Ella Khan

Hi,

I have two children aged 6 (d.o.b: 20/9/06) and aged 9 (d.o.b: 29/08/03) and are currently in year 2 and year 5 in the UK. I intend to move to Dallas in October and wanted to know what school years my children would be in? In England the cut of point is the 31st of August, I could not seem to find the equivalent in the US. I read somewhere they would have to repeat a year.

Thanks.

kodokan

It'll vary either by state or even by individual school districts; there seem to be rather a lot in Dallas from a quick google. Each school district will have a website, and should give the relevant dates there. An easy way to find it is usually under the information for kindergarden, as it tells parents whether their kids can start this year or next based on their birthday cut off.

Celticspirit

My children went to private schools in Dallas. The cut off date was August 31st.

ChocolateBabz

Pre-K is age 4 on or before 1st Sept
Kindergarten is age 5 on or before 1st Sept
1st Grade is age 6 on or before 1st Sept
2nd Grade is age 7 on or before 1st Sept
3rd Grade is age 8 on or before 1st Sept
4th Grade is age 9 on or before 1st Sept and so on

http://www.dallasisd.org/Page/99

My son had completed 5 years of school in UK but went into 4th grade over here to keep him with his same age range. We wondered if he would be ahead but to be honest it worked out fine. He had to learn American History/Geography from scratch, math was taught slightly differently and it gave him a nice ease into his new American life. We never felt that he was repeating a year.

Michael

Your kids will probably be put one year behind the UK school system. Some school districts may allow a child to be placed one grade ahead of other children but think twice before you do that. There are some that have done that and had poor results and unhappy children since they would be the youngest in their class. Others have accepted that their child will be one grade back and their child has flourished.

There are differences between the UK and US school systems. The US schools generally have less play time, more homework, different ways of math, US history and geography, and other things.

Most schools have some sort of gifted programs with generally the more wealthy districts have the best programs available. Some may include limited gifted classes offered only during later grades while others may offer many gifted classes from an early age.

There are many threads concerning US schools in the USA forum. Since the search function is broken, use Google with keywords such as "schools" and "britishexpats.com".

Ella Khan

Thank you so much for all that have replied. We were so concerned about schools but now feel a lot better that repeating a year will probably be the best thing as it will take time for them to settle.

I tried the search engine but it did not return any results (broken ). Thanks once again.

Michael

Did you try Google as I suggested?

Ella Khan

Thank you for the information you have provided.

My oldest son is the youngest in his year (year 5) as he was born on the 29th of August 2003. In October when we move, he would be in Year 6 in the UK, Would he fall in year 4 or year 5 in the US?

penguinsix

While they will be put "one year behind" they won't necessarily be repeating things. Several members have reported their age 7-8-9 year-olds here are doing the same if not even more advanced classwork than their peers back in the UK.

I'm currently living in Hong Kong where we have both US and UK school options available. My son is in a US-based program, and our his best friend neighbor is in a UK-based one, and they do their homework together. It's quite similar, eventhough my son is a 'Second Grader' and his friend is in 'Year Three'.

Here's some more info on getting started in the US school system that might help.

NOTE: they'll need to get their shots, including Hepatitis A & B which isn't part of the standard UK vaccination schedule and requires three shots spread over six months.

http://britishexpats.com/wiki/Educat...s_in_school%3F

Texas Vaccination requirements:
http://www.dshs.state.tx.us/immunize/school/
http://www.houstontx.gov/health/Immu...ent_letter.pdf

notonuksoil

There are also others like myself who have had an absolutely positive experience with their children being placed a year ahead and being the youngest in their grade.

I'd say you know your children best and also how they would cope in either situation. For us the decision was based on curriculum and the fact our daughter was fairly confident and found it easy to adapt to different situations. After talking with the school it was a joint decision to move her up a grade as she was so far ahead of her age group in the US.

ChocolateBabz

So he'll be 10 on 29 Aug 13 so should be 5th grade.

Homeiswheretheheartis

What you also need to know is that just because its called Grade 4 in the US it is the same as Year 5 in the UK.

As in the UK children leave primary(elementary) school after Year 6.

In the US the kids leave elementary(primary) school after Year 5.

My DS was in Year 6 in the UK the last year of primary and joined Grade 5 in the US which was his last year in the elementary. My DD was in Year 4 in the UK with 3 years left in primary, joined Grade 3 in the US with 3 years left in primary.

It maybe different in Dallas as everyone has said. Its different in each state.

Yorkieabroad

The other thing to muddy the waters a little is that (round our way at least) quite a number of boys are held back a year before they start school, particularly if they are close to the cutoff. Some say its because boys develop more slowly, others are quite open and do it so that they will have a better chance at the sports.....

My eldest has a June birthday and a lot of folk (including his pre-k teacher) just assumed we would hold him back. We didn't, and he has done fine, but there were kids in his 5th grade class that were turning 13 before he turned 11, which is quite a large difference.

notonuksoil

Thats similar to how it is here too. The registration cut off for Kindergarten is August 31st however if your child is born before December 1st the parents can choose to register a year early. Its funny as those with girls tend to register the kids early whereas the boys wait, I've been told its primarily because of the sports but also in some opinions girls appear to develop quicker than boys.

Yorkieabroad

Same result (wider ages ranges) but arrived from the different angle. Here it's virtually impossible (note virtually, not absolutely) to register the kids for the earlier year, but quite accepted to delay entry for a year.