At what age do they start school?

[noo noo]

I'm a bit confused about the starting school age from the posts of people saying their LO's are about to start.

I'm in Scotland and those who started School - as in Primary 1 - are kids who will be 5 up to and including the end of February 2008. If they are 5 before 21st August they must go to P1 this year but if their 5th birthday is between 22nd Aug & 31 December you can request that they defer for a year and if they aren't 5 until Jan or Feb 2008 you have the right to defer their entry.

Also all the kids start school in August - no one starts after Christmas or anything like that.

So do they start school earlier than 4-1/2 to 5 elsewhere? Or are people meaning non compulsory "pre school"?

Whats the "reception" year people talk about?

I guess I see the first day of school as starting P1 as thats when compulsory education starts - certainly in Scaotland

Anyone care to enlighten me to how it workks elsewhere as I'm really confused by those with 3 and 4 year olds saying their LO's are starting school.

[lazymummy]

In England they start in reception class the year they are 4, IF they are 4 before the start date (September). They don't have to go then, they can start in the year they are 5, but most do seem to go the year they are 4.

[Blonde Girl]

Down here (not sure if this applies to all of England) a child starts formal school the September after their 4th birthday and they go into reception class. Therefore Dan, who is 4 next June, will start school next September at 4 1/4 :cry:

Depending on the school they may go fulltime straight away - as Dan will be so young he will go mornings only until Feb 09, but the other schools here start them f/t straight away.

You CAN defer as legally your child doesn't have to go until the term after they are 5, but I don't know anyone who has or is planning to so not sure how common that is.

[Amanda36]

Kyle started school sept 06 in reception full time and he was 4yrs 5mths he's now going into yr 1 and he's only 5yrs 5mths. His birthday is in April. They only have one intake here and that's in september.

[Cherrylips]

Tash starts at the school nursery next week. She will then move to the reception class in the school Sept next year (as she will be almost 5 then).

[Miss P]

Where we are (Greater London), all children born before 31st August are in one year and those born after are in another.

C was 4 on 21st August and is due to start reception. and there will be children in her class that will be turning 5 in September.

Reception is the beginning of "big" school so she will be there full time (8.45 until 3.15) Monday to Friday. Next year she will move up to Year 1 but still do the same hours.

I think the confusinon is that some Boroughs used to have two intakes, so previously C would have started full-time school in the January term as she is the youngest in her year, so would only do two terms in reception, but this has now changed to just one intake in September.

My friends little girl will be 4 on the 13th September but as she missed the cut-off date for intakes she will have to do another full year at the school nursery and will start full time school just before her 5th birthday.

Does that help?

[Devil Girl]

I find the whole system confusing :oops: I always thought it was nursery and then school, so what is reception?

W will be nearly 5 ½ when he starts school but that is because he misses the cut off by 5 days.

[BigB]

Down here (not sure if this applies to all of England) a child starts formal school the September after their 4th birthday and they go into reception class. Therefore Dan, who is 4 next June, will start school next September at 4 1/4 :cry:

Depending on the school they may go fulltime straight away - as Dan will be so young he will go mornings only until Feb 09, but the other schools here start them f/t straight away.

You CAN defer as legally your child doesn't have to go until the term after they are 5, but I don't know anyone who has or is planning to so not sure how common that is.

Its the same here. DS will start the Sept before he's 5 (in Dec) and DD will start just after she's turned 4 as her birthday is at the end of Aug. She'll start part-time though to start with as she'll be so young. There will also only be 1 year between our two at school.

[Abbie]

Not sure if it's the same everywhere, but our local LEA does:

Child starts Reception year the September preceding their fifth birthday.

If their fifth birthday is during the term Sept - Christmas they start full time immediately.

If their fifth birthday is during the terms Jan - Easter or Easter to July, they don't start fulltime until Jan. They do half days until then, or if you want, they don't have to go at all until the term during which they have their 5th birthday

Ellie's birthday is 18th September so she started fulltime last September

Her friend is the 6th July so she started half days in September and didn't start fulltime until after Christmas.

Reception is what they call their first year. Our school has Reception, Year 1, Year 2, Year 3 and so on.

[Amelya]

DS was 4 in June. He starts school in January in reception - this is just the name given to the class of 4-5 year olds. People who refer to their kids starting shcool at 3 mean pre-school/nursery attached to their school - but some schools smooth over this transition so they go straight into reception afterwards.

The way it works here is that he starts at the entry point nearest to but before the one in which he turns 5 and Sheffield has 2 start dates - September and January. He'll be 5 in June so he starts January.

Children who are 5 in September-December will be starting now.

[noo noo]

I find the whole system confusing :oops: I always thought it was nursery and then school, so what is reception?

W will be nearly 5 ½ when he starts school but that is because he misses the cut off by 5 days.

Dev - "reception" seems to be an English system/term - my description above is the Scottish system.

[noddy]

We're in a London Borough and Henry starts proper school next week (he's been at the school nursery for a year, wearing the uniform, using the school equipment and following the term date etc). He'll be in Reception and will be doing half days for about two weeks and will then be full-time (from what I gather they hope they'll all be full-time after two weeks but it depends on the individual child). He'll be 5 in April.

