Education system question...

I'm just curious how it works there age wise. Here, in most states of the country you must have turned 5 yrs old by September 1st to enter kindergarten (pre-school is from ages 3-5 but not mandatory)

They do kindergarten to 5th or 6th grade in elementary school and then middle school is 6th/7th to 9th grade, then high school is 10th, 11th and 12th grade, once you graduate highschool or get an GED (equivelant degree) you can go to community college or University.

Is it about the same there??

they go in sept usually when there 4 depending when there bday falls..ie after sept

We have pre school, children are entitled to two and a half hours free a day from the term after they turn 3. Any hours over this you have to pay for and any time before they are this age you pay for. They legally have to be at school from the September after they turn 5 but it has become the norm now for children to go to Primary school the september after they turn 4 and this is called Reception year so year 1 is when they legally have to go. They are at Primary school until they are 11. Then they go to Secondary school from the September after they turn 11-16. After this college (approx 16-18 years of age)would be optional and based on GCSE grades and then University would be optional and based on A-level or alternative diploma grades gained.

Charlotte is at nursery - she started at 3 1/2 and this September she will start in reception being 4 1/2, full time.

Then she stays at primary until she is in year 6 (although she will have been there 8 if you count nursery and reception) then she will start secondary in year 7 upto year 11 where you can legally leave (aged 16) after doing GCSE's or stay on in the 'sixth form' in years 12 and 13 to do 'A' levels which isn't compulsory. (I left after finishing year 12 getting 'AS' levels which is 1/2 an 'A' level).

Thank you! That's where I was getting confused because I've hear talk about college amongst younger than 18 year olds... so basically you guys call college what we call senior high school. Then our community colleges have limited degree programs... associates degree is the highest I believe and then you have to go to University or a state college to get your masters, bachelors or higher degree.

College here is available after GCSE's. University is available for 18+.

After kids get their GCSE's at age 16 they have the choice to leave school, study for A-levels (either at the school if it has a 6th form, or a college) or get a BTEC/HND or similar type qualification (these tend to be more practical than A-levels which tend to be academic but they count the same). After that if you have the grades (and increasingly it seems the money) you can go to university to get your degree (bachelors, masters and then on to a PHD).

Colleges tend to cater for people straight out of school but also older people who have been away from education for a while but want to get some qualifications to help with career progression. They offer night classes as well to work around peoples jobs.

and just to confuse you more Scotland is different

Playgroup 2 1/2 or 3

Nursery (sometimes 3 depending on size of nursery) but definately 4

Primary 1 the year they are 5

move to secondary the year they are 12

Standard grades generally sat at 16years old (4th year after studying for them in 3rd and 4th year) can leave school at 16yrs

Highers 17yrs old (5th year)

Highers and advanced highers 18yr (6th year)

Thanks for the responses and the education (haha no pun intended)

It sounds different but it seems to boil down to almost the same system as we have in place here.

Here's another question... When the children go into primary grade 1 (equal to our kindergarten) what are they expected to be doing academically?? Speaking on general terms not on what the brightest kids in the class are able to do....

It differs between schools abit but my daughter who is 4 (5 in July) and in reception year has been doing basic maths counting,adding and subtracting objects. She can read most children's books and is doing joined up hand writing. She can also spell and write quite alot of words on her own eg, 'mummy and daddy went up to bed' or 'dear ....lots of love from Summer' etc.
Alot of their work has been about themselves, their homes, their families, animals, plants the World around them basically.

Wow, that's great that she can read that well. All of the other things you've said are what Aaralyn has done in her last year of preschool 4/5 yrs old. She can "read" books but it's from memory of me reading them to her so many times she can't actually read the words yet. She can write all of her letters well in upper and lower case and can read by sounding out some words. She can write all of her numbers and can add and subtract basics.

By the end of kindergarten they should be expected to read and write all of the (what they call here) sight words.

I think our education standards in general can be improved but have come a long way from when I was in grade school.

My Primary 1s have learned

Ordering numbers, writing numbers, analogue and digital time (O'clock) We do measurement (long, longer and longest kinda thing) 3D shape adding subtracting.

My children work through reading books (many are very good readers now) we use the Oxford reading tree. We do initial sounds, blending sounds and blending words. Most of my kids can now all write a story independly (some under write but they tell the story to be scribed) we do lots of rhyming words.

and so much more- too much to type in a post but these are some of the basics

That's great too... there were actually 4 kids (all age 5, just) in Aaralyn's graduating pre-school class that got special recognition for being able to read very well... Aaralyn was not one of them, but that's ok, she is where she is expected to be at this age according to our education standards, if not slightly advanced in some things. She has a hard time with simple instruction which concerns me slightly and something her teacher brought up to me.... just something for us to watch for now and see how it progresses.

what do you mean she has problems with simple instructions?

Does she find it hard to remember what was said or what she has to do?

For example... the other night she was cleaning up stuff from her bedroom floor and putting her laundry in the basket..... she missed a sock which was on the floor next to her bed. I asked her to pick it up and she didn't see where it was, I directed her sight to it with out telling her exactly where it was and she just couldn't grasp where it was. It's easier to see it than to explain it, but it's like with very simple things she is too disracted or something to "understand" it, where as with more complex tasks such as get you cup and go to the ice machine and the water machine on the fridge and fill it, or get the cereal and pour it in the bowl and then pour the milk over it she does fine. I think it also may have some to do with whether it's a stimulating enough task to keep her attention on the instruction... if that makes any sense??

that makes sense. Im sure it is nothing to worry about- she is maybe looking for things to be more difficult than they actually are.