Moving from year 10 in england to s5 in scotland

I am a year 10 English student moving to s5 in scotland. When I applied to a school they said I have to do national 5s before I can do highers, even though I have covered all the topics in my gcse course and have verified this by doing past papers.my question is if I do national 5s in S5 and highers in S6 will I be at a disadvantage when entering university as I will not have done advanced highers. Most of the courses I have looked at say if you do highers in s6 you require a higher grade, and others also state it is highly advised you study a specific advanced higher.
Thank you for your help.

Reply 1

Infinite Series

20

Hi! Sorry you haven't had a response to this yet

I'm just going to bump the thread in the hope that someone sees this and can help

Reply 2

Labrador99

21

Original post by Jaba248

I am a year 10 English student moving to s5 in scotland. When I applied to a school they said I have to do national 5s before I can do highers, even though I have covered all the topics in my gcse course and have verified this by doing past papers.my question is if I do national 5s in S5 and highers in S6 will I be at a disadvantage when entering university as I will not have done advanced highers. Most of the courses I have looked at say if you do highers in s6 you require a higher grade, and others also state it is highly advised you study a specific advanced higher.
Thank you for your help.

The fact you are in Year 10 in England just now would correspond with S3, so I would think you should be put into S4 when you move...
Current S4s will generally be born in March 2003- February 2004, and current S5s are February 2002- March 2003...Which of those do you fall into?

Reply 3

Jaba248

OP

2

Original post by Labrador99

The fact you are in Year 10 in England just now would correspond with S3, so I would think you should be put into S4 when you move...
Current S4s will generally be born in March 2003- February 2004, and current S5s are February 2002- March 2003...Which of those do you fall into?

Was born in october 2002... and I was going into year 11

Reply 4

Labrador99

21

Original post by Jaba248

Was born in october 2002... and I was going into year 11

Even through your birth date puts you in the range of the current S5s, the fact you were only going into year 11 should probably mean it is more natural progression wise for you to go into S4, which would allow you to do a full set of Nat 5s, highers and Advanced highers. Would your new school be open to this? (I know schools have already went back, but not sure whether you've moved/started yet???)

In terms of the national 5s, your new school have no track record of you in terms of National 5s (albeit your old school might have sent some evidence of your performance working towards GCSEs), so they will probably want you to do Nat 5s first, though they may be persuadable.
Whether you need advanced highers or not depends on what you want to study and where you would want to study it really. A good set of highers in S5 can get you into most courses at most Scottish unis. If you want to go to the more competitive courses, or study back in England, you will likely need advanced highers.

Reply 5

AzureCeleste

20

Original post by Jaba248

Was born in october 2002... and I was going into year 11

You should be put in S4 then based on what you've studied. You'll be one of the older ones in your year, but some people in my year were like that.
This will allow you to national 5's, then highers and advanced highers. It also then makes sense to put you in S4 if you are doing nat 5's.
You won't be at a disadvantage having no advanced highers if you do go into S5 and sit N5's and Highers in S6. Depending upon the course, most scottish unis don't require advanced highers, however english uni's do tend to want them

I'd get in contact with the school though and ask about being in S4.

Also @Labrador99 are those definite dates? As for the S4's at my school, most people would be born from November 2002 to February 2004(the majority of which are born in 2003, with a few being born in 2002 and a couple in 2004)

Reply 6

Labrador99

21

Original post by AzureCeleste

Also @Labrador99 are those definite dates? As for the S4's at my school, most people would be born from November 2002 to February 2004(the majority of which are born in 2003, with a few being born in 2002 and a couple in 2004)

Yes- In general, a cohort of students will be born between 1st March (oldest) and 28/29th February the following year (youngest) of whatever year it is. However, in Scotland (compared to elsewhere), it can be quite flexible, so if you're in nursery and you are born near the cut off (so would be young in your year) they may decide to wait for an extra year to allow you to develop more before moving to school. This means you have all the people whose birth dates put them in the current S4 (1st March 2003- 29th February 2004), as well as a small-ish number of pupils born before 1st March 2003 who could have been in the year above but it was decided they could benefit from a little extra time in nursery (not usually related to ability generally- often just because they are shy or their parents preferred them not to be the youngest in their year). And then there will be a few people who are outwith this by a slightly bigger margin because they repeated a year/moved from elsewhere, etc.
Hope this helps :smile: