Experiences of moving from an English school system to Scottish primary age?

[Renaissancerequest]

Wondered if anyone could share their experiences from their point of view and from point of view for DC, for a 7 year old

Hi bumping this for you in case someone has experience. From reading other forums I think you’ll find the Scottish system more relaxed - no SATS for example.

For a 7 year old it shd be an easy move, the differences in exam years mean that secondary is a lot trickier.

If you say where you are moving to posters might be able to give move insight as there is quite a variation between council areas.

You also need to let us know when your dc's birthday is (ie when they turn 8) as that will determine which year they go into.

The cut-off dates are different in Scotland, although there is more flexibility than in England.

I guess one thing you might want to think about is what year group they will go into, as the school years and age cut offs are different in Scotland.

If your DC has a Jan or Feb birthday they could go into either school year ie the one where they will be the eldest in the year, or the youngest in the year. There also can be flexibility with Nov and Dec birthdays (and occasionally Oct ones too)

June birthday. Looking at various areas including Fife, Dundee (not city) and East Lothian

We did this, though my kid was a few years older than 7. He went from being one of the older kids in the year to one of the younger ones. He had no problem with the content - if anything it was easier than his English school. (And actually he could have gone into the year below, given where his birthday was, but that would have entailed repeating an entire year of stuff he had already done and he would have been bored stiff, so it was the right decision for us to stay in the upper year.) He had kids in his year who were almost a full 2 years old than him, which took some getting used to as (as a pp says) the English system is tighter with age cut-offs.

The main annoyance was the bloody sentence openers. Every parent-teacher meeting they were reiterated. I feel like he did them for several years in a row in England, then again for a few more years in Scotland. There's no doubt more to writing interesting sentences than just variety in sentence openers but we never heard what those things were 🙄

(See what I did there with my sentence openers 😁)

June birthday would mean that he would go from being one of the younger ones in the year to one of the older ones.

He would be in primary 3 and would be about middle to older as they take march-febuary with most January and February children deferring

That would mean p3. Our intake is if their 5th birthday is between March and Feb.
There is no set exams that children sit in primary, the move to secondary, age 12 normally is usually just the nearest high school.
Unless you live in one of the cities it is normally just the nearest primary school to home you go to also, there isn't many fee paying primary's outwith the main cities.

@Renaissancerequest My child joined P4 from the English system in August. I find the year intake thing quite confusing, he’s an autumn born so no longer amongst the eldest. He just turned 8 but some of the kids in the year are nine already. Re content wise it’s been fine, he’s always been academically a bit ahead so having no problems in that regard. I find the school here more rigorous - several books home a week and weekly spelling tests. He was in an overstretched london primary before where it was quite hands off. We’ve moved to a middle class town and the school seems much better financed - lovely libraries, big playgrounds, active PTA and school council lobbies for stuff. PM me if you want any more info as we’ve moved into one of the areas you mentioned.

@Pufflings that's quite unusual that children in P4 would be 9 already by this time of year. The vast majority should have turned 8 from January this year (March onwards for main intake, plus Jan and Feb for deferred children)
I wonder if those already 9 have SEN or transferred from overseas?

Neither of my kids had anyone turn 9 before Christmas in P4

MN's demographics skew the deferral anecdotes I think.

I'm a teacher in a deprived area and historically have had very few deferred children (thankfully starting to change). All of the children who have arrived mid-year, including children without a word of English, have always gone into the correct year. I've also only ever had one child turn 9 by this point in P3 and that particular individual had been deferred due to severe needs.

Same here, I have p4 child and they are mostly all just turning 8 now. None of the children in his year will be 9 until February 2023 (and that child was a deferred P1 entry). The rest of the year group turn 9 from April 23.

That's really helpful, thank you. We have a delay on things this end sadly at the moment. How did your child find fitting in and making new friends? Although I guess this is very child specific as will depend to some extent on their personality. Mine is shy :(

@Renaissancerequest Prob a bit early to say. He’s not shy and had very strong friendships at his previous school. He’s made friends here in his class but yet to be invited to a party or play date. Still early days. It’s hard because a lot of the other kids have known each other since nursery or live on the same estate or all do football/rugby classes together.

June born will probably end up "down" a year from what they're used to content wise. My August born DD is 7 and in P3. She's in a mixed year class and they're doing 4 times table having just done 3x and 5x. Mixture of reading levels, although they seem to be reading some chapter books now.

We moved during Covid and DD was in reception, before we moved and she started P1 in the August.

Term dates are odd from an English perspective. I'm in the Glasgow area and we have a 1 week half term in the Autumn term (starts mid August) and our other half terms are long weekends. 2 weeks for Christmas and Easter but not necessarily overlapping with England.

Bank holidays are also inconsistent between regions and employers which can be fun but means that there are usually options to get away that aren't crazy busy.