Starting school in Scotland - difference with England, reception versus P1?

[movinghouse]

Hi, I'm new here and I've joined because I have a question!

I'm currently living in France and will be moving to Scotland at the end of this academic year. My daughter will be 5 in March (born in 2004). If we were in England right now she would be in reception at school. So I have been following the English curriculum for reception at home with her to fill in the gaps with what isn't being covered at school here in France.

I've contacted her new school in Scotland who say she will have to go into P1 in August when the new school year starts, because of when her birthday is.

Does this mean that this past "reception year" will have been wasted? Will she be totally bored in her new Scottish school, and educationally behind when we move again to England in 2.5 years time? Feeling a bit stressed about all this!

I really don't thik she will be bored. P1 seems to be very flexible and they find out each childs level and ability. Most children in Scotland will have been in a state nursery from the age of 3 where although learning is still informal and all about play, some will have learned to write there names, learn shapes and colours and things like pencil control and socialising.

P1 is the first year of Primary school and is more formal and structured than nursery. Often they will go for half days at first, sometimes for a few weeks sometimes up until the Oct holidays.

I don't know if she would have been in reception anyway, it is the same as Scotlands P1 isn't it.

Thanks for your replies! Yes, she would have been in reception in England, either starting just now in January, or already in Sept 08 depending on the region you live in (just to make things more complicated . She's been going for full days to school here since Sept. We'll have to wait and see!

I can't believe I'm worrying this much about education already and she's only just at the beginning of it all

I don't know if you know all this already, so apologies if so, but she'll be going into school with children born between Mar 04 and Feb 05, so she will be one of the older children in her class, but in Scotland there is also the option to defer for a year, so there may be some older children too (especially those born Jan/Feb 04, who could theoretically have gone into P1 this year, but would only have been 41/2.

Good point, I hadn't thought of that. Please assume I know very little so all info v gratefully received!

My DS was 5 years and 7 months when he started P1. he is a Jan birthday. At nursery he could write his name, count to 100, read 3-digit numbers correctly and was socially very capable. He loved P1, was not bored, and seemed to fit in fine with his peers who were a range of ages. I wouldn't worry about it. I think nursery in Scotland covers a lot of the same things as reception in England does. Not sure how it will work when you move back to England.

P1 is the equivelant of reception - but as MidnightExpress has said, there is a far wide age range.

If your dd is bright and she has covered all the reception curriculum, then you could ask for an assessment for her to go into P2. Jumping up a year is notliked in Scotland but it is sometimes done (more normally by starting P1 a year early).

I wouldn't normally have suggested it, becasue she porbably has enought to cope with changing school etc but if you are going to be going back to England in 2.5 years time, she may have problems then as the English system is very rigid and she would be bumped up a year based on her birthday.

I seem to recall that Saltire's ds1 ( think it was) suffered from those: and from previoulsy having enjoyed school, he was focred to move up a year when they moved down South, going purely by when his birthday was rather than how much education he had recevied, and now struggles (at least he was).

My ds was 5 three weeks after school started - right in the middle of the age range. I could have chosen to hold him back (although would probably then have had to pay for his nursery), but I considered he was ready. One of his friends in his class was 6 at the beginning of the December - so it shows the age range possible.

Ds couldn't read but was good with is numbers and could write his name. There were kids in his class who could do more and kids who could do less. The school is used to having a wide range of abilities at this stage and have strategies for dealing with them.

Whereabouts are you going to moving to?

I live in Scotland, and there seems to be an increasing trend for parents to defer admission to P1 for children born in Jan/Feb, so your DD will be amongst the oldest, but I would expect there to be a few children older than her in the class.

As far as I am aware P1 in Scotland is pitched at a slightly higher academic level than reception in England.

I'd agree - it does seem to pitched at a slightly higher level than England - maybe 'cos the kids are that wee bit older.

I think they then spend longer on the foundations: for exapmple, ds never got more than 2 books in a week and often it was just one. ALthough he never went through the stage of "wordless books" (maybe he had them at nursery - but we never got home wrok at nursery )