenever I click the pages on the Scotland education website (or whatever it is called) there is never a report. Are schools not inspected every year? I'm so in the dark about this!

Schools aren't inspected every year, so you would look for the most recent one available. Also the schools themselves should link to their most recent inspection report on their website.

In your position, I think I would look at the areas of Scotland that you would be job hunting in, and find out information about admissions from each local education authority. Find out what the process is for applying for a school place outside the normal application timings.

I'm not in Scotland so it could well be different, but in England, if there are no spaces in your local schools then you are offered a place in the nearest school that has room. Even if it's actually quite far away from where you live.

Actually, having been to the Education Scotland website, their search seems to be not working very well and they don't seem to have any reports at all for the first set of schools that came up. Which is odd. Hopefully someone with knowledge of the Scottish system will be along soon...

Thanks @AssassinatedBeauty for having a look. It is working - I have been assured by Education Scotland (I sent them a query by email and just received a reponse) it's just that they don't have a report for every school and many of the reports are years out of date.

I don't know how else to ascertain how well a school is doing in Scotland if there aren't up to date reports? Is there a ranking or rating guide that anyone knows of?

I'm not going to get too hung up on this - it's not high school I suppose however I would like to be able to see how primary schools are doing.

Can anyone shed a light on this? I feel like I'm hitting brick walls.

Thank you to everyone who has taken the time to respond. I appreciate it.

Hi OP,

So your wee boy will be 5 in November 2019 so he will be going into Primary 1. "All children who will reach the age of five on or before the start of the new school session in August 2019 should start primary school in August 2019. Children who reach the age of five after the start of the new school session in August 2019, but before the last day of February 2020 may also be enrolled for primary school in August 2019."

You can find links to the inspection reports from each councils website. Also once you have an idea of the area ask on here on the education boards mentioning the area name in the title and people can give you their personal views. There are no rankings made for primary schools.

To apply you have to contact the local council - as you won't know where you are until later you will need to put in a late application.

Thanks @MergeDragons. At least I had that right about when they would be starting school! I will look on the Council's websites - hadn't thought of looking there, just Education Scotland which as I say, turned up no inspection reports.

Thanks for info about how to apply, I had actually thought this would be directly to the school so that's good to know.

I'll go check the Council websites now. Thanks again.

Actually @MergeDragons a question. I've been onto the (for example) Fife council and although it takes me to primary school information there are no reports. Any literature I can see online on the council sites diverts me to Education Scotland which, as mentioned above, doens't have many reports for schools.

How do parents know if a school is doing ok or not?! What am I missing here.

What type of of reports are you looking for

The inspections by Education Scotland you know about already.

There aren't any others unless there is a nursery attached to the school and the care inspectorate would report. (But only on the early years provision)

Wherever you move to will have a catchment school. If there is no room at that school then the LA will place your DS somewhere where there is space. If you want to send him to a different school you would make a placing request, which would also mean arranging and paying for transport.

Once you've sorted out jobs and houses, post on the Scotsnet section and you will get personal views from MNers about the schools in that area.

As you will know Scotland is made up of 32 LA areas. They all do things slightly differently

Thanks @AmIthatbloodycold. I was looking for reports from Education Scotland however, as mentioned, for many many primary schools I click on (on the Education Scotland website) there werren't reports.

So I was wondering if there was another way to know if a primary school was doing well or had challenges.