Moving from English to Scottish school system

[sofiesworld]

We are considering a move when ds will be in English Y8 (s2), but ds is a May birthday so I gather would be in S1 were he in the Scottish system.

My question is do kids effectively get moved down a year in this scenario or would they move in at the equivalent year, although that will then make them a little young for their year?

Ds is a very bright boy (in top few dc in his year academically based on in school testing and SATS) so a drop of a year may not be the best thing for him. Although clearly the Scottish curriculum will be different to the English one.

Any thoughts/experiences gratefully received! My other dc wouldn't be affected as they would stay in the same year group.

I guess when we're looking for rental properties then we will need to look closely at the primary schools and whether they have space.
Thanks for the reassurance on English accents!

Amithstbloodycold - I'd love to hear your impressions of the Perth schools. Good to hear space should not be an issue at secondary.

Qisforcube- I do agree with you it's just the worry of a child being demoralised and bored if they're doing work that's too easy for them. Hopefully wouldn't be an issue with differentiation.

On the maths / ability side my kids school set for both maths and English, and cater well for very different abilities in one class. Dd1's maths group are doing work one year ahead. One kid is being given work 2 years ahead (according to dd that is!). They also have several children with learning difficulties but they all work well together on projects. I suspect that academically my kids are slightly behind their English peers but on things like skills development, project work and creativity they are ahead

And no problems with English accents at the school either. But about half the kids are from England or rest of the world so perhaps not the best example!

Thank you aliceinwonderland that's interesting.

I'm from Perth originally and second what people are saying about accents. The accent in the area really isn't very strong. I live in Glasgow now and Glaswegians always think I'm English (despite the fact that Londoners can't understand my "strong" Scottish accent, work that one out)