Do bright children still get moved up a year to start secondary school early?

1. Grade skipping (whole year acceleration) is legal and quite possible in all UK schools. Year group placement is at the headteacher's discretion. There is no statutory impediment, and no authorisation beyond the headteacher's decision is required, though frequently a strong recommendation from an external specialist such as an educational psychologist may be needed to spur the school to act.

2. It is much more common internationally than in the UK. I've seen estimates of 1% in the US and 2% in France as well as references to it being common in German-speaking countries.

3. It is rare in the UK. Through national groups for gifted children I've been in contact with many parents whose children have been accelerated in the UK, a handful by more than one year. Most are happy with the decision. Many of the children are/were outliers with extreme ability who were bored rigid in their chronological age group. But overall the incidence appears to be extremely low.

4. There is overwhelming evidence of the effectiveness of acceleration (both grade-skipping and other forms) as an intervention for gifted students (those in the top 2-3% of ability). See e.g.:
   https://nagc.org/page/acceleration
   https://www.accelerationinstitute.org/
   https://www.hoagiesgifted.org/acceleration.htm
   https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ880578.pdf
   https://www.giftedpage.org/acceleration/
   But "bright" students (e.g. those in the top 5-15% of ability, but not in the top 2%) do not need whole-year acceleration.

5. Much of the resistance to acceleration arises because the teachers in the UK are poorly informed about gifted education and unaware of international research which shows acceleration to be evidence-based best practice. This ignorance extends to headteachers who act as gatekeepers, refusing acceleration.

I was put up a year at state primary school - this was in the 1970s. It has nothing to recommend it long term.

I know of one child (late primary now) with a 1 September birthday who is a year up. The child had been at a fairly formal preschool and so had already basically done reception so was allowed to start in year 1 and has flourished. Not sure how it will work when secondary applications come round though. My mum was a year up in school and hated it as she was already summer born so was nearly two years younger than some. Not sure why that was thought to be a good idea.

No. Sats have to be done at certain ages it's no benefit to be moved up these days

No

I went up a year in a selective school. I don't think i realised that i was too young for the year until i got there! I suspect i would have been better off in the correct year to be honest but i was only slightly young as i'm autumn born.

It was done at my school too in the 80s. The bar for the exceptions kept moving so I was one at a mid-Oct birthday with a few more months younger than that. They eventually stopped it.

Having seen it in practice I think that there should only be a 12 month gap from oldest to youngest. With the deferrals now becoming more popular it's happening the other way round. Unless there are truly exceptional reasons I would get everyone to be in the "correct" year group.

I knew someone who moved up a year in a state primary, but it would have been in the mid 90s, so not recently. She was bright and had a September birthday. She stayed a year ahead all the way through and started university just after turning 18 (so in the September she turned 18).

Sorry, that should have been two girls.

Three girls had moved straight from Year 5 to Year 7 when my daughter started secondary school, which apparently was not unusual for that school but I don't know of any other schools where children have been moved up a year during primary school, although I know of a few cases where children have repeated a year.

I have never heard of this happening in either the state or private sector. I think it’s now recognised that this can be problematic for lots of different reasons and there are few benefits, if any.

This happened to one child in my DD's year at a state school but is definitely not the norm.

He was so bright that, even in the year ahead he was way ahead of everyone else in eveyr subject. DD got 2 marks more than him once in a test and I think she still considers this to be one of her finest achievements :)

From what I can gather he did struggle emotionally/socially when they got to about Year 10 though.

We had a few in the 1970s (well known indie school), I think they were all September/October birthdays. My DF was 2 years ahead in the 1930s and then had to spend 4 years in the 6th form as hexwas too young to sit the university entrance exam (or something!). It affected him socially (probably on the spectrum as well).

Happened to me - 11plus at 9 - I loathed it. Was always well up there academically but way behind socially. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone.

I went to a state grammar in late 90s / early noughties and it did happen. I think there were perhaps 10 or so in my Year who took the entrance exam and passed it in year 5 and basically they either skipped Y6 and came straight to grammar school or their primary school moved them up once they knew they had their place (the former was more likely as primary schools in our area actively tried to discourage grammar school applications and treated pupils badly who went down that route)

I can’t say I saw marked differences between the “year early” kids and the rest of us at the time but with the benefit of hindsight and an adults view on things, certainly one or two were noticeably quite immature. One also ended up not doing particularly well in GCSEs and a-levels so perhaps this was a factor for her too. On the other hand there were some amazingly bright kids who probably needed that push because they were more than capable and would have just been bored in primary.

