Hello,
My DD is due to go to secondary next year but we are thinking of holding her back to repeat year 6. I wondered if anyone had any thoughts or experience to share to help me decide whether this would be appropriate in our case or if this could backfire and why, as it is hard to judge and there is no research that seems to focus on similar children that I can find (i.e not with special needs or disadvantaged backgrounds confounding the issue, summer borns specifically, uk education system, prematurity, or some combination of those!). She has an early august birthday but was 8 weeks premature, so should be an autumn born in the year below. I guess my major concern is one of fairness and I do think that she is a bright in some areas/average (as opposed to gifted) girl compared to age matched friends. I am concerned she is being somewhat disadvantaged by a school system that compares her to the standards expected of a child a year older, and I'm sure she isn't alone in that.
What I do wonder is if an average october child from the year below had started school in her year would they thrive and be average in that year or struggle to meet the standards? In other words would she still be a year behind for a reason other than developmental readiness and the complexity of the work versus her age, or is it due to something like her speed at acquiring the new content compared to her classmates?
She has been consistently 1 year to 6 months (the gap has narrowed a bit recently) behind her peers since the day she started. She has been assessed as having no special needs, no learning disabilities, no IQ test given that I'm aware of so no idea about that. It appears that she is working at her own developmental level and she is 'slower' than her classmates (except in reading, vocabulary and creative skills). So she doesn't really get extra support, and I worry being younger and consistently behind (and labeled as an underachiever) won't translate to career and exam success, and it seems a bit unfair if this is not due to learning disabilities but just being younger. Is she 'slow' because she is compared to someone born over a year sooner than her? Or is it a problem with her? I have no idea. I have been often told if she was in the year below she'd be well ahead for reading, and solidly average for maths, which would be fairly normal for what should have been a early october baby. Instead she is on bottom tables, except in reading where she is 'average', grouped with the naughty children and as she said 'is thick'. Her self esteem is rock bottom and ALL her friends are in the year below anyway, plus one summer born boy; she just prefers their play. The other children tease her and call her 'baby' (she is also small for her age.) I would assume intellectually she is fine, she seems average with good verbal intelligence, or surely she would be falling further behind rather than staying solidly where she has been for years compared to her cohort? (We have tried two different state schools but it made no difference to her progress despite one being ofsted outstanding, although moving school perhaps holds them back a little to begin with).
I worry that if she sits GCSEs in her current year group she will achieve Ds and maybe Cs, that could have been Cs and Bs or better if she had been allowed to follow her own timetable of meeting all the standards 6 months/a year behind her non premature (or naturally more gifted) classmates. She might even go to university. It just feels like if I put her down she has more chance of a fairer outcome, whether that materialises or not. Or am I hoping for something unlikely or counter intuitively not the case?
She's currently in the state sector but we are thinking of going private (i.e private juniors then to private secondary) as that's likely the only option to repeat a year and gives her a fresh start. For what it is worth her state school teacher supports the idea of putting her down a year simply because her progress has been so consistent and normal, but consistently behind in everything except reading where she is now solidly average. I know some children have to be 'slower', but I feel that really shouldn't be just because of when they were born versus the 'age appropriate' (or not in this case) standards they are judged against, and I suppose variations in teaching quality make a difference. I suppose I feel that exam performance should be a factor of their IQ and motivation, since exams change lives and are meant to be meritocratic, rather than relative age to the other test takers. I'm worried she won't be ready for GCSEs in the year she is expected to take them (remaining consistently behind for whatever reason) and needs the extra year to do her best (or even pass!). I'm all for age standardizing tests but that doesn't happen outside of 11+ entry, so that being a fantasy, repeating a year seems more practical?
She is apparently not bothered if she repeats as she typically makes her best friends in the year below (although it's difficult to tell if she has thought it through.)
Please or to access all these features
Please
or
to access all these features
Connect with other parents whose children are starting secondary school on this forum.
Secondary education
Advice on dd repeating year 6 (premature late summer born)
27 replies
mamamummata · 04/10/2018 03:03
OP posts:
Soursprout ·
04/10/2018 07:28
This reply has been deleted
Message withdrawn at poster's request.
Don’t want to miss threads like this?
Weekly
Sign up to our weekly round up and get all the best threads sent straight to your inbox!
Log in to update your newsletter preferences.
You've subscribed!
Please create an account
To comment on this thread you need to create a Mumsnet account.