Delaying school start due to SN

[ruthb33]

Hi - was after some advice please!

My nearly 3 year old (March born) daughter would be due to start Reception in Sept 2018, and typically be at the nursery at the school from Jan 2018 (so applying in a couple of months).

She was seriously ill last year, spending 7 months in hospital having chemo and has a gross motor delay of 18-24 months (can't yet walk). It's unclear when she will catch up (she's crawled for 14 months) although the specialists are optimistic she will at some point (although likely she'll lag for a significant time). In other areas she's not massively far off - 6-12 months.

There's no ECHP in place although she was referred by local paed to EY advisory service, who have visited her in preschool setting. She's seen by GOSH every 3 months and local paed every 6.

I genuinely don't know how she'll be in 18 months' time - but I'm wondering what I should be thinking about now if we wanted to consider her started a year later. It's just that if she was to do 2 terms in nursery then we'd have to be applying for that soon which is obviously out of sync with 'should she wait a year before starting'.

Would we stand any chance of delaying her start into reception by a year if she wasn't summer born and it's 'primarily' a physical delay?? Or is that sufficient grounds to get a good chance of an ECHP - in which case should I get on with requesting one??

Any advice gratefully received!

thanks!

[Hedgyhoggy]

You need to speak to your LEA and the school you are intending your dd attend. I think the view of age retaining is different dependent on where you live. My ds is retained but I think it is likely he will move to special school at secondary age. One thing that you do need to question is whether they have to rejoin their year group when they move to secondary. Some people are very anti retaining but I can't really see the problem especially in kids with developmental delay. I would apply for EHCP. However, it is useful to have some evidence from a nursery/school. Could she do part time at nursery? My ds did 2 years in nursery. Sounds like you've both gone through quite a lot. I hope things work out for you x

[Msqueen33]

You'll probably have to fight to defer. My dd has asd and is preverbal and goes to school this year (I'm panicked). But we're going for an ehcp. She could also do reduced hours.

[ruthb33]

thanks both...she's doing pt at nursery (3 hours 3 days/week) with some 1:1 support. But it's more physical supervision I think (and physio exercises whilst there) rather than any specific barrier to her learning. But it means she is a long way off being potty trained for example - couldn't physically do that at the moment. And I don't know whether/if she'll catch up. Have given up trying to predict timings of things!

Are you trying to defer Msqueen33?

[Msqueen33]

I mentioned it to our support worker but she said she should be ready and it will be very hard. My dd is very physically able but socially behind.

[LadyDowagerHatt]

I thought about this for my DD who is summer born and has a global development delay. I was told it is not easy to defer and one of the things they would be looking at is whether the rate of progress has increased over her nursery year, meaning that she is catching up. Otherwise we could be delaying her to go into the year below her peer group and find that they just overtake her as soon as she goes to school. Sadly for my DD the gap is widening so we are looking at special school but for your DD with the specific circumstances you have and the fact that her learning is not far off and could progress now that she has completed her treatment, you should have a strong case.

[Olympiathequeen]

DS has a physical disability and September born. I delayed his school start until he was 5 so he was the oldest in the class. Still attended nursery and pre school. Best thing for him that we did as we had everything in place and was physically and emotionally much more ready.

[Msqueen33]

I've found it a tough call. Who knows what they'll be like in 9 months. My other dd I'd never thought she would cope with school and I toyed with deferring her but same issue with birthdays but she's done really well. She has a ft 1:1 and academically is slightly behind and her condition does cause impairs to her education. Stuff with sequences, retaining info, processing, emotions and comprehension. But she's come so far and I'm achingly proud of her.

[Littlefish]

The most important thing is for you to get an EHCP in place long before you consider school starting. You need to be working closely with the local authority inclusion team so that they can support you with school admissions to get the most appropriate package and agreement in place. Bear in mind that getting an EHCP in place generally takes about a year. (The quickest I've ever got one is 10 months). (I'm a teacher in early years).

[Msqueen33]

Little fish ten months?! That's insane. We've got a great specialist teacher thank who says we'll have ours in 20 weeks if not sooner.

[Littlefish]

Msqueen - that was 10 months from the child starting at nursery, unknown to any specialist agencies etc. We had to show lack of progress/evidence of need for specialist provision etc before we could apply for an EHCP.

Once we'd applied, it took about 3-4 months for the EHCP to be written.

[Msqueen33]

Oh that makes sense. That's pretty good then. I'd definitely make sure an ehcp is plan.

[WellTidy]

DS2 was deferred by a year. He is April born, and should have gone to primary in September 2016, given his chronological age. But we said that we didn't want him to (he has diagnosed ASD, severe speech and language delay and developmental delays), and put forward a plan for what he would be doing between September 2016 and September 2017 (which was still attend pre-school and continue the ABA that we do at home).

The LEA agreed this, and we put our wishes in his EHCP. They agreed that he would go into reception (not Year 1, we said that if he wasn't ready for reception year, how would he be ready for Year 1?) in September 2017, which is what we're planning for now.