I've no idea why they changed the names of the years around and decided the first year would be called Reception - confused the hell out of me when I had to look into Henry going to school! :lol:

Noddy

[Chell]

Not sure if it's the same everywhere, but our local LEA does:

Child starts Reception year the September preceding their fifth birthday.

If their fifth birthday is during the term Sept - Christmas they start full time immediately.

If their fifth birthday is during the terms Jan - Easter or Easter to July, they don't start fulltime until Jan. They do half days until then, or if you want, they don't have to go at all until the term during which they have their 5th birthday

Ellie's birthday is 18th September so she started fulltime last September

Her friend is the 6th July so she started half days in September and didn't start fulltime until after Christmas.

Reception is what they call their first year. Our school has Reception, Year 1, Year 2, Year 3 and so on.

They don't do that in Northants. DS was four in JUly, he starts school this month.

[Velvet Chain]

With DS school, they start pre-school/nursery the September after they are three and then move up to the Reception class the following September - he will be part time for 3 days and then full time after that (he was 4 in June).

They only do one intake per year so there is no starting in January or anything like that.

I think that they should do one system that is applicable to all schools as if you move area it is very confusing!!

VC

[noo noo]

So is this "reception" year compulsory?

In Scotland you get a commissioned nursery place from the term after they turn three (for 2 years) - but this is not compulsory - then they go into P1 which is compulsory.

[Velvet Chain]

I'n my area, Reception is compulsory but the age they start isn't. For example one of the girls in my sons class is already five - so she has to start school and be in the reception class, she can't go straight into Year 1.

I think here that you don't have to start your child until the September after they turn 5 - then it is compulsory and then they would still start in Reception.

Goodness this is confusing me now.

VC

[Velvet Chain]

Also the Pre-School that they start at the age of three isn't compulsory BUT this year, because there were a high amount of children from the pre-school attending the Reception year, they are not taking any children who didn't attend the pre-school as they are completely full up.

VC

[Princess Fiona]

It differs in different areas i think, some areas do two intakes one September term and one the Easter term.

Here (the Midlands) afaik Lucy is eligable for Government funding (5 x 2.5 hour sessions per week during term time) the 1st full term after her 3rd Birthday, which will make it the February term :thumb: she'll stay in this "pre-school" (she's actually there now but i have to pay for her sessions) until July next year when they break up for Summer.

Then they start "nursery school" the September following their 3rd Birthday so for Lucy that is NEXT September, then the September following their 4th Birthday they start school which for Lucy will be September 2009 making her almost 5 by the time she's in school.

The Years golike this here...

Reception, Yr 1, Yr 2 = Infant School

Yr 3, Yr 4, Yr 5, Yr 6 = Junior School

Yr 7, Yr 8, Yr 9, Yr 10, Yr 11 = Senior School

[noo noo]

The Years golike this here...

Reception, Yr 1, Yr 2 = Infant School

Yr 3, Yr 4, Yr 5, Yr 6 = Junior School

Yr 7, Yr 8, Yr 9, Yr 10, Yr 11 = Senior School

In Scotland its

Ante Pre-School, Pre- School = Nursery

P1 - P7 = Primary School

1st Year - 6th Year - Academy

[noddy]

The Years golike this here...

Reception, Yr 1, Yr 2 = Infant School

Yr 3, Yr 4, Yr 5, Yr 6 = Junior School

Yr 7, Yr 8, Yr 9, Yr 10, Yr 11 = Senior School

You see, the crazy thing is that that isn't even universal in England! We live in the London Borough of Harrow and our years go like this:

Reception, Yr 1, Yr 2, Yr 3 = Infant School
Yr 4, Yr 5, Yr 6, Yr 7 = Junior School
Yr 8, Yr 9, Yr 10, Yr 11 = Senior School

in other words, four years in each of the different bits of school.

Noddy

[Princess Fiona]

You see, the crazy thing is that that isn't even universal in England! We live in the London Borough of Harrow and our years go like this:

Reception, Yr 1, Yr 2, Yr 3 = Infant School
Yr 4, Yr 5, Yr 6, Yr 7 = Junior School
Yr 8, Yr 9, Yr 10, Yr 11 = Senior School

in other words, four years in each of the different bits of school.

Noddy

You know its not even universal in the Midlands my friends live 20 mins down the road and their senior school is called a High School and they don't start there til they're 13, whereas here they start Senior School at 11 :rolleyes:

They should make it the same everywhere, no wonder we're all so fecking confused :rolleyes:

[Chell]

In England there are Infant/Junior schools but also Primary schools.

Ds will go to a Primary school so he will be there from 4-11.

[noddy]

In England there are Infant/Junior schools but also Primary schools.

Ds will go to a Primary school so he will be there from 4-11.

Yeah, the school Henry's going to has just changed from having Infant and Junior bits to one whole school - it's become a community school, I think.

We had a school next door to us in Whitstable and that was only an Infant school, they had to go somewhere completely different for Junior school :rolleyes: But then Kent still has grammar schools which lots of other parts of the country don't have.

I agree, it's crazy that we don't have the same system throughout the country - you could easily be caught out or even just thoroughly confused if you moved out of your borough/county.

Noddy

[noo noo]

Now I'm even more :brainache: :brainache: :brainache:

[Amanda36]

Ds school is all one, he'll be there until he starts secondary when he's 11. which the last year at his school is yr6 then he'll start yr7 at secondary. :puzzled: by all the different ways each place does things.