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

It’s still your choice. Just remember though, if you keep your children out of school until they’ve turned 5, then some of their peers will naturally be ahead with school expectations. These may be as minor as sitting still on their carpet place but their peers will have already been doing that for a year, whereas your child needs to learn it.

In the UK?
In a state school?

Starting reception from nursery has felt like such a non-issue in this house that I'm finding it hard to relate. But then my 4 year old daughters nursery was just in the building next door to reception. The hours are the same, the only difference has been now wearing the uniform really. I don't think there is much difference in the things they are doing honestly, they started a little phonics and maths in their play at the nursery and its carrying on.

The term is 'rising 5'.
And it's up to you to get your child school ready. You need to potty train and ditch baby bottles.

No, it was school. This was in the 1980s (he is 46 next month). He only did mornings for the first term. The class he went into might well be called 'pre-school' nowadays, it wasn't back then and they had no nursery. It was lovely, a very happy place. None of the children were just out of nappies or bottles, they were all three, going on four during that school year. I'm sure it wouldn't matter for a nursery but that's a different environment.

To be fair, in other countries this Reception to end of Year 2 stage also exists, just isn't called 'school' but 'pre-school'. It was the 'Infants'.

In other countries, kids start 'school' at 7, in Year 3.

This was ended by class size limits, and funding being per child. So the school budgets and plans on 30 places in reception, but if a child doesn’t start until January, the school doesn’t get the funding for that place until they start. The teacher still has to be paid if they’ve got 25 or 30 in their class. Plus schools when in higher birth rate areas are not allowed to leave empty spaces if other parents apply for a place, they can’t turn them down because they know another family will be sending their child in 4 months time. But similarly, if there’s already 30 in the class, they aren’t allowed to take in another child at January/Easter because they are now full.

Technically, you can still leave it until just before your child turns 5 and then do an in-year application, and in areas with low birth rates this would probably be fine- 2 “outstanding” local primary schools near us have spaces in reception and year 1, when 10 years ago parents were pushing up house prices on roads within 1/2 mile from them and then still only just getting places. Parents applying this year just before Christmas would therefore get a place to start in January, it’s a gamble though and I’m not a gambler!!

padronpepper

In Ireland too and now they lean on taking the older kids first, ie well over five. Teachers have always said to me there’s a huge difference between 4 and 5 and they wished they’d make over 5 mandatory (two of my children were age 4 and 7/9 months)

My child had a bit of a wobble at the start of year 1, but in reception he was absolutely fine because it was very play based learning. They didn't even have desks it was basically more nursery and then year 1 shocked him a bit. Don't panic!

Be aware that if you hold him back, he will most likely start school in year 1 and skip reception. This happened to the SEN children I worked with, who went into mainstream schools. I then thought, what was the point? Surely that's worse?

They’ll cope. It’s play based and sets them up for Y1 nicely.

It must be awkward being a year older than your classmates all schooling, hitting puberty etc, and then having to answer questions about why you were held back.

Just send them in at a normal time, which is 4.

They won’t get government funded hours once he turns five, but I guess the op would be able to pay fees if that’s her choice. They don’t have to keep him there, though. They can say no.

He should have been off bottles for 3 years. My 3 were in pre prep at 2 1/2 wearing uniform and doing semi structured activities in between lots of free play. Twins had a delay from prematurity. It suited them so well and helped developmentally.

School in reception is generally brilliant for children.

I think there’s a lot of needless hand wringing about this. In nearly every country, four year olds are in some sort of educational setting, whether that’s kindergarten or nursery or whatever. Yes, it’s school but it’s still the EYFS - it isn’t too severe a regime.

And for some reason when this is discussed on here it’s as if the only birthdays are September and October or July and august, as if the only extremes are children on the cusp of turning five and barely turned four, when actually there will be plenty of birthdays between November and June!

Well arnt you a wonderful parent 🙄
As the parent of an actual disabled child
I can tell you that being a toilet trained a full year before a child starts school doesn't indicate special needs.

We don’t have reception in Scotland & the cut off dates are different from England too. So dc are slightly older with the youngest being those born in Feb who are 4.5. It is quite easy here to defer younger dc. Just turned 4 seems very young.

Well maybe you should read the thread and see that the Ops child is out of nappies so isn't delayed
There is a full 12 months before they start school and am awful lot can happen in 12 months
My nearly 19 was 3 yrs 2 months before he was reliably toilet trained
He had no accidents after that
He was out of nappies before he started nursery
Does it really matter if some kids a few months later than average?

It feels like youre doing this because of the wrap around care concerns more than anything.

Don't hold them back. At least see how they go. If you hold them back they will have the awkwardness of turning 1 year older than all their peers at school and might resent you for it.

My niece didnt seem ready for school, but when year 6 came about - she was so mature and ready for secondary school - I couldn't imagine having to hold her back another year longer!

I’m not in UK, but kids where I am can start first possible year of school anytime between 4y5m and 6y2m, depending on what month they were born and when parents want to send. I think it’s really good to have that flexibility to suit individual kids.

The only people this doesn’t really suit are the first year of school teachers who have the unenviable task of managing a group of kids with what is a really wide age range at that stage of development. Many parents now choose to hold their kids back so they will be the ‘advanced ones who do the best’ in first year of school, and that does hold true when the kids start school. However, after 4 years at school it evens out so that performance is based on natural ability rather than age, that’s what the teachers in our school system say the studies show (have not read whatever these are myself so just going by what our teachers say), but anecdotally this is what we have seen with all of ours going through, so seems as though it’s right.

We had our kids start at 4.5years and 6yrs and at ages inbetween and there is no better/worse, just what suits individual kids best.

@InMyShowgirlEra I assumed there was some sort of issue with the child too.

My DCs stopped bottles around 12 months and we’re potty trained by 2 1/2 which I thought was pretty normal. So to be having bottles and barely out of nappies approaching school age seems unusual.

Mine are born in May and mid July. Both were absolutely fine starting at 4, DS was 4 years and 6 weeks and was definitely ready for school, he would have been so bored with another year at nursery.

It depends on the child but perhaps you should consider why you think of your DC as a baby when he has gone through toddler hood and is now a preschooler? I can’t imagine giving either of mine a bottle at 3, they would have been disgusted as they each had their preferred plastic glasses by then and bottles were for babies.

HRRFT but always surprised and disappointed how many children are so behind these days, setting aside SEN. What has led to this extended babyhood? Toilet training, communication, dressing, eating and drinking, should all be set way before 4 years old. Delaying school doesn't mean these like skills are also delayed. Parents and nurseries should already have set these skills much earlier on.

Agreed both my children were 5 when they started school in Scotland in primary one. No reception classes here.

OP’s post would have been better if it was worded about England and Wales

there’s no such thing as a ‘UK’ education system.

I’m not sure why there’s a feeling that children will resent having started school at CSA when they get older. Our son is now in secondary education and it’s never been an issue for him. It’s certainly never been a regret for us. He’s thrived at all stages of his school life so far.

I'm nearly 52 when I was in reception back in the late 70,s we had three intakes for reception depending on birthdays, so you could start in September , after Xmas or after Easter.

I'm picking senior school places for my 10yo - it doesn't get any easier/better!