US children moving mid-way through Reception year

My children and I are moving to the UK next month, and so they will need to start school mid-way through the year (probably mid-March after a bit of transition time). I have 5 year old twin boys who are currently in pre-K here in the US. They didn't start Kindergarten this year because of their late birthdays and the cut off for our school district here, but from what I understand, they would have started Reception year this year in the UK despite their late birthdays.

I am concerned about their transition into school in the UK and was wondering if anyone had gone through this and had any advice? I'm worried that they won't have the foundation necessary that is taught in Reception and will be behind when they go into Year 1? Basically, to me, it sounds like they are missing most of what would have been their Kindergarten year here, which doesn't sound like a great idea to me?

Hi writeshawna. I don't know if this will help, but I will throw it out there since you don't seem to be getting anyone else to answer yet!

My older DD is in year 1 here in England. She is a March '09 baby, so she started Reception year at 4.5 yrs old.
At this point, here are the skills she's using and working on:
Reading stage one phonics well.
Counting up to 100, including counting by 2, by 10 and by 20.
Single digit adding and subtracting.
Writing simple sentences.
Practicing cursive handwriting.

I know this won't apply to all schools here, but just wanted to give you an idea of what the year 1 kids do. The new curriculum for R-yr 2 involves no scoring against peers, only scoring the child against themselves, so as long as they are progressing, it's good. And our school breaks the three year 1 classes into groups for phonics work, so they are kept wth other kids who are working on their level, instead of just being in a class of 30 all on different levels. Again, not sure if this is across the board or not.

We are in a pretty small school and I have a good rapport with our head teacher. If you want to PM me some more specific questions, I would be happy to run them by her tomorrow and get some more info for you!

Michelle

Oops,  I just went back and re-read your post and realized the twins will be midway through reception, not year one. What I am going to do is go upstairs and pull DD's reception year "learning journey" so I can tell you exactly what the learning goals were for her. Will be back shortly with that!!

At this point, here are the skills she's using and working on:
Reading stage one phonics well.
Counting up to 100, including counting by 2, by 10 and by 20.
Single digit adding and subtracting.
Writing simple sentences.
Practicing cursive handwriting.

This is kind of the stuff I was looking for...just to see what they are expecting in Year 1 since they will only get 4 months of Reception. They can count to 100, also by 10s, but not 2s or 20s. They single digit add and subtract. Mostly writing only if they are copying and no cursive at all, but I think I heard they they are not teaching cursive in schools here, anymore?

I would be really interested to see your Reception information, if you can find it!

It's good to know they are not graded against their peers in R-2, as that will definitely give them enough time to catch up! And also, I hate when they are compared to each other (and they do too)!

I found her reception year workbooks, just out to pick her up now but I will go through them this evening and make a concise list of what she worked on/ learned by the end of the year.

My last parent teacher mtg, we were told that the new assessment plan is to measure them according to "emerging" (working on learning)  "expected" (at the level they should be) and "excelling" (working above level).

DD has 4 sets of twins in her grade level. Two sets are in the same classes, and two sets are split up with different teachers. All by parental request.

Will see if I can get more from our head teacher too.

Had a chat with our headteacher's assistant this afternoon. She said there is not a defined "what they need to know by the end of reception year" list, and at this stage (reception and yr 1) there is a wide range of levels that the kids are working at in the same grade. She strongly suggested not worrying about it, and said that the best thing to do is get them here and get them in to school, where the teachers will then do a comprehensive assessment of what they know and what they need to work on, and then they will fit them into groups as appropriate.

I will still get the learning journey info from DD's book for you. One other thing, if they aren't already being introduced to phonics, get some sort of phonics program and get them started so that's not a complete shock.

Oh my gosh, thank you so much for asking! I have been stressing about this and honestly, there's really not much I can do at this point!

They are definitely starting basic math and phonics and they have science and learning centers at school and stuff. I guess it's all we can do for now! One is just way better at practising his writing in school when he's supposed to and the other one just doesn't like it, so he doesn't! I worry about him being "behind" but I guess they are 5 so how behind can they really be at this point?!

O, I have DD's Reception year Learning Journey here; I am just going to flip through it and let you some of what she worked on by the end of that year.

Basic laptop skills.
Learned to write letters, including full name
Recognizing and writing numbers to 20
Using scissors for detail cutting
Recognizing shapes, patterns
Basic single digit addition and subtraction
Understanding concepts of more/less, up/down, before/after, etc
Mixing colors
Ordering numbers correctly
Phonics sounds for all letters, plus lots of two-letter and three-letter sounds (ey sounds like 'eeee' for example)
Problem solving, puzzle work
Writing basic words and sentences ( although there is an emphasis on phonics sounds, not correct spelling at this stage, so their spelling is atrocious)
Rhyming
Following a set of instructions  (making s'mores!)
Starting to tell time


I hope that helps. As for the reading thing, her very competitive BFF is on reading word list 33. DD's on 21. The teachers told me that's not a problem, and the only reason I know about it is that the friend and her mom and big mouths. The teacher said the only one the kids get measured against is themselves.
Let me know if there is anything else I can check out for you!!

This is very helpful, Texasgirl, thank you! I think they are working on most of this in pre-K from what I can tell. Some of it they don't do particularly WELL, but I'm sure it will come! I think they will get about 4 months of Reception when they arrive, mid-March or so to July, so that should help too. Since they would normally be out of school in May here, they will get an extra couple of months of school this year and that should help them get acclimated to the different classroom, new kids and so forth.

I think they'll do fine - a lot of the Reception year learning here is play-based rather than teacher-led.

There's also a term break in March that's two weeks long, so hopefully that coincides well with your move and they can start in April (our dates are 27 March - 13 April, but I think they vary from council to council a little). That would be ideal!