Primary school admissions - MNHQ needs your thoughts!

There is so much beyond reception, year 1, SATs, GCSEs, and the evidence suggests otherwise almostapril.

The summer borns do fine and often better than older classmates

DfE "Education by the month of birth" report and IFS on summer born children and when to start school report contradict you Almostapril But who cares about research when you have your own anecdote, right?

April to August? That is 5/12th of the year. Surely you don't think we should have half the year eligible for deferral.

Tiggy is right in that all the issues stem from shortage of places. Over subscription criteria that were rarely used before are now replied upon totally in some areas.
I am a regular on the education boards even if I name change. The summer born issue comes up occasionally but most seem to think that it's not a huge issue for most and reception is very very play based. It's about getting them ready for yr1
This thread does seem to have been taken over by the summer born campaigners. I stand by my previous comment. We are at a huge school. The summer borns do fine and often better than older classmates

Well, guys, I think you, admissions boards regulars, will have to deal with a lot more summer born issues because since last year they are a lot more in the press... because everybody with children born in April-August are potentially affected and because the advice has changed twice since less than a year and the issue was a lot in the media.

I have a dd who will turn 3 in June and it is very close topic for us. Sorry for disturbing your cosy nest with only faith/siblings/whatever issues to deal with up to now.

I don't usually post on summer born admissions in threads in the education sections because in addition to the concerns about distance, faith schools and so on we have had to contend with an admissions maze with a different and unclear process and timescale and no small degree of scepticism and patronising Qs and "reassurance" from authorities and heads.

Parents wanting to delay entry to reception for a year are in the minority on MN: when it is raised there are a lot of anecdotes about DC who were or are fine in the usual year group, "someone has to be the youngest", denial of any evidence of problems for someof these DC, implied accusations of pushyness and so on.

in RL it's not something I talk about if can avoid it as get similar comments. although more subtle than MN where people don't pull their punches!

ArcheryAnnie
At the beginning of this thread, (I appreciate this was many many comments ago) I did state that I can see how non faith parents feel that Catholic Schools are unfair.
My annoyance is that whenever this conversation comes up it is almost ALWAYS Catholic Schools that get dragged through the mud, no one ever seems to mention Jewish or Muslim schools that are state funded, no one ever seems to be in a big rush to state how unfair they are. That was my main point, although did want to point out that accepting 50% non faith children into a Catholic School just wouldn't work.
Also this stereotype that all Catholic Schools are full of the white MC is utter rubbish, so I wanted to inform these people (who obviously have never stepped foot in a Catholic Church or School) that this is simply not true.

Tiggy - I tell a lie. I've just checked the website and they've started publishing it as of this year - going back to 2012. In 2012 I was told I'd need to do a FOI for the information. And last year they definitely didn't publish as I tried to look what had happened in our year out of interest.

I only knew one person who had an issue with a summer born child. Literally born in the last week of August. She deferred until January and her child started school then.

As you say there seem to be a different spread of concerns if you view the threads in general. Still I dare say MNHQ can figure out first posts from the slightly longer standing posters.

I confess my DS went all through primary without me ever having heard of the "problem" with summerborns. I didn't even know "summerborns" was a noun, now.

I would totally agree with that Tiggy. And mostly using an InitialSurname username format that isn't common on MN. I hope MNHQ take note of that when deciding what to do with the information on this thread.

The biggest admission issue round by me currently is secrecy - the LA don't voluntarily publish details of furthest child admitted on distance.

For the next few years, I predict it being siblings as two very good schools have taken bulge classes in the last couple of years and it's going to send sibling admissions haywire from this admission round onwards.

Faith schools are a fairly minor issue (one failing one. One popular one, but not a massive issue).

Admission arrangements are supposed to be clear, fair and objective, so that parents can look at a set of arrangements and understand easily how places for a school will be allocated.

This is not always the case, some admission arrangements are extremely complicated.

It does not help when authorities ignore communications, refuse to answer reasonable questions, knowingly give advice which is misleading, incorrect and inadequate, ignore valid advice, overrule considerations which would produce an uncomfortable result for them (i.e would rather force a child into Y1 upon reaching Compulsory School Age against parents wishes and supplied 'evidence' in favour of 'targeted measures' at cost), have no clear procedures in places and a cavalier disregard of guidance. Many admission authorities appear to be guilty of maladministration, yet there is little governance or accountability other than parents taking them to task by for instance challenging them, complaints to the LGO or making a referral to the OSA).

