How old for school attendance in UK?

[ASusan]

DH will be on sabbatic the year DS turns 5 - in October. How old do children have to be for school attendance? Do they do kindergarten? Is it similar to the US where different districts/states have different age cut-offs?

[ann_of_loxley]

We don't call it Kindergarden here - we call it 'Reception'. Most children usually start with a half day in reception then go full time by the end of the year. After thats its year one, year two, year three, etc. Thats all consdered 'primary school' - when they get to the age of 11, they go to 'secondary school'....

Anyroad. Most children here start school at the age of four. Schools starts Mid September. So September is really the cut-off - I don't know the exact dates. We are home educating, but if DS were to go to school - he would be 5 when he started as his birthday is in September. If he were born in July though, he would be 4 when he started school. Many people I actually know try and have a baby in the autumn/winter months so their children are that much older when they start school rather than younger.

We don't have states, we have counties. The whole of the UK is about as big as one US state hehe. It doesn't really vary that much from county to county. However, some counties do have half year start ups - where for reception, they basically split the year up and end up with two recpetion classes so that the ones who would be younger when they start school (like if they had a July birthday for example) can start later in the year. If that makes any sense. But not sure how common that is anymore.

Its slightly older in Scotland I think where children are 5 starting school - DS woudl be 6 when he started school if we lived in Scotland (but don't quote me on that!!! lol).

[ASusan]

Thanks, Anne.

I was doing a bit of reading online after I posted. I'm glad DS' birthday is in October - it's a good fit for entry into the UK system. Locally (here) he wouldn't be able to stark K unless we started him in the Catholic school. (This is all theoretical, of course. We wouldn't start him if he weren't ready.)

Is there an overarching educational philosophy in the UK schools for Reception year? In my online reading, all I could get was, "Children learn by doing," which really doesn't tell me much. Here, I feel there is too much emphasis on academics and not enough on social, creative, and physical development.


on a related note, my aunt used to send her children to a private "British Primary School" here in the US. I wonder if the philosophy of that school is similar to actual primary schools in Britain. Here is a link to their page --

http://stanleybps.schoolfusion.us/mo...4b0f4656dc3a7c

[ann_of_loxley]

I think reception is mostly play but unfortnuatly, England too is falling for the horrible 'the younger the better!' trap with education and its getting more 'schooly' earlier. We have national tests here at the age of 7. Some parents can be pretty pushy about that.

[GoBecGo]

You can opt them out of the tests usually (or make sure they're always sick that day )

Are you going to England? In Scotland we don't have "reception" we have nursery (available from ages 3-5, 2.5-3.5 hours/day, 5x/week) and then Primary One (most kids are about 5 although the law in Scotland says you can put them in at 6 if you want, before their 7th birthday is the cut off). The cut off for the academic year is the end of February in most areas. So kids born in March wait another year. My DD was born in April and will be 5 years and 5 months when she starts.

[chick]

Originally Posted by ann_of_loxley

I think reception is mostly play but unfortnuatly, England too is falling for the horrible 'the younger the better!' trap with education and its getting more 'schooly' earlier. We have national tests here at the age of 7. Some parents can be pretty pushy about that.

Tests for 7yos won't be around for long I don't think - they're already bringing in more teacher assessment for that age as it is.

And the tests in Key Stage 1 (years 1 and 2) SHOULD be very low key - not done on set days - can be done any time during May. If a child's not performing well on a particular day, they SHOULD be able to do it another day. I will always ask a school's policy on this.

[Onemagicmummy]

in my area (North Tyneside) kids can start school the term after they are 3, they go half days (either 9-11:30 or 1:30-3) for a year then full time the next year. this is not compulsory, compulsory full time education starts the term after the 5th birthday, to start in september your birthday has to be on or before 31st August. schools here start back after summer on or around 3rd September. so with a October birthday he may get to start straight away and go into reception, or wait till janurary and start year 1.

this year my 4yr old DD will be going full time, and my 3yr old DS will be starting half days techinicaly he could of started in Janurary but there were no places for him so he has to wait till september, while my now 6yr old (he will be 7 when he goes back after summer) will be starting year 3 (he has his sats this year, and he is still only 6)

this may differ area to area. it may all depend on if the local school has a place for him. good luck

Kiz

[orangefoot]

Reception has disappeared here in Oxfordshire and there is the Foundation Stage which covers what used to be Nursery and Reception until children turn 5.

[Onemagicmummy]

yeah, thats the same here too, it was called foundation when my son started but all the parents still call it nursery/reception.

[CrunchyMamaToBe]

Originally Posted by orangefoot

Reception has disappeared here in Oxfordshire and there is the Foundation Stage which covers what used to be Nursery and Reception until children turn 5.

Really? I just recently read that they are aiming to make full time reception places available to all kids right from the beginning.

Here in Oxford, kids start school in the September of the academic year in which they will turn 5, and the cut off is the 1st of September.

[NW6Londonmum]

Most children start school the 'year they turn 5'. So if your child's birthday is August 1st they will start school just after their 4th birthday and they will turn 5 at the end of the year.
Reception is the start of compulsory school. In some cases if your child's birthday is later in the year they may not start in September but in January or even at Easter (though this is now rare).

Some schools have nurseries which start from 3yrs but this is non-compulsory.

If a child was turning 5 in October they would be required to start school in the September. This would be national (unless you were to homeschool of course). They would enter Reception. Depending on area they may or may not be full-time. They would follow the Early Years foundation stage curriculum (EYFS). More on that here:
http://www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/eyfs/

It is ideally fairly play-based but tends to become more rigid at the end of the year before children enter Y1. As a nation we tend to push formal learning much earlier than the rest of Europe.

[Helen_A]

Compulsory 'education' starts the term following the fifth birthday. So for children born after Easter in any school year (sept to aug) they wouldn't have to start school (if that was the parents choice) until the beginning of year one. For the October example given, the child would not need to attend as a registered pupil, their school place fulltime until the following january.

In fact, as long as they attended some of the time (about one days worth in each 12 weeks) they could register for reception (to ensure the place within the school of choice) and not actually 'go' until that day in the next term and the school is legally obliged to a) hold the place and b) can't 'do' you for truancy either (although they and the LA will tell you otherwise : ) as truancy only applies to a child of compulsory education age who is a registered pupil.

[orangefoot]

I was just making the point that it isn't called reception or nursery any more here in Abingdon.

All schools have websites now; search for your local school and look at their admissions policies. Our local school has part-time rising fours and full-time rising fives in Foundation then Year One.

[NW6Londonmum]

I think this thread is showing just how much variety there is in the UK!
Although technically education doesn't have to begin until after a child turns 5 in my LEA you are required to apply in a particular year and places at schools will not be held open without attendance. If I had wanted to delay admission to my son's oversubscribed school we would have gone on a waiting list and effectively lost our place.

[flapjack]

NW6mum, that isn't legal and schools have been successfully sued for doing that. DS2 is born at the very back end of August. He went to a school that implemented the EYF all the way through to 7 (which IS legal, and was actually recommended by central government at the time) otherwise we would have kept him at preschool for that year...

There's a wide variety of normal for reception kids, but generally schools want them in fulltime by the 17th January (or thereabouts) because it is the registered FT pupils on the roll on that date who count for funding purposes.

[NW6Londonmum]

That's interesting. Thanks for that. Our local LEA keeps that very quiet.