Not to send my child to reception year?

@valensiwalensi it's not massively different at all in many many cases. Full days at a private nursery are often a lot longer than at school for a start. Maybe your nursery is more informal and your Reception class more formal than most.

Why wouldn't you want to send them after all it's a little more advanced than nursery. My lo loves it. They play, get fresh air, go to trips, go to Forrest school and slowly dip their toes in phonics, maths, P.E, Music and understanding the world. My lo is going to struggle in year 1 though so I would hate it if he jumped from nursery to year 1 without doing the warm up in reception.

I think most of this will have been covered but depending on where you live your child may struggle to get into your local school if you don’t apply for them to start in reception.
there was one child that started straight into year 1 in my DS’s class. She really struggled and needed separate teaching to get her up to speed as she had missed the reception learning. It could be that a lot of this could be taught at home but you’d need to find out what needed teaching so they aren’t disadvantaged.
Some things I think would be more difficult to replicate as it is learning about the routines at school and how to interact with peers.
my DD is born at the end of August and started school in September just after she turned 4. She has always thrived at school and enjoyed it.

I would recommend joining the " flexible school admissions for summer borns" group on Facebook. We deferred my summer born DC so they started reception a year later following their advice. This is legally possible for anyone and very common in most other countries.
I would not recommend allowing your child to miss out on their reception experience although this is also legally possible.

If you don’t send them they won’t keep the place , you may not get the school you want or nearby as they won’t just keep an empty space for you if over subscribed. Also your child will miss making friends it may or may not be harder for them
although young children often make. Friends quickly
the school day tends to be 9-3pm ish

DS1 is a November baby so he’ll be a few months shy of 5 when he starts in September. But he can’t wait to go!

Whilst it is mostly learning through play…to say they don’t learn a lot of horrendously wrong!! An expectation at the end for reception is that they can write a sentence independently- there is a hell of a lot of work that goes into teaching that, and that’s just one example!

OP, your child’s reception year sets up A LOT of the groundwork for your child’s future in school. Reading, writing, maths skills (which isn’t just counting - it’s having a deep understanding of numbers to 10 - composition, cardinality, patterns of counting!) This isn’t all we do of course but miss these…unless you can confidently say you could teach your child these yourself to the he same standard… it’s likely your child will be behind when they go into year 1!

Presumably because OP isn't from the UK and children starting formal education at this age is strange to her.

Yep. It's based on the learning authority's decision. In our case all our primary schools are governed by the local authority so it was their decision.

They've approved my eldest who theoretically should have started last year, but who will be starting Reception in this coming September.

My youngest isn't school aged yet, but we'll be making the same application for him and have no reason to believe they could/would deny it.

Yes I think that's true. Only 1, possibly 2 kids in any one school, and only in maybe 10-15% of schools in a county? But it's becoming increasingly more known-about and therefore the numbers are going up each year.

Generally 8:30ish until 15:15ish.

I think you have a slightly incorrect idea of reception. It's not that different to nursery really. Slightly more structured, and more learning, but very play based. My DD is in reception and they have a lot of "independent learning" (aka free play).

What's your plan? Leave your child in nursery for the extra year and then go straight to year 1? They'd miss out on the transition stage of reception, which is halfway between the two, so I don't think they'd benefit. Not very many people skip reception all together.

@Curiosity101 have you checked with your planned schools? Depending on area, some schools will not allow late starters to begin with reception. I would be very sure of that before I delayed them.

was it therefore a year sooner than he'd be expected to attend, or are children expected to attend from the September following their 4th birthday despite it not being mandatory until the term after their 5th birthday?

It is very much the norm in the uk to begin from the September after your fourth birthday. While its talked about a lot on here, in RL deferral is rare.

Move to Scotland most kids start at 5 here . I agree with you , even that is early .

The other issue is getting a school place. If you keep your child back, they are not obliged to hold a place for you, so you may end up in a different school miles from home, wherever there is space

It’s massively different - we attend private nursery full time. She doesn’t have to participate in any adult led activity if she doesn’t want to. It doesn’t matter what time I drop her off or pick her up. We can take as much time off as we like without worrying about attendance.

Mine is in reception. He is also autistic with adhd so his attention span lasts as long as a fart in breeze.

He's reading pretty much fluently. He's on level 7 reading books and it just blows my mind.

Maths - instant recall for things like number bonds, doubling etc 0-20. 2D, 3D shapes, odd/even numbers. Understanding of numbers 100+

Writing in sentences with capital letters, full stops etc.

He's been to museums, a theatre, a farm trip, the supermarket, multiple trips to the library and church.

He's performed in the nativity and another show thing they did. He's sung on stage at the Easter celebration and something else at church (can't keep up!)

And I didn't think he was ready for school at all

Radiogagaradiogoogoo my dc is also late aug and exactly the same. Had a great reception year.

If they were born after April you can request admission to reception at CSA. That’s what we’ve done. Reception is important but equally DD is not ready.

My summer born started Reception in the summer term - we were moving house and decided not to start elsewhere and move.

I taught her to read myself before starting. I’m quite glad she missed most of the phonics teaching! I’m not really a fan of it.

She made friends quickly, and got the idea of the routine pretty much straight away.

There was no issue about catching up, she just caught up no bother, because she was ready for school, being that bit older.

I think she benefited lots from a relaxed start. She’s my youngest, but if I had another, I’d maybe do the same, even if I wasn’t moving house.

I’m relieved I didn’t defer her and have her do the whole Reception year. She’s in high school now and would hate to be in the “immature” year below.

Not everyone is the same. Make the decision based on the child in front of you.

@RadioGaGaRadioGooGoo This is a genuine question to help me get my head around compulsory school age - as a late August baby, did your child technically go to school a whole year sooner than was compulsory?

And was it therefore a year sooner than he'd be expected to attend, or are children expected to attend from the September following their 4th birthday despite it not being mandatory until the term after their 5th birthday? I find it tricky to get my head around! Thank you.

How are you ok with your child going to nursery full but not starting Reception? That doesn't make any sense to me as it won't be much different.

When is your DC's birthday OP? If they are after April 1st you can delay them so they start reception a year later - all the benefits of being that bit older but still getting the full reception education which is such a crucial year to start their learning journey.

If they are born earlier in the year you can keep them in nursery until the January or the April but they'll have to start in the middle of the year and miss out on some phonics/number knowledge and friendship making etc. Not necessarily the end of the world but I think reception has enough value to want your child to experience all of it, even if you think they're 'too young' (I don't disagree with you there but it is what it is).

My parents didn't apply for me to start school in time so I ended up skipping reception and going straight into Y1. I really struggled with maths all the way through school and right up until I took my GCSEs. I was a summer born too. Maybe starting in the right year group wouldn't have made a difference anyway, and I'm sure there are lots of kids who can catch up, maths was the only subject I really struggled with. But I would never purposely make my child skip a whole school year. There is a big jump from YR to Y1 anyway without them missing out a whole year. my ds2 is just coming to the end of y1 and said last September "mummy it's just learning now, no playing!" (An exaggeration I'm sure)

Both of my children were 4 when they started reception and honestly I think they needed it. It teaches them how to behave in a school whilst still having fun