need some advice please: son turns 5 in feb 2012 should he be in school now?

balletshoes

adamantine wrote: »

yeah im scottish. thought everything was the same country wide - ante-preschool/pre-school the term after the childs 3rd birthday then school at 4 or 5 depending on their birth month? learn something new everyday!

Nope, totally different down here in England - I'm Scottish and I'm regularly confused by the primary school system down here compared to the one I grew up with! I was trying to figure out which year my DD would be in if she was in Scottish primary school and gave up, it was hurting my brain lol.

adamantine

balletshoes wrote: »

Nope, totally different down here in England - I'm Scottish and I'm regularly confused by the primary school system down here compared to the one I grew up with! I was trying to figure out which year my DD would be in if she was in Scottish primary school and gave up, it was hurting my brain lol.

so glad i left england when my eldest was 2:rotfl:

Bennifred

adamantine wrote: »

yeah im scottish. thought everything was the same country wide - ante-preschool/pre-school the term after the childs 3rd birthday then school at 4 or 5 depending on their birth month? learn something new everyday!

The differences between Scottish and English education systems continues all the way through, you will find!:(

Jinx

adamantine wrote: »

yeah im scottish. thought everything was the same country wide - ante-preschool/pre-school the term after the childs 3rd birthday then school at 4 or 5 depending on their birth month? learn something new everyday!

Usually it gets brought up at nursery and if the child is born in Feb you get to choose if they stay at nursery or move on to school.

When my daughter was this age her nursery headmistress said she should stay at nursery, her nursery class teacher said move her up! So she went to school age 4 and a half. Never had any issues due to it and it meant she stayed with her peers.

skintsaver_2

my dd started school when she was 3 and that is the normal age for the area where i live, i started at 3 as well

bylromarha

rachbc wrote: »

There was another thread on this recently and I am still shocked that people can get to this point and not realise - especially if they have older children

I think most people are generally aware that kids start school "at about 5".

Living in my area, the only place they put posters encouraging you to apply for a school place and the relevant birth dates were

1) In the library - not a haunt of all parents
2) On school notice boards - which is pointless if it's your first born.
3) GPs board - where it was covered in another poster.

It'd be quite easy to miss the right application dates round here if you don't start thinking about it until your child is 4 and a half - which, if you believe kids start age 5, should give plenty of time to apply for a school. My firstborn turned 4 2 weeks before starting Reception - had I not known they started age 4, I would only have had a poster in the library to prompt me to begin the application process 2 months after he'd turned 3!

theshadow

hehe our son way ahead he can count sing talk u name it hes learn from his big bro and sis

M_A_R_I_E

rachbc wrote: »

Ou child doesn't legally have to be educated til Jan - either at home or in school. Your problem will be getting a place for Jan start as many will be full with the kids starting this week.

There was another thread on this recently and I am still shocked that people can get to this point and not realise - especially if they have older children

Totally agree with Rachbc - So why will there be places in Jan then?? Extra places are not made for an extra intake. The maximum amount of ks1 children in a class is 30. (Other than exceptional circumstances).

Most schools do not offer a Jan intake - you will only get your child in to a school (good or not) if there are any spaces.

I know the whole of our (big) town is FULL for Rec places this year - we've had a massive cohort.

Becles

thunderbird wrote: »

When I started school it was in the term that you turned 5 - so you didn't have everyone starting in September as they do now. That was 1974 though.

I was born Aug 75 and started school in the September after my 4th birthday, so I was the youngest in the class.

It never did me any harm being the youngest, and I was in the top sets for most subjects and left with an excellent set of GCSE's.

My daughter will be 5 in May 12, and she started full time school yesterday. We only have one intake per year here. The class is full as I know some children from the nursery class didn't get a place.

patchwork_cat

As someone else has stated if you have older children how did you miss this?