Going back a year in secondary?

[quiteseriously]

My DD went to her catchment school in S1, but I took her out as she was bullied. She wanted to go back in S3 but no spaces have come up, we are first on the waiting list for S4 right now. As no spaces were available she is doing the English curriculum for GCSEs and is in year 10 right now, so would be looking at starting back at catchment school in 2019 as an S5.

We would have to come off the waiting list for S4 and wait until later to apply and I want to do that early so I'm prepared!

Would the school let her in in the year below?? It's an odd situation as she has been there before and left, and I'm not sure if we'd be able to do that?

Confused....

So your DD, had she never left school would currently be in S3, going into S4 after the summer, Nat 5s this time next year and S5 in summer 2019.

But you'd prefer her still to go back to school in August 2019, but would rather she goes into S4 than s5?

Why? It's more of a natural break point after S4 and Nat 5s to start S5 and new Higher courses - whatever you have been doing up to then - than going into S4, with kids who are already half way through a Nat 5 course.

Sorry, had she never left school she would be in S4 and doing nat 5s this year. But she's doing them next year. So she'd be going into S6 in 2019, but I'd prefer her to go into S5. I wasn't very clear, sorry!

Ah right. Well it's a fairly complex situation - i'd have a chat with the Head and see what he/she says. They might be fairly OK with it, you never know.

Thanks I thought that would be the route to go down, I just wanted to check that I wasn't being silly and it's a possibility!

There's nothing stopping her doing her full set of Highers when "officially" in S6.

It depends really on whether she wants to do S6. Although according to ds, there are a couple of people in his year at his school who are in their second S6 "S7" Don't know how usual/unusual that is though and whether there are/were mitigating circumstances.

She could just go into S6 but wants to do advanced highers too so I thought it would be easier to just go into S5 at the start!

I've heard of kids in our authority staying on for 'S7' as well recently, so hopefully they'll have experience of children staying on.

Also DC coming from England would be a year behind too and that's our curriculum so we could be treated as that maybe?

I suspect the only real difference would be the form class she is in - so the best thing to do is talk to the school.

Y11 is the equivalent of S4 but as you know, it's difficult to make direct comparisons age-wise between England and Scotland because of the c6 month difference is age cut-offs.

Ds, with a September birthday, is at the young end of his year in S6 - but if he were in England, he'd only be in Lower 6th/Y12. Born a few weeks earlier and he'd be in Upper 6th/Y13

How is your dd getting on with her GCSEs?

DD is September too! 2 weeks after the English cut-off so it's a valid point about the school years, just not sure they'd see it that way as we still lived here.

I'm not sure if she would prefer to be with people in her old year group and then potentially stay on for 'S7' or start in S5 and continue with the same year group for 2 years. I imagine the years are more blended in S5/6 anyway as they will be in some of the same classes?

DD is doing well with her GCSEs I think! Doing some subjects as national 5s this year while she still has classes for GCSEs so very busy, but I think she's managing well - fingers crossed!

I hope your DS is enjoying S6!