What are your experiences with skipping a grade?

[Chocaholic]

Hi again - back from the trip - I must say this whole schooling thing is very difficult and trying - long waiting lists at private schools (if you are even just sort of thinking of maybe going over there one day and think you might want to put your kids into private schools - PUT YOUR NAME DOWN NOW!) - but there seem to be some good public schools too, just have to make sure you live in the right areas.

But back to the topic at hand - yes my kids definitely will have to skip a grade (only one headmaster at one school asked what I would prefer) - however, after having thought about all this for quite some time already, I do think that it would be better for my kids to skip a grade. They will still be one of the older ones, but not by sooo much - at the end of the day I think it can only lead to teasing if say, my daughter hits puberty and the others are still nowhere near it.....Plus they are both very bright, so somehow I think they should be okay.

Therefore I am going to just continue with what I have started - which is extra Maths with me every day (just about 15 minutes or so), plus a tutor is coming for about 40 minutes once a week, who is doing extra English with them. They get little rewards etc. for this, just to keep it a bit more fun and hopefully not too stressful. I can just pray that this will work. Hopefully I will one day be able to report back good news on this forum and let you know how it went.

However, if there is anyone ??? out there - please? - who can give me a precise idea of what they do over in WA in Maths and English in grade 4 - (just a few Maths examples and some idea on what they are expected to know grammar or spelling wise) - please let me know.

Thanks so much, Tanja

[Roxy]

My daughter was in year 5 when we arrived and she was in the top Maths and English groups at school in RSA. When we arrived she told me that she was having to "catch up" on a fair bit of Maths and that they hadn't even covered some of the stuff in RSA yet!!! So I would imagine the Maths is ahead here. Everything else seemed to be about the same. She didn't struggle to catch up though and moved to the top Maths group here very quickly. Kids are resilient.

[Allen]

Hi Tanya,

The new Australian Curriculum will be fully implemented in 2013, ensuring a uniform curriculum across all States, for more details regarding the content of this curriculum see

http://www.acara.edu.au/home_page.html

Hope this helps!

[Chocaholic]

Hi Tanya,

The new Australian Curriculum will be fully implemented in 2013, ensuring a uniform curriculum across all States, for more details regarding the content of this curriculum see

http://www.acara.edu.au/home_page.html

Hope this helps!

Hi Allen - thanks so much - but you know - I went through all the info on the government website with a grade 4 teacher here - and neither she nor I could make out what EXACTLY the kids are doing over there. You see, if it says for example that they 'work with money/currency' whatever - you see this is something they start here already in grade 2 or 3 and obviously it just gets more difficult and more involved every year - so how difficult and how involved is it over there in grade 4? Same for everything else. If it says they work with fractions - that still doesn't give me any idea how far they are with that already. They only give very broad ideas on the website but no definite examples. So this is where I need help from either a parent of a grade 4 child or a grade 4 teacher over there. (I am considering contacting a school over there, however, until such time that we actually have a school for the kids, I wouldn't want to go and hassle them now at some school or other that might not even take us......) So at the moment I am just simply assuming that they do exactly what our children are doing in grade 4 - however, I am still hoping that our kids are actually ahead of them and that I am maybe stressing for nothing...?

Anyhow, still hoping for replies, thanks again, Tanja

[Darel Christo]

Our experience..... CRAP!

My middle son should have gone into grade 8. Here is was put into grade 9. He was an average student. Did well in subjects that interest him and average to below average in ones that didn't. And that would vary during the year with the content taught in a particular subject too. So in Grade 7 in RSA he got in the 80s for one term of whatever they call Geography nowadays but then 50s the next term for example.

I think grade 8 is rather a critical year to skip because lots of foundation stuff is taught, especially in maths which has never been one of his strengths anyway.

Now he is in grade 10 and battling. Just spoke to his teachers last week and complained about missing out of year 8 and its like a penny dropped, now they see why there are gaps and he is struggling. But of course it is now our problem to send him for tutoring.

Maybe being that young as your kids the gaps may not be so big.

I wish I had thrown my toys out of the cot and stamped my feet and refused to put him up a year.

But if wishes were horses, beggars would ride, so now we are left to deal with the fallout of a bad decisions forced on us by the school.

It seems the school work is pretty much similar to RSA from what I have seen with my kids.

But that could vary from state to state... where are you headed?

Hi Eva

We are getting ready to make the permanent move to Perth in August. I am a bit in the dark and concerned about my son. He is 16 and in Grade 10 in SA. We have to activate our Visa's by 25 August and I stand before a major decision. Do I send my son back to SA to finish the last term of Grade 10? What happens if he stays with us in Perth? He will not be able to catch up with what everybody else have been learning during the course of the year in one term, being the last term makes it critical. Do you perhaps have advice on this please.