How badly would my daughter get bullied for having a different accent?

[rosebloomed]

we are moving from Canada and my daughter will be doing her final year of secondary school in Scotland. She told me her British friend told her she’ll most likely get bullied because of her Canadian accent. How true is this? Should we be worried? Would she have a hard time fitting in and making friends?

But why?
What's the logic in running a separate exam system?

Nobody decided one day to make the Scottish system different to the English. They each developed separately.

Well why on earth would there be? You may as well ask why England doesn’t change to the Scottish system. Or why we don’t all change to the Dutch system.

If England want to adopt our completely different education system they are totally welcome to.

There are some faults with it but there is no aspect of the English system that I'd like you to see adopted in Scotland.

Do you want us to get rid of our legal system, adopt the CofE and get rid of our parliament too?

There are a lot of faults with the Scottish system. There is no way on earth I would want to adopt the English system. SATS, the weird way of applying for schools, fining for absence - even when justified, wee ones going to school at just 4 and rarely able to defer, not to mention the draconian rules at some of your academies.

@Needanewname42

But why?
What's the logic in running a separate exam system?

Why is there no desire in England to adopt our system?

Plus you do know it's much for them just exams. We have a different school year, we start school later, the entire curriculum is different. We don't do academies or grammar schools. No school governors. There's no 11+ exams. We let our kids walk to schools, we don't have bonkers rules about school uninform. There are so many fundamental differences.

No school governors? That's really interesting. Who oversees the head teachers and governance of the schools? Genuine question, I am not one of those people who think you should just get with the program and adopt English education. I can see there are positives and negatives with both (I personally think all education systems probably need an overhaul, given that the world is changing so fast).

We had a Canadian at our school and everyone loved her accent. It would only be an English accent that would get bullied.

I'm not that familiar with the Scottish system but as another poster said, college would maybe be a good bet if it's an option. There tends to be a much wider variety of ages and backgrounds in college. She could just start with the next intake regardless of age. Maybe it's not an option in Scotland though, I don't know.

I should have added this is only if there is really no way for her to complete school in Canada.

The local authority - the council education department

Thanks. That also happens in England but there's an extra layer that looks at the school itself and what the priorities are for that school rather than the LEA as a whole. Interesting. I wonder what differences these approaches produce.

More people in England than Scotland would be the answer to that.
How would you translate exam questions is the obvious answer as to why we wouldn't use any other languages exams.

Cause scotlands isn't as good as it was and slipping down the international league tables.

Why does Scotland even want it?

BTW not all England has 11+ or grammars schools

What kind of logic is that? China ranks highest, so maybe everyone should adopt the Chinese education system.

Scotland and England are different countries. Different people. They both speak English sure, but it's not the same English. Why on earth would Scotland want to take on the English education system? I think if they were to ever get rid of their own, they would want to adopt a much better one than that.

And universal education for both sexes is much older in Scotland than it is in England.

hope this may be of use @rosebloomed

info from a Scottish uni
https://www.gla.ac.uk/international/country/canada/#:

info from an English uni
https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/international/entry-requirements/canada#

What?

English compulsory education act was 1870
Scottish was 1873

Ignore the messages about Alevels as that is the English system so not relevant unless you are going to send your daughter to one of the private schools in Edinburgh that do Alevels.

Someone born on the same day in your daughter in Scotland will likely already have left school and be going to university in September so she is going to be one of the oldest in the school so may be teased for that. She will be able to do a combination of Highers and Advanced Highers in 6th year depending on her ability but will have to have Higher English and Maths for any university courses. She will be charged international fees until you have lived in the country for a few years.

Maybe you could look at college courses first before uni? That might be more suitable given her age? Try Edinburgh college?

Sorry OP I posted before coffee and my last post is wrong - if she's just turned 18 but you want to put her in second diary then she's going to be a whole year older? My son turns 18 in December and will start Y13 in England - secondary school is Y7-Y11, sixth form or college is Y12 and Y13.

Sixth form and college is really specialised study and not like a high school generic college-track curriculum so I honestly think she'd probably be better off finishing over there rather than try to catch up being a year behind whilst also navigating a new country/home/language/culture/friends/school/education system. My husband was forced by his parents to moved schools at the start of Y13 in college so he had to repeat Y12 and it absolutely broke his confidence being stuck repeating and having to study with kids a year younger than he was. And that was just from one part of England to another!

I didn't say anything about compulsory.

@Needanewname42

I dare you to post on scotsnet suggesting we should abandon our education system for the English one.

Go on. Dare you. 🍿

Ds has a Canadian friend who moved to the U.K. at the same age and she finished her Canadian schooling online, would that be an option?

Interesting thread.
OP is moving to Edinburgh so @rosebloomed you can ignore posts about A levels and year 12 or 13, which relate to England.

I don’t know a lot about education in Scotland, so I don’t have much to offer to help, tho I agree with those who say the plan sounds ill thought-out and not great for your DD; I was interested to read some of the posts here tho, esp (sorry cannot find the post) about the use of the first year at Scottish unis to act as a kind of foundation year. I had no idea. Where does that leave English students at Sottish uni tho – do they have an unchallenging first year? And if a Scottish student goes to uni in England (tho why would they?) is that massively difficult?

I wanted to clear up some apparent misconceptions wrt the English system for applying for schools, esp secondary. Sorry if this is derailing!

Here’s the thing; very few areas of England have state selective schools which require the 11+. Very very few DC go to private schools (fewer than 10%). So the vast vast majority of DC aged 11 go to a local non-selective state school.

Yes, there may be some who play the system a bit. Yes, people certainly move house to be within the area of a preferred school – but Scottish pps say people do that in Scotland too.

But for more of us, what happens is – we view our local schools, we put them (between 3 and 6) on a form in the order of preference, and then we are allocated one. Possibly a further away one, often our local one. My family live very near a school we liked – we put it first on the form and that’s where our DC went. Someone I know who lives near me put a popular school in a nearby village first; then a popular school in the city but with no catchment; then the same local school as us. She was offered the local school (as she expected). No drama. No drama at all.

We don’t all make a lot of noise about it on SM tho. You’ll read lots of threads on here about 11+ tutoring and private schools and how to get into xyz school. For sure – those people, the minority, want advice and have a lot to say about it. Meanwhile the quiet majority of us in England are happy with our local school and our kids go there.

Anyway - as you were.