Transition from English to Scottish schools

[Madie1]

Hi all,
We are planning to move to Scotland but it's a bit difficult to get my head around the schooling for my 2 children. In England they are going into Y6 in September(born in Nov 07) and Y4(born inOct 09). My understanding so far is that the primary schools in Scotland go up to Y7 rather than 6 in UK. Am I correct? And in what year group would my children fall into? Thank you

Scottish primary school goes from primary 1 to primary 7 (P1-P7) that is the equivalent of Reception - year 6. Secondary school is first year - sixth year, although pupils can leave after fourth year if they're 16.

Not 100% sure about your kids but the end of February is the cut off for birthdays to start the following August (if that helps!) x

My oldest is Dec 07 and is going into P7 (last year of Primary) in August.

Your Oct 09 will be going into P5 - I have an Aug 10 who is going into P4.

Your kids would be going into P7 and P5 respectively - but would go from being one of the oldest in their year to being technically in the middle of the year. The cut off is 1 March - but because January and February birthdays can defer (as can, but less often, December, November and in theory September and October birthdays), so in practice, September birthdays tend to be at the younger end of the year (at least, that's been my ds' experience, whose birthday is mid September)

One more year of primary for your eldest and then after P7, he'd go to secondary.

6 years at secondary, with National 5s (the equivalent of GCSEs) sat in S4 (number varies according to where you are : ds' school does 8, some areas only do 6 - but have done other subjects for longer so they can be picked up again in S5 or S6, sometimes as crash Highers), Highers sat in S5 (usually 5 for academically able children). After that, technically they can apply to Scottish Unis (I went from S5) but more often nowadays, they stay on for S6 and either do more Highers, some Advanced Highers (equivalent of A Levels - actually worth more grade for grade than A levels ) or do/re-sit Nat 5s or Highers.

Given your eldest's age, they'd probably be best staying on for S6. If you felt socially or academically, they'd be better going into P6, you might be able to argue the case - but I don't know how easy it is once they're into the school system.

Come and join us in the Scotsnet topic - lots of good advice there!

Thank you Bippo

Thank you so much everyone, that's very helpful, I'm starting to get my head around it. At which point during P7 do they apply for secondary schools?

Prettybird I'll check out the scotsnet topic, thank you.

You don't have to apply for secondary schools, unless you want to do a placing request.

If they go to your catchment primary school (which in Scotland is fixed, so everyone really does have a catchment ), then they will automatically be enrolled in the secondary school to which that primary school feeds.

If they're not in the catchment primary, then the rules vary between the local authorities as to whether they go to the feeder secondary automatically or they go to the secondary that relates to your catchment.

If you're going to do a placing request, I think they have to be submitted by end March and you find out by end April - but I'd check the local authority website.

Not sure whether if you're changing from denominational (ie Catholic) to non-denominational (or vice versa), if that counts as a placing request.

Getting into schools (both primary and secondary) is a lot less stressful than in England!

By their age alone they’d be going into p7 and p5.

My eldest is in p7 and a few months in we got a letter from the high school saying he’d been allocated a place there (as he attends one of the cluster primary schools for the high school) and if I wanted him to go elsewhere we’d need to make a placing request.

As pp said, unless you’re looking at private school every home has a catchment non-denom and catchment Catholic school. If you’re in the catchment in November of the year before then you’re guaranteed a place.

So basically, you “choose” your schools when you choose where to live.

Thank you Prettybird, again, excellent information. Another question which may seem dumb but have no knowledge of how things work there. How do you check what school catchement area you are in? Is it by phoning the local authority or is it a post code search on a dedicated site?

Thank you Museumum & BakeBeans47, appreaciate the help.

I think specific catchment post code maps are like gold dust

Seriously though, the estate agent details usually say which school a house is in the catchment of, but you're also best ringing the local authority to check.

Some catchments can be wierd: we though we were in the catchment of one primary school and thought we'd have to do a placing request to the well regarded primary school we wanted ds to go to. Turned out that there is a dogs leg in the catchment and even though it is further away, we were already in its catchment

There are also a few areas (in Glasgow at least) which have overlapping catchments, which means that you can choose between two primary or secondary schools.

Edinburgh council has detailed catchment maps online.
Not sure about other areas. www.edinburgh.gov.uk/catchmentmap

Do you have any idea of to where in Scotland you will be moving? You could ask here or in Scotsnet re advice on good schools.