Aramco School

In one very real sense, he will not be repeating a year. He will be doing a different year, in a different school system with a different curriculum, studying different topics. There may very possibly be some overlap with what he has already done but I would venture to suggest that, unless you tell him he is repeating a year, he will not consider that he is.

As a school counselor I always explain to kids and families that Grade or Year levels are like shoe sizes- just because they have a different number in different countries doesn't mean your foot has gotten smaller or bigger or someone is giving you the wrong size (a UK 6 may be a 13 in the US). The same is true for Grade/Year levels. Systems do not have the same names for Primary/Elementary levels so you can't figure the proper year for a child based on the Grade or Year they are coming from without looking at an equivalency chart and the child's birthdate. Each country has its own cutoff dates for the starting of school as well. If the number is lower, it does not mean that the child has been retained. In regards to the comment about Year 7/GR 6 math, those are equivalent grade levels in those systems. UK Year 7 is the equivalent year to GR 6 in the US system. However, as can be the case when you change school systems there are sometimes repeats in curriculum material, as well as gaps. The best equivalency chart I've seen was on the American School of Lagos site for Admissions. www.aislagos.org/admission/apply.php on page 14 of the downloadable admissions handbook.
Below is from Wikipedia, I'm not sure it's correct. According to the chart from ISL, the equivalent year for the Scottish system, Primary 4 is GR 3 in the US system. So again, it is not a demotion or repeat of a year. It is important that children understand that.
Scotland
Age at start of school year Age at end of school year
Primary 1 4 - 5 5 - 6
Primary 2 5 - 6 6 - 7
Primary 3 6 - 7 7 - 8
Primary 4 7 - 8 8 - 9
Primary 5 8 - 9 9 - 10
Primary 6 9 - 10 10 - 11
Primary 7 10 - 11 11 - 12
US Schools- Avee starting and ending age
Kindergarten 5-6
1st grade 6-7
2nd grade 7-8
3rd grade 8-9
4th grade 9-10
5th grade 10-11
6th grade 11-12
7th grade 12-13

Folks,

Thanks for your thoughts and experiences and i much appreciate it.

Bailey, I really liked your shoe size example and it helped us understand the two school systems. My kids are now looking forward to the new start.

With regards

I understand how you feel. My daughter just turned 5 in September, and she's in K4 now. There are other kids in the same situation. Aramco is pretty strict on the age cut offs, but I can tell you that although my daughter would excel this year in kindergarten, she really enjoys K4 and is not bored at all. She has two cousins, one 6 weeks older and one 6 weeks younger, in the Saudi school system who are now in Kindergarten this year. So, I keep thinking about my daughter and some of the other Saudi kids in the Aramco school who will be much older than their classmates when they switch over to Saudi schools for 1st grade.