I don’t think it happens much now. My daughter is at a private primary school, which is very high achieving, and I don’t know of a single pupil ever leaving there early to go to secondary. I looked at the local state grammar (not the one I went to) and their admissions policy states they must enter in the correct year for their age with no exceptions.

It was definitely a thing at some schools. At my school in the 1980s there were some pupils who, because they were autumn babies and then had also skipped a year in this fashion, were two years younger than others in the class. It wasn't great - it was a mixed school and 17 year old girls being in a class with 15 year old boys is not great. I was an autumn baby and put in for the entrance exam a year early and failed unsurprisingly as I'd been at a terrible primary school that believed in allowing children to teach themselves when they felt like it. My parents took me out of the terrible school - thank God - and I got in the following year and was always one of the oldest. I've was so relieved it worked out this way, I was very socially confident and could see it was WAY tougher for the younger ones who often just were too immature to cope and ended up in all sorts of difficulties. It was a daft system and I'm really glad it no longer appears to exist.

I was a year ahead and my much younger sibling went through 2 years ahead.

Academically it was fine. Socially and in mental health terms it was a total disaster. We'd have both been happier and ultimately achieved better if we'd been in the right year for age. There are plenty of ways to keep bright children entertained in cohort (and sibling still managed to almost get expelled - for hacking the school computer system, printing off the internal exam papers and making a tidy sum selling them iirc).

Parents didn't really mean to do it. I moved schools a lot as father was a CS and we were overseas etc. Youngest accidentally went to school at 2.5, and being very tall, just got moved up with everyone else as nobody really registered she was over 2 years younger than than the rest. Since she was generally top of the class, she just stayed in that cohort.

I know a lot of children who were in a similar position - including a few who finished A levels in their low teens. The only ones it worked out okay for were those who were Sept-Nov birthdays and a year ahead where there wasn't much of an age gap.

None of us would want our own children out of cohort.

I know of 2-3 cases over the last 10years or so in my DCs selective indie school. One lad was I think 2 years ahead. Got an Oxbridge place too.

My SIL was put up a year at school but I'm not sure at what point. Her birthday is at the beginning of October so she would have started secondary school aged 10. This was a private girls' school in the 1980s.

When I was at school in the 1990s there were two girls born on 1st September, but a year apart (so one was put up a year).

It seems to be more popular now for summer-born children to start a year later. In my daughter's Year 5 class I know of at least four children whose parents deferred them starting Reception. Some of them are older than some of the Year 6 children. Two of them will turn 12 during their summer term of primary school and the other two are August birthdays.

It happened in my state secondary school over forty years ago. At the time I did not think it was a good idea. Those moved up were fine academically but often struggled socially.

When my daughter started secondary school, two girls in her class moved up a year early. One of them was summer born in her correct year group and so was almost two years younger than the oldest when she started year 7. Both of the younger girls coped very well and there weren't any issues with bullying. It was quite common for a couple of girls to move up a year early. This was in a state grammar school.

My mum was a secondary teacher in a non-UK system where pushing kids up a year was very common, she was always very anti this. Frequently the children fell behind in later years and she felt they would have been better off schooling in their age group. Even if my child is very bright I would not want him to be pushed up a year.

My kids/stepkids went to seven private schools over the course of their school careers. I heard of two kids having to repeat a year, but none skipping a year. There were some very bright kids too (not extraordinary, but one girl taught herself and took a couple GCSEs on her own a year early, getting 9s. and got 9s in everything else plus did CCF, starred in the school musical etc etc and went on to get 4 A stars at A levels. Still didn't get into Oxbridge however).
Unless truly out of the norm exceptional, it wouldn't be in the best interest of the school would it, and even then I don't see the advantage for the child either. Super bright kids can teach themselves on their own if needing more of a challenge, and still remain in their peer group.

This has changed substantially over the past few decades. It’s now not the done thing to move a bright child up.