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Original poster

Scotland - did you defer your dd/ds and what impact has this had in secondary?

27 replies

ificouldbeacamera · 17/01/2012 14:00

Hi there,
I'm trying to decide whether or not to defer ds who turned 4 right at the end of December. I've done a lot of research into it, and thought about it constantly - still can't decide. I think he would probably be ok in P1 and maybe throughout primary - nursery have said he's probably ready, but my concern really is beyond that eg how will he cope in secondary if he's one of the youngest children, and also how will this impact on sitting S grades effectively nearly a year younger than some children in the class.

I'd love to hear anyone's experiences of deferring/not deferring and how this has impacted (hard to quantify, I know) on their dc's experiences at secondary.
thanks

OP posts:
carrotsandcelery · 18/01/2012 13:42

I haven't got a Secondary aged child but I taught in Secondary Schools for many years.

My feeling is that children experiment as a year group generally, so when the smoking issue rears its head, or other similar decisions, if the child has deferred then they are a little bit older than they might have been if they hadn't, when they make the decision. Does that make sense?

I also found that when I had a streamed class which was struggling they usually had a larger than normal portion of younger students in them.

However, there was an article or Radio Scotland last week saying that our perceptions of pupils coping better if they are older were doubtful. I will see if I can find a link to it.

PurpleFrog · 18/01/2012 13:36

My dd is halfway through S2. She has a January birthday and started in P1 when she was 5. I had some regrets in the early years as she ended up in the younger half of composite classes and some of the children who were younger than her that she knew from outside school were in the older half. That caused some problems.

Now that she is at Secondary I am glad that she is more mature. However, my biggest worry is that she is now in the year that will be the first to sit the new exams for Curriculum for Excellence. Standard Grades are going out, so your ds will not sit them a year younger than some of his classmates! In theory children will have more opportunity to sit the new exams in different subjects at different levels according to their individual abilities. But what these exams will be like and whether she will end up being disadvantaged compared to the year above her, I do not know.....