Children start school at 5, oh no they don't

Year one starts when the child is 5, reception starts the September after the child turns 4, but there is non-legal requirement to send them until the term after they turn 5 and if your child is a summer birthday you can defer start date.
Children in reception( F2) follow the early years curriculum the same as children in nursery, key stage one doesn't start until year 1.
If you think your child won't be ready to start reception in September you should hold him back, just tell his nursery you want to keep his place.

Technically, you can still leave it until just before your child turns 5 and then do an in-year application

This isn't the way it works, you apply for the place at the normal time then ask the school to hold it until they reach CSA. For summer born you can also ask to move them to the next school year (can't remember exactly what the process is there and they can say no).

My best friend was born on 31 August, at 23:20. She thrived at school, ended up as Head Girl and is now a Senior Matron!
Physically she was, and still is a little midget hahaha But she held her own haha

I agree just turned 4 is quite young. Don’t want England to get into the ridiculous situation in Scotland though we’re kids can be deferred well over their 5th birthday leading to frequent 19 months (theoretically 2 year age gap in schools) . Kids deferred for strategy and not for need. Mature for age girls 18 months older than smaller less mature boys in early years. It’s a couple disaster of the SNP making.

They started to discourage the starting later in the year (you can still do it) as it increased the decrepancy in results between autumn and summer borns.

Officially the "preschool" year (15hrs for 3yos) and "Reception" are Foundation stage 1&2. I get the feeling that if they were both called Nursery some parents would be happier even if there was no change in what was actually taught.

(Also Scotland starts later (4.5-6) but they only have 13 years instead of 14 years)

🤣🤣🤣

Whilst the afternoons might have been. The mornings certainly weren’t. Homework given almost immediately because if dc wasn’t literate by the beginning of year 2. All classroom learning stopped and dc had to muddle along, despite not being able to read or write. It made comprehension homework doubly challenging

Dd struggled but it clicked just before the start of year 2 but for DS reading didn’t click and I ended up taking him out of school altogether because he wasn’t learning anything and my bubbly 4 year old became a depressed 7 year old which despite years passing and life moving on, that depression is always in the background

I am in Scotland and I have 2 summer babies. Oldest start 2/3 after his 5th birthday and youngest started at 5 and a month. 2nd was February so he started at 4 1/2. If he had been struggling I would have held him back but nursery said he was fine. He started school and after 2 weeks I was asked to come in as he wasn't coping well and because he was so small, I make children that start school the height of 3 year olds, they thought he needed to go back to nursery for a year and I had a week to make the decision. I told him that the teachers thought he needed to go back to nursery just to catch up with the other kids. He gave me the look and I was worried what he would do. He went in and basically blackmailed the kids to be his friends as he said his Grampa was Santa Claus and he'd tell him not to bring them presents. My dad died look like Santa. School phoned me and said that I didn't need to make the decision as he was fine. Had just been not doing stuff cause he couldn't be bothered.

Unless you have a school intake every 3 months someone will always be the youngest and almost a year behind. I was reading a thread where someone complained if the July and August children deferred until the following year their May born child would be one of the youngest and that wasn’t fair. There was also a thread recently where someone complained their February born child was so much younger than the rest of the class and they were at a disadvantage being feb born. My best friend from school is July born. I’m December. She’s actually done so much better than me at education/work etc. Obviously all children are different and yes some children may not be “ready” for school at just turned 4. Some might not be at 5 either. But there has to be a cut off somewhere. As it stands you CAN wait until your child is 5. So just do that. Yes they might miss out on some stuff. But you need to weigh up the pros and cons for your own child.

But that's also fine. My 4 y 1m old DD absolutely thrived in school. No need to hold them back if its not needed.

I recently had a conversation with a mum who had moved to one of the countries where school starts much later, maybe Sweden or Denmark I'm not sure now, for her DHs family and work. She was hoping that there would be a strong community of SAHMs and her children would thrive spending longer with her doing home and community based activities before starting school at age 7. What she actually found was that everyone's kid is in nursery/pre school full time and she had no activities to take them to, the parks were empty all day and she ended up putting them in childcare like everyone else and returning to the UK ASAP.

