Very late application for Sep 18 - moving from Edinburgh

[Silentdraperunners]

We have been mainly focusing on Maths, as he was so far behind compared to the English primary schools, and that has come on quite well. You are right, though, a bit more work on the NVR is useful as it is so different. He is better than I am at it - I think all those hours of Lego and the Rubik's cube help!

Yes, I thought that would be the case. As I said, it might be worth looking at KS2 tests for additional practice.

Have you looked at the English NC here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publicati ... s-of-study" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Thanks, Guest55, these links have been the reference point for me over the last week or two! There are some differences in English - he didn't know some of the language of grammar but as he is learning languages, he got over this very quicky. The Maths, though! I was not prepared for it to be as different as it is: Mulitplying and dividing fractions, algebra, ratio, speed/time/distance, roman numerals, volume... the list is pretty long of things they do not teach at Scottish primaries.

[Guest55]

I only knew there were differences as I volunteer for the UKMT [United Kingdom Maths Trust].

11+ tests are supposed not to go beyond Year 5 curriculum because they are sat early in Year 6. There is no 'real' algebra, such as solving equations, in the Primary NC.

[Silentdraperunners]

He has actually loved learning algebra. He thinks it is easy and really enjoys it, so we are trying to reinforce the positives of this scrambled preparation that he is learning new stuff that he really enjoys. It is all the extra fractions work which he finds less fun at speed...

[ToadMum]

Out of curiosity, do Scottish primary schools just spend a lot of time not doing a particularly broad range of topics in maths, or are there things which will have been taught that don't appear until the KS3 curriculum in England?

[Silentdraperunners]

Out of curiosity, do Scottish primary schools just spend a lot of time not doing a particularly broad range of topics in maths, or are there things which will have been taught that don't appear until the KS3 curriculum in England?

He doesn't seem to have done Maths that has not yet been covered in England; it is the other way around. Some of the KS2 Maths taught at English primaries doesn't get covered until level 4 (which is roughly equivalent to KS4) in Scotland. However, they do more foreign language work - they have to teach two foreign languages through Scottish primary schools. He can also recite by heart several poems by Robert Burns (unfortunately that doesn't come up in the Gloucestershire 11+)!

[PrinceOfPython]

Does the language teaching depend where you live. I am pretty sure my friends in Aberdeen haven't had two languages at Primary or not more that tasters.

[loobylou]

Does the language teaching depend where you live. I am pretty sure my friends in Aberdeen haven't had two languages at Primary or not more that tasters.

Maybe it just depends on definitions. In England children have to learn a MFL at primary but, since there were only 5 teachers at my children's primary (none of whom appears to have any MFL ability) the"learning" that my children did was restricted to colours and numbers, repeated every year

[Silentdraperunners]

Does the language teaching depend where you live. I am pretty sure my friends in Aberdeen haven't had two languages at Primary or not more that tasters.

Maybe it just depends on definitions. In England children have to learn a MFL at primary but, since there were only 5 teachers at my children's primary (none of whom appears to have any MFL ability) the"learning" that my children did was restricted to colours and numbers, repeated every year

In Scotland it should be "Mother Tongue plus two". In England they are supposed to get one language at some point. It can definitely vary, according to teacher confidence/ability. For Spanish, his class teacher did it, and I got the impression that she was staying about a page ahead of the kids - he came home with some slightly google-ated expressions. But for Mandarin (and there is a massive push and seems to be loads of funding from China in Edinburgh), they had specialist native speakers come in for lessons and he has loved it. They also brought in specialists from outside school for Latin. I think we've been lucky and it has got him way more excited about Mandarin and Latin whereas he is pretty lukewarm about Spanish.

Languages in primary schools isn't going to take off until they get language teachers in there, though... I feel sorry for the teachers who get told: oh, by the way, now you also have to teach Spanish to the class!

[loobylou]

Does the language teaching depend where you live. I am pretty sure my friends in Aberdeen haven't had two languages at Primary or not more that tasters.

Maybe it just depends on definitions. In England children have to learn a MFL at primary but, since there were only 5 teachers at my children's primary (none of whom appears to have any MFL ability) the"learning" that my children did was restricted to colours and numbers, repeated every year

In Scotland it should be "Mother Tongue plus two". In England they are supposed to get one language at some point. It can definitely vary, according to teacher confidence/ability. For Spanish, his class teacher did it, and I got the impression that she was staying about a page ahead of the kids - he came home with some slightly google-ated expressions. But for Mandarin (and there is a massive push and seems to be loads of funding from China in Edinburgh), they had specialist native speakers come in for lessons and he has loved it. They also brought in specialists from outside school for Latin. I think we've been lucky and it has got him way more excited about Mandarin and Latin whereas he is pretty lukewarm about Spanish.

Languages in primary schools isn't going to take off until they get language teachers in there, though... I feel sorry for the teachers who get told: oh, by the way, now you also have to teach Spanish to the class!

Absolutely!

[Silentdraperunners]

I wanted to update here with the latest news and to thank everyone for their advice and encouragement. Realising that the schools here were way behind the English schools' Maths curriculum was so important - we just focused on catching up all the topics during the 4 or 5 weeks we had to prepare for the test.

He took the test last Wednesday and came out saying it was quite easy; he was pretty happy. I was actually a bit worried at this point that he might have missed some subtelties or tricky questions. He actually loved having to work fast and under pressure to get his Maths up-to-speed - we felt that it was a really useful exercise regardless of whether he would pass the 11+.

But he must have done really well - he ranked 98 out of 1600 for The Crypt, who have been able to offer him a place, since they have places left to fill (the subject of much discussion already on these forum pages!) He ranked 60 out of 883 for Sir Thomas Rich's, and is within the top 150 (no more details given) for Pate's, so he is on the waiting list for both of these.

To have a place at any of these schools is fantastic, and to be in the running for a place at STR and Pate's is something we had barely hoped to dream for. I wanted to share his results in recognition for the helpful pointers and advice that were so generously given here.

Now we are going to visit STR and Pate's to see which he prefers and then keep our fingers crossed that he will be offered a place following appeal.

Thank you!