Big School beckons
I haven't posted on this blog for a while. Life has been busy and there hasn't been much time to record any thoughts and experiences. Baby will be starting school in September this year and I have been doing a fair bit of reading in the last 8 months or so to prepare for this.
In the U.K. it is a legal requirement for children to be in school in the school term after they turn 5. As the start of the school year is normally in September, a fair number of children start school at the age of 4. It is possible to defer entry till the child turns 5 but, as it is advantageous for the child to start with the rest of the year group so that s/he has time to bond with the other children, most parents choose for the child to start earlier rather than later. There are studies indicating that children who start too young are generally less able to cope with academic demands and that this early disadvantage is likely to hamper their learning for life. These make grim reading and I am glad that Baby's birthday means that he is not likely to be affected by this (should it turn out to be true). However, I have much sympathy for the parents who have to deal with the guilt of potentially dealing a blow to their children's learning before they even start just by lottery of birth month.
The months preceding the start of the school application season were taken up by reading official reports of school performance, testimonials from parents- basically any information that can be found regarding potential schools. It can be hard to decide how much academic achievement is to be weighed against reported happiness quotient- some schools do exceptionally well in academic rankings, others do very well with pastoral care. For example one school we visited was very badly rated by the government school inspector but the kids we met there were bright and communicative, and the impression of the school we got from the visit was very different from the grim description in the report.
Then there is the issue of distance from home. In the U.K. distance from home is the biggest determinant for entry to a particular state school. Parents register for a place at the schools in order of preference using a centralised online system. Spaces are allocated according to the distance from home and parental preference, with the former carrying the most weight in the allocation process. This is often referred to as the post code lottery- you may have access to the best school in town for free if you happen to live near it, or you will end up in the worst school in town because of your address. Property prices in areas with good schools are higher and this is a driver for social inequality. We spent a long time visiting schools and looking up as much information as possible, measuring distances on maps, talking to parents and kids from different schools... and we were lucky to get in to our school of choice. I know others who have not been so fortunate and have then had to come up with contingency plans: registering to go on waiting lists, looking at whether it may be better to go down the route of private education, etc. The year preceding the start of school can be a very tense time for parents.
The allocation results were released in April so we are a bit more relaxed at the moment. Baby is excited by the prospects of Big School: today he presented us with a Lego building of the school he will be going to when he is 5 years old. I am happy that he is looking forward to it. The next step is to try to make his transition as easy as possible. My current reading list constitutes of information and advice on how best to prepare Baby for school. More of that later.
In the U.K. it is a legal requirement for children to be in school in the school term after they turn 5. As the start of the school year is normally in September, a fair number of children start school at the age of 4. It is possible to defer entry till the child turns 5 but, as it is advantageous for the child to start with the rest of the year group so that s/he has time to bond with the other children, most parents choose for the child to start earlier rather than later. There are studies indicating that children who start too young are generally less able to cope with academic demands and that this early disadvantage is likely to hamper their learning for life. These make grim reading and I am glad that Baby's birthday means that he is not likely to be affected by this (should it turn out to be true). However, I have much sympathy for the parents who have to deal with the guilt of potentially dealing a blow to their children's learning before they even start just by lottery of birth month.
The months preceding the start of the school application season were taken up by reading official reports of school performance, testimonials from parents- basically any information that can be found regarding potential schools. It can be hard to decide how much academic achievement is to be weighed against reported happiness quotient- some schools do exceptionally well in academic rankings, others do very well with pastoral care. For example one school we visited was very badly rated by the government school inspector but the kids we met there were bright and communicative, and the impression of the school we got from the visit was very different from the grim description in the report.
Then there is the issue of distance from home. In the U.K. distance from home is the biggest determinant for entry to a particular state school. Parents register for a place at the schools in order of preference using a centralised online system. Spaces are allocated according to the distance from home and parental preference, with the former carrying the most weight in the allocation process. This is often referred to as the post code lottery- you may have access to the best school in town for free if you happen to live near it, or you will end up in the worst school in town because of your address. Property prices in areas with good schools are higher and this is a driver for social inequality. We spent a long time visiting schools and looking up as much information as possible, measuring distances on maps, talking to parents and kids from different schools... and we were lucky to get in to our school of choice. I know others who have not been so fortunate and have then had to come up with contingency plans: registering to go on waiting lists, looking at whether it may be better to go down the route of private education, etc. The year preceding the start of school can be a very tense time for parents.
The allocation results were released in April so we are a bit more relaxed at the moment. Baby is excited by the prospects of Big School: today he presented us with a Lego building of the school he will be going to when he is 5 years old. I am happy that he is looking forward to it. The next step is to try to make his transition as easy as possible. My current reading list constitutes of information and advice on how best to prepare Baby for school. More of that later.
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