There needs to be much more accountability.

SweetieXPie the presence of Catholic schools completely distorts the local provision. Nondenominational schools aren't being built fast enough because on paper we have close to enough places - the problem is we can't access those places.

If a specialised church education away from non-Catholics is so important to you, why don't you pay for private provision of that? Why should your children be entitled to a taxpayer-funded education that isn't available to other children?

We have had huge issues with our LA (Merton).

We requested that our summer born boy (29th Aug plus he was 2 months premature) started Reception at CSA. Our request has been declined and have been told he will have to skip reception and start in Year 1!

What is the point in having a CSA of 5 and then not letting children join the start of their education, i.e. Reception year if thought best for the child by the parents?

It would be great to think that parents could opt for a reception place at CSA without having to fight for it through this bureaucratic post code lottery that goes on in LAs.

It's a shame we can't be more in line with the majority of Europe and start children at 6 & 7.

I agree with tiggy that the lack of enough places in some areas is appalling. I also think however the perception that we have a choice is a misnomer. For most of us growing up we were sent to the school that was nearest. The idea being that all schools were the same. For the record I went to a faith school which was about a mile from my home passing three schools on my way. There was no perception that the school that I attended was good in fact it had quite the opposite reputation because it was full of Irish catholics (think 1960s and 1970s why this was a problem). I like my parents chose to send my dc to a faith school not because I am a sharp elbowed mc mum but because I wanted my child to receive an education which encompasses my belief system.
However now we have league tables and irrespective of its status parents try to get their children into the best school for their child which is totally understandable.
Despite the fact that dd school when she started in reception had an average rating and then slipped into needs improvement I received a torrent of indignation from people who had failed to get their dc into the school because despite its ofsted report the perception was that it was the best school in the area.
Surely the best way of ensuring that school allocation is equitable is ensuring that all the schools provide the same high standard of education regardless of where the school is or the cohort that attends it.

I did say hypothetically.

Also, maybe I am overly suspicious here, but there are loads of posts from people who have never posted in that user name before and are posting on the issue of summer borns.

This is meant to be MNers thoughts. Are you all name changing (weirdly to InitialSurname names) or has some form of claxon gone out over on the summerborns website?

(I know some of you are regulars BTW. Not commenting on you.).

"Hypothetically, I would be happy for my child to be the youngest in the year so long as they started reception year at compulsory school age."

How could that ever happen?

My concerns also lie with the 'summer born issue'. I believe that starting children in formal education too young is detrimental to their overall development. I think it is a disgrace that the Schools Admission Code allows individial schools and authorities in England to make any child starting school at compulsory school age miss a whole year of school.

I would also like to stress that this issue is about school readiness of the individual child. It is not about wanting to ensure my child is not the youngest in the year. It is about ensuring that my child is ready to benefit from formal education. Hypothetically, I would be happy for my child to be the youngest in the year so long as they started reception year at compulsory school age.

I would just like to weigh in on whoever said Y1 is first year of education, technically. I am yet to find someone (edu professional or otherwise) who would claim YR is not of absolute crucial importance. More importantly - if we are forced to start our child at CSA in Y1 (which seems likely), the likelihood of being allocated a sub-standard school is extremely high. Or even, as a very 'helpful' admissions officer pointed out: we are risking being left without a place all together - seeing Y1s will be full of - you guessed it - kids from YR. This whole process is making me want to quit my job and home educate (radical, I know) until at least such time when I will feel my child is emotionally ready to handle 30+ classrooms and a system that clearly doesn't put the kids first.

tiggytape

Interesting that you fail to mention that towards the end of the article where you quote Cllr MacLaren it highlights how much Cllr Maclaren has come under fire for her comments and that there is NO EVIDENCE to back her claims a 'delayed' start has no benefits.

This article is outdated anyway. We are not debating here the school starting age (which I wholeheartedly agree should be later) but we are debating the admissions process.

The admissions process for summerborns wanting to start at CSAge is horrendous, stressful and unfair.

The Local Authority were very unclear on the guidelines for summerborns, as were the schools. Policies were outdated and not clear.