What school year?

[scmercer]

Hi

Just looking for some advice on school years in Australia.

My son started school in the UK (this year) aged 4. We are considering returning to Australia next year in which case he would be in year 1 in the UK, but reception year in Australia. Does anyone know what happens when your child has already completed the reception year in the UK, would they have to repeat this year in Australia or would they allow him to go straight into Year 1, even though he would only be 5?

He is doing really well at the school he is in and I would hate for him to have to repeat the reception year again.

I know he wouldn't be eligible to start school in Adelaide until May 2012.

Thanks

Sheila

[northernbird]

Hi

Just looking for some advice on school years in Australia.

My son started school in the UK (this year) aged 4. We are considering returning to Australia next year in which case he would be in year 1 in the UK, but reception year in Australia. Does anyone know what happens when your child has already completed the reception year in the UK, would they have to repeat this year in Australia or would they allow him to go straight into Year 1, even though he would only be 5?

He is doing really well at the school he is in and I would hate for him to have to repeat the reception year again.

I know he wouldn't be eligible to start school in Adelaide until May 2012.

Thanks

Sheila

Here in WA it is very rare for schools to put a child up out of his age cohort. If you were here in WA 5 would be exceptionally young to be in Year 1 and IMO wouldn't be a good thing on a social level. Schools are generally used to kids transferring with differing academic abilities. We just had a child come back to our school after spending a year in Reception in the UK and the child was no different on an academic level to the others in pre-primary here, in fact behind some of them. Put your child in the correct age level year group and it will all sort itself out.

[snifter]

Hi

Just looking for some advice on school years in Australia.

My son started school in the UK (this year) aged 4. We are considering returning to Australia next year in which case he would be in year 1 in the UK, but reception year in Australia. Does anyone know what happens when your child has already completed the reception year in the UK, would they have to repeat this year in Australia or would they allow him to go straight into Year 1, even though he would only be 5?

He is doing really well at the school he is in and I would hate for him to have to repeat the reception year again.

I know he wouldn't be eligible to start school in Adelaide until May 2012.

Thanks

Sheila

SA is still different to other states till 2014 when it will change its intake cut off points to fall more in line with other states.

It can vary and usually is a case by case basis as to which year he would go in to. If he isn't eligible to start school til May 2012 then he may *just* fall into the year 1 group but would have missed out on some of the school year. He'd also probably fall in to the reception year group also coming from the UK at that point. If he just started school here now and finishes reception in July 2012, then doing a bit of reception in Aus for a few months is really not a hardship.

A lot of it will hinge on when you move tbh. But don't feel that doing a couple of extra terms of reception (from Sept - Dec break up for summer hols) is a bad thing for your son. Honestly, with the adjustment to settling in, making friends and the difference in the schooling, having those extra few months may make a huge difference for him, even if he is doing some stuff over again, at that age its not going to be boring or anything dire. Chances are he'll benefit from the extra time all round.

Personally for us, we are letting our son do an entire year of reception here in the UK and moving to Aus in the August so he can pick up the last few months of reception at school in Adelaide. Then he'll go up to Year 1 with his classmates having had a few months to settle in, adjust, us to iron out any niggles and he'll be with his peers.

The reason we are doing it this was is that he is born in early May so would miss the cut off point for the 3 or 4 terms of reception (before going into year 1) and would have only been allowed to start reception in term 3 and would therefore stay and do another whole year of reception anyways (is the normal thing anyways). We think having a year here and a term (or a bit more there) is better all round.

This way also means he'll have the advantage of being literally the oldest in his year throughout school (which academically and sporting wise is better IMHO and reports out in the UK also indicate this with August boys struggling in school) and also being a boy, it gives him an opportunity to have that bit longer at a young age where often boys can struggle in school. We'd rather give him those things to go through school with than be the youngest throughout his school life and also potentially struggle to keep up with his peers in that year group. He's a bright kid and we talked lots about which way to go and in the long run, we feel this is the better way forward for him and us.

If he is really streets ahead in reception when he starts in Aus we'll discuss our options with his teachers then and see about moving him but would rather he start in reception and move up than start in year 1, struggle and move down. Our moving in August means that isn't really a viable option and it could only really work if we moved mid year but then we do feel it would be a big ask of our little one to play catch up when he hasn't done as much as the other kids potentially.

Don't forget reception here is still EYFS and they don't actually start the Key Stage format till Year 1. So it really is still about gentle learning and lots of play based stuff in reception, not full on schooling, that kicks in the following year.

Have a read of this BBC article from today. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-15527145 Reading it the same could apply to Aus schooling as its the same age more or less. If your son is going to be one of the youngest in his school year, perhaps give him the advantage of staying in reception for a bit and being one of the older kids in his year for his schooling.

Hope that all makes sense :)

[Quoll]

Foreign country, totally different education system so no repeating at all.

All depends on your son's age and the state you go to as to which cohort he will fall into. Best to keep him with his age cohort regardless of what they call the year level IMHO

[Norfolk Gal]

My Son is now in year 1 in teh UK, we move in two weeks, and he won't go into Prep until February 2012 (their Reception equivalent). We have chatted to the principal at school and he doesn't anticpate any problems about repeating. My daughter is going from Y4 to Grade 2!

Both my children are summer babies, so started school at 4. As other people have said, its a different system, and I wouldn't let this sway your decision too much.

As a plus I get so spend more time with my baby boy until he starts school again!!!

We are moving to Victoria.