Moving a child from Reception in England to P1

[BeansMcCready]

I would love to hear from anyone who has moved a child from Reception in England to P1. How was the transition? Would you say what's covered and the learning style are similar?

My son has a December birthday and is therefore one of the oldest in his current Reception class. He is doing really well, more of an experiential learner and still needs lots of free play but he is grasping phonics, picking up speed with reading and writing and is quite excited by maths unlike his mother!. He is a pretty confident child, and reasonably mature.

We will be moving very soon, so mid year, and it's been suggested that I could apply to defer his P1 start until August. My instinct is that as he has already started at school it would feel very strange to him to be back at home with me, or at Nursery, but I am aware that he will be in a class with children who will soon be 6 and I don't want him to have his confidence knocked by not being developmentally or educationally ready for P1.

Has anyone made the move before and can let me know what it was like?

He's turning 5 in December so is currently 4?

That makes him a full year younger. Am I getting mega confused?. The very youngest p1s are just about to turn 5 now and many people defer if they have Jan birthdays. In fact lots of people in Scotland with a child turning 5 in December 2017 may seek to delay school entry till august 2018.

I wouldn't put him in as he'll be at a double disadvantage of age and moving schools

He was 5 last December, sorry if that's not clear!

He will go from being one of the oldest to the one of the youngest but that might still be okay.

My DCs primary were happy advise on "readiness for P1" - as they had a fair number of in-year transfers. Would the school you are considering do similar? The checks were very informal and included showing the parent and child around the school. I suspect some of the children didn't even know they were being assessed. The parents also got to see what the class and what they do in P1 so they could judge.

Ah ok. That puts you in the same boat of lots of people swithering about December birthday. December born children need to ask to defer and it's possible to be refused (unlike Jan onwards kids who are always granted).

Thanks all, I'll phone the school and discuss with them, and see what they think. Thanks ttl

By "refused", it just means that the council won't pay for the 15 hours nursery. It's still your choice as to when your ds starts P1.

Thanks TheTroubleWithAngels - I think that's the info I was after. We will have to make sure he has lots of free play after school! It will be interesting to see how he adapts to the approach of his particular school.

I'm doing this in reverse. Ds has a November birthday and has coped pretty well with being in p1 it much better for him as he needs routine and structure free play does work for him. as pp said it is more formal looking but they do still have resources to play with but not to the same scale as reception class .

We had a family who moved from England with a reception child and the parents insisted he went into P2 against the school's advice. He struggled for the next few years and by the time he reached P5 the parents asked for him to repeat the year.

I'd say it would be better to put him into P1 so that he can feel confident having covered some of the work, as a PP said he will have to cope with the move as well.

Yes, definitely P1, I guess so much depends on individual teachers, a good one will work out which children need structure and which need free play and will work out how to make that fit!

It's difficult not to overthink things, you have all really helped!

This might not happen, but when we moved house, DS (5) regressed a bit. He was definitely a bit unsettled by the move, even though it was relatively locally we moved.

I would let him start P1 after the summer.