Keeping them back a year

[hmb]

I have been reading a thread on another news group and I wondered what Mumsnet would make of this idea. I have no clear views myself, and I am interested in different view points.

Do you think that it would be advantagous if children could be held back a year if their are struggling in school? If children are finding it difficult to 'keep up' with the learning demands and/or pressures of formal education would keeping them back to re-do a year help or hinder them?

How would you feel if this happened in Primary and how would you feel if it was in Secondary school? Do you think it might be a 'wake up' call to those children with attitude problems that were getting in their way re learning? ( ie not SEN, but stroppy , lazy teenages) Or do you think that it would cause them to be further disolusioned, and lead them to be more disruptive?

Ladies, Over to you.....

[Clarinet60]

I'm not an expert, but I would have thought that if someone was struggling with a particular stage, going on to the next stage would be pointless and scary. Staying down seems like common sense to me. HTH

[suedonim]

Children have repeated a year at dd2's school and it's been a resounding success. The child has managed to grasp ideas and concepts that were simply beyond them the previous year. But our school is v small, only two classes so it isn't particularly noticeable if they repeat a year. I don't know about secondary school. I guess the social issues are more complex at that stage. I believe that in the US repeating a year is quite common. A friend's ds was at school until he was 21 but it didn't improve his attitude, unfortunately.

[twiglett]

message withdrawn

[kmg1]

In our school I know of several children who've repeated a year in early primary ... this seems to have been a resounding success. There is certainly no stigma attached. This is a large primary school - two classes per year - and they treat all the children as individuals, and do what is right for their education, and all the children accept this.

[Luckymum]

I certainly think that in primary it would be a good idea. My ds1 is an August baby and having started him a week after his fourth birthday found that he struggled all through KS1 & 2. Personally I would have welcomed the opportunity for him to stay back a year. I think for him it would have been a good idea to repeat Y2 and consolidate his KS1 learning. Also some primaries have mixed age classes (in order to accommodate the 30 max children per class in KS1) so surely it would be less noticeable to the children themselves at that age.

Secondary would be a completely different matter. Ds1 and ds2 are now in secondary and I can just imagine the fuss if it was felt they needed to stay back a year. Although again ds1 one would certainly have benefitted. He is now in his last year and in the middle of GCSE stress!! However the social stigma he would feel from his peer group would probably outweigh the benefits to his education (I'm just imagining his reaction ). That said if it was a something that happened regularly then there would be less fuss I suppose. Another difficulty is that IME at secondary there are often huge differences between subjects eg ds1 would benefit from an extra year in Maths but in History he excels so would be pointless to redo a whole year across the board.

[LIZS]

This is an interesting debate. In the Swiss system it is reasonably common to keep kids back a year, especially if their birthday is towards end of the cut-off. I think, although this is based on second hand info, it is most often done while in Kindergarten (approximate age 4 - 6) or kids are put into a class in primary school where, for example, they might do the first 2 academic years' work over 3. Decision could be parental choice and/or developmentally based.

I have heard of it happening later though. There is pressure to make the grade for entry into senior school as they are selective and your career path can be determined by the type of school you get into.

[hmb]

Some interesting answers. Luckymum, do you think that the 'threat' of having to repeat a year would help to turn some kds round re behaiour, or do you think that they would just explode?

[Luckymum]

Hmb - yes for some the threat would be enough, maybe those who are capable but lazy. (I'm talking about Secondary here)The real rebels would probably just give up completely.

For others it is just a case of needing more time to make the grade. Ds1 struggles with maths and I have tried to explain that if he just works hard enough to achieve a C at GCSE he can wave goodbye to it forever....otherwise he will be re-sitting at college next year. He's not lazy but just finds it hard....would he see being held back a year as a punishment for not being bright enough? I think he would....he truly feels he's doing his best, but his basic grounding has let him down, which takes us back to staying back a year in primary.............get it sorted early

[stripey]

I have 2 sons both born in September (ds2 1 September - so not planned that way) I did read the part in Raising Boys about it being beneficial for boys to start school a year older than girls so I suppose they will benefit. On the other hand if ds2 had been a girl I may have wished she was born a few hours earlier as that is what it amounts to in my case. I suppose as my chlid is so close to the cut off I have thought about this a bit especially as it means I will be a full time mum for an extra year!!
I do think it does depend on the child though as my ds1 has always appeared quite bright and advanced in a lot of ways intellectually yet he cannot master potty training and if he had been eligible for a place last September I think he would have suffered a lot. Who knows with ds2 maybe he will be at an advantage or maybe he will be bored by being up to a year older than his peers??

[tallulah]

I think if it was a common thing (ie not 1 child singled out) it would work. My bfs son in Belgium has been held back this year (secondary) & was quite happy to repeat. In the private system it is common to put pupils in the year group most appropriate to their ability & progress- be it above or below.

[hana]

I was rather surprised when I moved over here and started teaching.......and realized that there wasn't a 'grading day' or 'report card day' at the end of the year to find out if you 'passed' the year and were going up into the next grade. It was always a festive day (going back some time here......) finding out if you passed (of course most kids would have already known) and who's class you'd be in the next year. This is still the situation at home as far as I am concerned. There were always kids that passed/failed and would then repeat the year. I'm all for it. Class sizes in the UK are already too big and the levels within each class seem to get wider each year. I'm aware that we (teachers) have a responsibility to plan according to each level of students in our classroom, but the spread is gettting really really thin, and it's the kids at either end that lose out. Are things just too PC now to tell a kid that they need to repeat a year?

[hana]

that's the case in primary (meant to say that) and at secondary level if you don't pass the subject you're taking in grade 10, you can't take the same subject in grade 11. You need a pass to take the next level. Motivation for some, not for others.

[morsey]

It's my understanding that children can only be "held back" a year in exceptional circumstances - in our school a statemented boy with "global delay" and twin boys born August who are very slow / late developers were only allowed to "repeat" a year with the say so of the school's inspector, and we had to have good reason! It does have a certaon knock on effect as they will remain with the year-younger children until they leave school, so may be more physically mature earlier?!
If we were to do this with every child who could behefit, we would need to open a LOAD of extra nursery / reception classes!!!

[Clarinet60]

september born children are with some year-younger children right through school anyway. They seem to be expected to put up with it!