Rubik

Hi there

Hope someone can help me as I'm getting somewhat confused by this (not that hard for me).

We moved to Victoria from the UK in January this year, and when we left the UK our son was in Year 5 and our daughter was in Year 2. When we enrol them in school in Victoria my son went into year 4 and my daughter went into year 1 to corresond with the starting school age for Victoria.

So all that is fine and they are in school with the correct age group. Now however just to confuse things we might be moving to Queensland and this is where I've lost the plot. Looking at the starting school age it looks as if my son would be in year 5 and daughter would be in year 2 if we move there ......still with me??? They have only in January this year changed the age for starting school in Queensland to have it more in line with other states and now I haven't got a clue what grade they would be in if we move. Going by their ages they should be in year 5 and 2, but I'm concerned that by doing that they are going to be way behind with the work, but the flip side to that is putting them in grade 4 and 1 in Queensland will make them older than everyone else in their classes.

Firstly can anyone understand what I'm blabbing on about, and can anyone help me with what grade they would go in? I've looked at the government website which says they would be one grade ahead of what they are in just now, but wondered if anyone else has moved from Victoria to Queensland what happened with the school? I'm just worried that putting them in correct grade for their age would put them at a disadvantage with the work and they would struggle to keep up?

VikkiL

My son (who was 7 in February) started school in Qld last August, he went from being in Year 1 in UK to Year 2 in Qld. He then went straight to Year 3 in January this year so basically missed out Year 2 and he is doing really well. He is a year younger than his classmates which doesnt seem to be making any difference at all and is loving school.

I found that the school were willing to put my son into a class that fitted his ability rather than his age so have a good chat with your children's new school and I am sure they will find a solution that suits you all.

moneypenny20

Can't speak for other schools or even other states but all the schools we looked at were more interested in ability than age and if a younger child looked like they should be in an older year or visa versa then so be it. Obviously that depends on the attitude as well. My eldest should have gone into year 9 when we arrived but although ability would have been fine, emotionally (didn't want to come) going into year 8 (first year of high school) was preferable as all the other kids were brand new to the school as well.

Don't worry about it, the school and you will sort it out.

quoll

The kids from service families do it all the time and they go into the year level where their chronological peers are - dont get hung up on the relative names of the grades. They will be fine in primary and I doubt they will even notice.

This site is a good summary of the relative levels and different systems. We may hope that this federal government will persuade the states to have some sort of conformity!!!!

Rubik

We found the same with our oldest child when we moved here, his ability is way beyond the grade he is in (the school work in the UK was further advanced than here for the same age), but emotionally he is not at the same maturity level as the higher grade. It doesn't seem to be as much of an issue when they are 6/7/8 years old, but I think when they get to 9/10/11 the difference in the levels of maturity are very noticable. You're probably right, I should stop worrying about it and cross that bridge when we come to it.