Someone who knows more about your system will probably be along in a few minutes, but a few quick reactions:
How do I say this? I think you might be well advised to resign yourself to making yourself nuts over this for the next few weeks/months. Finding a good school willing to do a skip for a child they don't know is hard anyway, never mind at short notice. (OTOH, if you find a school willing to be flexible on the basis of what they see him doing when they meet him and what you say, it's a good sign!)
It's great that he's in a good situation right now and that the director of his current school is good. Talk to that person! I wouldn't dismiss the idea of keeping him where he is next year if you can't arrange something that's clearly better. A good teacher in the hand is worth two in the bush. If you find it's impractical to get him a skip to 1st for next year, having him stay where he is and then enter school in 2nd might not be such a daft idea.
There are two reasons you might want testing; to help you know what's best for him, and to convince the receiving school. I don't remember having heard about a skip agreed without testing, but different schools require different tests. You certainly don't want to wait for testing before doing other things. One possibility is to talk to schools on the basis that you are in the process of arranging testing and what testing would they like to see; you might need to accept that they won't commit to the skip until they see the test results, but you could still judge their willingness to do it if appropriate. Risky, though. Maybe the director of your current school can help guide you on this.
Welcome!