My August born was deferred and started at 5. Best decision for her (no SEN) my ds was 4.8 so nearly five- he was ready. Go on your child only.

Which is fine until you consider that those who are born late August are 4y 1w when they start and have a full year before turning 5.

My DD was really ready and excited to go to school at 4. She loved Reception and looks back very fondly to when 'they played all day'. They uploaded photos daily onto an app, like nursery, so you could see what they'd been doing.

Year 1 can be a difficult transintion, but her school is careful in selecting very caring Yr1 teachers that still treat them like small children. Year 2 was a lot more disciplined, with some challenging behaviour becoming apparent in some of the children and a stricter teaching style. Children have more expectations placed upon them on terms of conduct, routine etc.

It's different for all children and all schools are different. It's a case of selecting the right one for your child.

I am in Ireland and my daughter started school at 5 years 4 months. School day is also a lot shorter (.8:40 -1:20 ) and holidays longer 9 weeks in Summer rather than 6 (agreat for kids tough for parents). I am a big fan of later starts similar to Germany/ Scandinavia as it allows kids to be kids . I amnt a fan of going to secondary at 10 and big exams so early but appreciate that its a different education set up.

I have never heard of parents regretting sending their children to school later.

I had July and August born children. My son in July was not ready and my August born daughter might have managed but I decided to home ed them both for infant school (up til Y3). They only went back because I split with their dad and had two younger children to care for too. They did fine at school from that point and now young adults doing well for themselves. The younger two went through the school system but it was still staggered start at that time so it worked out fine. They went the term they turned 5.

I actually found the teen years harder with them being youngest in their year group as they weren’t quite as mature to settle down to GCSE study, whereas the following year at college they were much more focused and they also found it hard when their friends could start driving in September but they couldn’t until the following July/August.

There hasn’t been any change in law. It’s just most parents don’t take up their right to start at CSA. If all parents did, then we’d go back to this system.

That’s a common misapprehension about child development. There are skills children can learn such as emotional regulation (although many of these are as well or better learnt at home). But many areas of development are about maturity. For example you don’t help your newborn baby to be good at making friends by putting them next to lots of newborns. You ensure they develop a strong attachment to their primary caregiver. Some children won’t be developmentally ready at 4 and no amount of practice will help. In fact, it just teaches them they can’t do things or worse, are bad. Whereas a year later they might be able to.

I live in the UK (Scotland) and my DD started school at 5 1/2. You can defer and get a full extra year funded nursery if the child is still 4 in August, even if they are turning 5 in the next month or so but that’s obviously parental choice.

You can’t seriously have thought that all children start school on or about their 5th birthday.

What did you think the big September first day at school fuss was about?

I was about to post that this is talking about England not Uk as Scotland has different rules. Then I spotted @dementedpixie had already done it. Think they meant to say child has to be 5 by February though!

Yes, I'm the same age as you - started reception after Easter, the term during which I'd turn 5.

Well yes and no. If you have a summer born you can ensure they start at 5 by deferring (definitely do this!) and obviously an autumn born child will be almost 5. I have a spring born child and sent them part time until CSA (which is everyone’s legal right).
I think part of the issue is that British parents (I am British too) and generally very worried about doing anything outside of the norm even when all the available evidence says it would be beneficial. You don’t actually have to send a 4 year to school at all. They can all start at CSA (tern after they start 5). So a child born in October could not start until January etc.

I’ve not heard anyone say kids start school at 5, always 4. Yes some are just 4 and others nearly 5 but there will always be an oldest an a youngest in the year.

Lots of children are ready at 4 (some older ones at 3 even) but for those who aren’t it’s perfectly reasonable to start them later. I have also seen some children though who were thought of as ‘not ready’ actually thrive in school, maybe being with the slightly older ones which is different to nursery where they are the oldest themselves?

Every child is different and you know your own child but I don’t think you can base it on age alone.

Summer borns starting at CSA are not a year older than all their classmates though are they? If they were born in July or August they will be with children who are born from September onwards of the same year making them just weeks older than some of their peers.

The op said her child was out of nappies etc.