Before a change of school
How to compare school curricula before a transfer
Compare the actual learning documents from both schools, not just their programme names. Separate a genuine missing skill from unfamiliar terminology or a different teaching sequence.
Make the comparison about your child’s next lessons
Two schools can use the same subject name while teaching different material this term. They can also use different programme labels while asking children to practise similar underlying skills. Before deciding that your child will be ahead or behind, identify what the receiving class expects learners to know when they arrive.
Request the proposed year or stage, relevant subject information and a short outline of the first units your child would join. Compare these with what the current school has actually taught, not everything its wider programme could include. A topic listed in a handbook is not evidence that a particular child has studied it.
This guide explains how to build a comparison sheet for a specific transfer. It does not rank curricula, recommend a school or predict placement. For the wider transition after arrival, our mid-year continuity guide covers a different part of the journey.
The hero shows fictional people in an AI-generated illustration. It does not depict a meeting with either school, an actual client or a school partnership.
Know which kind of document you are reading
Place each document in one of three categories: the programme framework, the school’s teaching plan or evidence of your child’s learning. These answer different questions. A framework describes the intended education; a teaching plan shows how a school organises it; a work sample helps show what a learner can currently do.
Cambridge describes Lower Secondary as flexible, including choices of subjects and adaptation to a school’s context. The IB describes the MYP through subject groups, concepts, contexts and approaches to learning. Neither programme name alone gives you the exact unit sequence in a particular classroom. Ask the receiving school for that missing layer.
Australian Curriculum documents also distinguish different elements. Content descriptions set out the knowledge, understanding and skills to be taught, while achievement standards describe the expected quality of learning. Content elaborations are optional teaching illustrations, not a complete additional list every child must have covered. Confirm which curriculum version and school requirements apply before comparing individual items.
Avoid making your own conversion from one year label to another. Give the receiving school your child’s age, current stage and learning records, then ask it to explain the proposed placement. The comparison sheet supports that conversation; it does not replace the school’s decision.
Build a crosswalk with evidence and an unanswered question
Choose one subject and a small number of immediate expectations. For each, record the receiving school’s wording, related work from the current school and what remains uncertain. Add a source or date so another person can follow the comparison. Do not fill an empty evidence column with a guess.
The invented example below concerns a learner whose next mathematics unit includes proportional reasoning. It is not a mapping between named national curricula or a claim about what a particular year group should study. Its purpose is to show how different evidence leads to different questions.
| Receiving-class expectation | Evidence currently available | Question to resolve |
|---|---|---|
| Scale quantities in a simple ratio | A recent task correctly doubles a recipe, but no other scale factors were used | Can the learner explain and use a different scale factor? |
| Explain a method, not only give an answer | Correct numerical answers with no written explanation | Can the learner explain the reasoning aloud before writing it? |
| Read a table of paired quantities | No relevant work sample in the transfer folder | Has this been taught, or is the evidence simply missing? |
Notice that the third row does not say cannot read tables. The folder lacks evidence, which is a different statement. Equally, a familiar topic heading should not be marked fully covered without checking the depth and type of task expected. Keep uncertainty visible until the teacher or an appropriate task resolves it.
Separate content, language and task format
An unfamiliar question can be difficult for several reasons. Your child may not know the underlying idea, may recognise it under another name or may be unsure how the new school expects an answer to be presented. Those possibilities call for different support. Ask for an example of the task before choosing extra lessons or materials.
Suppose the learner can describe why a recipe scales correctly but does not recognise a new written term for the relationship. That is not the same as being unable to reason about the quantities. Record the terminology issue separately. If they give a confident explanation but cannot apply it to another example, the understanding itself may need further exploration.
For a child changing language of instruction, distinguish the language needed to access a task from the subject concept being assessed. Ask the school how it evaluates both. Do not interpret every hesitant English response as a content gap or assume strong conversational English establishes readiness for every written task.
The AI-generated materials represent organising evidence. They contain no real school records, personal information or official curriculum comparison.
Send questions that the receiving school can answer
A useful message is specific: your first unit asks learners to explain proportional relationships; our records show recipe-scaling calculations, but little written explanation. Which example would best show the expected starting point? This gives the teacher something concrete to respond to without asking them to review an entire educational history.
Group the responses as confirmed overlap, possible prerequisite gap, different terminology or evidence still needed. Keep teaching sequence separate from attainment. A topic scheduled later at the old school might be an immediate prerequisite at the new one; that timing difference does not establish a general weakness in either school or the child.
For a transfer during a qualification course, ask the receiving school to confirm subject choices, component requirements, deadlines and whether previous work can be accepted. Do not infer credit or coursework transfer from similar course names. A tutoring plan cannot decide those administrative or assessment questions.
Our school-records guide helps with gathering the underlying documents. Share records through the school’s appropriate channel and keep unnecessary personal details out of informal messages or public project links.
Turn the map into a modest support brief
Once the receiving school has clarified the immediate expectations, choose the few points that genuinely need attention before or just after entry. Record what needs explaining, what needs a short check and what can wait for normal classroom teaching. Do not turn every difference between two documents into an additional course at home.
A useful brief might be: check whether the learner can scale a ratio by factors other than two, practise explaining the reasoning and ask the teacher which table format will appear in the opening unit. That is clearer than catch up the whole curriculum. Keep a date for revisiting the map when new work becomes available, without assuming every uncertainty will disappear within a fixed number of sessions.
Our cross-curriculum support page is the established place to discuss this kind of continuity planning. Include the current programme, proposed destination, entry timing and the unresolved questions. We do not determine school admission or represent either school.
For a family arranging support from a home in Sanur, the Sanur arrangements page provides the relevant location next step. The exact address, suitable tutor and written quote require confirmation. A well-prepared comparison makes the enquiry more useful; it does not guarantee placement, grades or a particular transition outcome.
Frequently asked questions
Does the same year-group number mean the learning is equivalent?
Treat the number as a starting label, not proof of equivalent content or attainment. Ask the receiving school how it uses age, previous schooling and learning evidence when proposing placement. Compare the actual expectations your child would meet rather than inventing a universal year-group conversion.
What if the old school cannot provide detailed topic lists?
Start with available reports, a few dated work samples and the materials the child has used. Clearly label what is unknown. Ask the receiving teacher which small pieces of evidence would help most, rather than treating an incomplete folder as proof of missing knowledge.
Related
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Sources and further reading
Published by Private Tutoring Bali. Sources and corrections.