My daughter is nearly 2 and apparently we have to find her a school soon 😯

Our local kids school is a “First School”, which as far as I can tell means that they take kids from 4yo up to 9, then they transfer to a “Middle School” from 9 till 13, then from 13+ they go to a High School.

This is all very different from when I were a lad in Scotland: we just went to a Primary School, then a Secondary school.

Is this a fairly common thing in England?

Are there any advantages/disadvantage to First/Middle/High versus Primary/Secondary (which we also have nearby, but not as close)?

If we later move somewhere that only have Primary/Secondary will the curriculums be similar enough that she can slot in okay?

Funnily enough I was just talking about this with someone at work…

Where I live it’s Primary/Secondary

Where she lives it’s as you describe.

I think the former is more common. No idea on the benefits or not. I can’t see there being a major issue changing between the systems though – the curriculum would see to that I’d have thought.

Ours all went to the LEA nursery at 3yr old for 4 x half days
Then infants at 5yr old
Junior at 8yr old
Secondary at 11 yr old

I think

GrahamS – you in Leicestershire?

What you describe is how it was in Leicestershire when I was younger.

I’m sure teachers will contribute more constructively but my impression was that the teaching was more by year (so irrespective of school). The one thing I remember is the jump up to high school is a big one as all of a sudden things like GCSE’s seem much closer. Pretty much everyone at the high school is sitting some sort of exam every summer.

The First School run a “Nursery” year from age 3, but she is already in a local nursery where she is pretty happy so we’ll probably just keep her in there.

All seems like a lot of moving around and upheaval to put on kids to me, but that may just be because I had a fairly settled upbringing. Missus moved around loads of different schools as a kid and doesn’t see the issue.

GrahamS – you in Leicestershire?

Northumberland. First School in question is this one:
http://www.wylamschool.org.uk/

“Outstanding” on the Ofsted report which is why I’m interested in it 😀

I know Berkhamsted, which currently has the middle school system, is phasing it out over the next three years, so you may not need to worry about it anyway, if other areas follow suit.

Shifting between primary/secondary and primary/middle/secondary shouldn’t cause any problems as I believe they all use the same curriculum and targets for the same Key Stages.

“All seems like a lot of moving around and upheaval to put on kids to me,”

Kids are probably moving with their friends (and enemies) so don’t think it is a huge upheaval.

AFAIK, switching schools shouldn’t affect things, year-by-year its all the same.

What matters is the kids they’re at school with. I grew up with first/middle/high and looking back, I’m glad I did. At age 11, the thought of being in the same school with big, bad 16-18 year old kids terrified me. Keeping it 9-13 gave a good-transition between little kids and big kids.

As for going from first to middle, and middle to high, the extra switch won’t affect them as all the kids wil be making the same switch.

At age 11, the thought of being in the same school with big, bad 16-18 year old kids terrified me.

Mmmm interesting point. Hadn’t thought of that one (despite having the odd run in with the older kids when I was a lad).

And more specifically Graham, I think all of Northumberland uses the Middle school system, so switching schools locally for a better one, she’d still be in the same age-groups.

I reckon the Secondary school system forces to kids to “grow up” too soon, feeling the presure of the older peers when their not even teenagers. Middle school helps them stay young for longer 🙂

I think all of Northumberland uses the Middle school system,

Yeah seems to be mainly First/Middle round here, but the http://schoolsfinder.direct.gov.uk/schoolsfinder/ site says there are some Primaries and Secondaries/Academies nearby.

Hi,

The first school is fine and then OMS is good as well. Though both schools have it easy with their catchment areas.

The kids in the village don’t know any different as they all know about the three tier system. My year 7 daughter can’t get her head round the two tier system.

The national curriculum means moving area should not be too much of a pain.

The transfer to OMS at the end of year 4 works well and the buses to the next village work as advertised.

I wouldn’t loose a minutes sleep over it all!

Cheers LabWormy, always good to get the local gen 😀

I see OMS is “only” an Ofsted Grade 2 though. My genius offspring may require higher standards 😉

Tongue-in-cheek smilies aside, a lot of the kids from the village do head off to Dame Allen’s or the RGS, should you be feeling rich.

Politics aside, just seems a waste of money to me given the two local schools.

Prudhoe High School ain’t too bad either (though some of the buildings need some money spending on them). The kids I know from there are as nice as pie.

Nah, we’re poor. She’ll just have to slum it with the thick kids 😀

The local schools do seem to fair pretty well according to Ofsted and I agree they seem like good kids round here. I reckons it’s the Scouts that sorts them out though 😀

😳

… it does act as a filter on the “young people” I tend to know!

My kids go to a first school in a three tier school system, my lad is due to move up to middle school this year, But the county council in a bit to fill places and save money are moving to a two tier system so he will have to stay for another two years, sharing classrooms with lower years and having mobile classrooms oh joy. But at least the council will save half a million a year which when you see how much there spending on the change will take 40 dd years to see any savings.

Northumberland currently seems to use 3 tier system still, although some are changing. One already as here in Alnwick and been plans for years for an ‘academy’ which takes all ages but they never have the money to build it.

Cheers all, seems I don’t have too much to worry about then.

Thought for a while that I might have to “find God” so I could send her to the local primary 😀

Thought for a while that I might have to “find God”

Apparently he’s omnipresent so that shouldn’t be too difficult.