Delaying reception start by 1 year - Any advice?

[shithebed]

My daughter is due to start reception this September. She is an August born child and I have just made the online application with the local authority to register her for reception.

However, while she is a very bright child I have second thoughts. I do not think she is ready for school yet. She is basically a baby compared to her peers.

The difference between her and someone who is 11 months older than her is huge. She currently goes to a nursery attached to a school and hates going "to school", she begs me every morning to let her stay at home, etc.

I believe the nursery teachers are doing their best but she might feel out of place because she's so much younger than everyone else.

I'm getting very stressed about her starting school with the wrong mind set, if she is not ready she will hate it, will not be able to integrate well and will feel inappropriate.

I don't want her to feel she is not good enough (because she doesn't match her peers developmentally).

Is it too late to try to delay it by 1 year? I don't mean a term, I mean a September 2020 start. And what do I have to do, where do I start?

My August born son started school when he was just 4. He is bright too. I was really worried, but it was the best thing for him as he flourished, and picked up reading very quickly which meant he could read all the “information books” for himself, as much as he liked. Although I was worried he’d struggle, in reality he was quickly achieving beyond expectations despite his age. And to be honest, reception is just like nursery with a bit of phonics/maths thrown in.

Two August children here. I think delaying their start would have been MUCH worse than just sending them in their correct year group. Reception is a lovely transition year where it's largely play based.
You risk, at some point your child having to effectively make up an entire year. Stop projecting your own fears and send them at the correct time.

@robrobinson no you don't - they are not forced up a year at any point. Parents project their own fears every day - tbat's exactly what being a parent means.
There are exceptions to every rule but the research shows summerborns start behind their peers and never catch up.
Google The Summerborn Effect

Or Gov briefing doc 07272 Summer-born children : starting school

I'm a teacher in an infant school. I've just requested deferred entry for my August born DS.

Some pp seem to be confusing the issue. It's not a question of whether she should start at 4 or 5. Legally you don't need to send her until she is 5. It's a question of whether she should be admitted into Reception or Year 1 when she starts school at 5.

You need to emphasise that you have made the decision to not send her to school until she reaches Compulsory School Age (5) and it is in her best interests to be admitted outside her normal year group (I.e. into Reception rather than year 1) when she starts school.

You need to speak to the head teachers of your preferred schools and get their agreement, as the LEA take head teacher's views into account.

Feel free to pm me if you have any questions.

"Not all schools make them miss receptoon. They just start reception a year later"

What happens when they reach secondary school age? Do they miss year 6 or start secondary school at 12?

What happens when they reach secondary school age? Do they miss year 6 or start secondary school at 12?

It's not clear. My daughter's school (a secondary) only takes them if they miss year six. But it's an academy. Not all are the same.

Having just looked at the Department of Education research someone above mentioned showing summerborn are disadvantaged even if you delay them it's really not very solid.

They compare summer born children (for that year across possibly the whole country, they don't say) against a small sample (758) of children who had delayed admission. As far as I can tell, they haven't controlled for differences in make up of the 2 samples like demographics. They also have a parent survey suggesting 50% had delayed based on preschool / nursery advice and 40% of children who delayed had a medical / developmental delay - much higher than in the normal summer born population but they haven't controlled for this either (other than excluding pupils with a SEN flag in both reception and year 1). With that many holes in it it doesn't show anything!

I'm September born but lived in a country where Sept to Dec was flexible and was the 2nd youngest in my year. Academically I was fine, but like others have said the social side i did struggle more and I'd consider delaying an August born child if it were possible.

@teddyreddy ... www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/education/2018/nov/21/summer-born-pupils-disadvantaged-throughout-primary-school-study

1.5 mliom results compared

@boydandbuses this may well be the case with children out of cohort under other circumstances but summerborns fall under different admissions policies. No summerborn out of cohort has reached Secondary yet but i contacted all 7 in my area and all said if they start school out of cohort they stay with that group.

11+ exam in our area is also unaffected.

No child starts Secondary at 12. The 11 year old September born would usually be oldest in their year. The oldest posdible pit of cohort Summerborn would also be 11 and 5 months

@boysandbuses apogies i mangled your moniker!

My August born DS started reception having only just turned four. At his primary they split the year into 2 classes based in age so he was with quite a few summer born kids. He is very academic but this wasn't apparent until yr 5. He has OCD and anxiety - i have no idea if being in the year below would have been better for him. He says he would be extremely embarrassed to be in the 'wrong' year now.

@teddyreddy 1.5 million 🙈

I can't count. Of course an August born child could only be just 11! D'oh!

She will change so much between now and September I would apply for the place and make a decision closer to the time after having talked to the headteacher. Sometimes they will do also do phased entry or start later in the year depending on the school.

My daughter is August born and started reception September. Like you academically I was not worried but socially and emotionally I was as I could really see the difference between those that were nearly a year older. I was going to defer for her to start reception this Sep instead.

I am soooo glad I didn't, she is doing so well its not a massive difference from nursery to be honest. Her confidence has grown she is reading and writing as well as her peers.

I think only you no your child but she may well suprise you with how well she does...

Thank you all for taking the time to reply.

I think I might have not been clear in my original post. I would not defer the start so that she goes straight into year 1 next year, I don't see any benefit in that at all, on the contrary, I would rather she went into Reception this year if that is our only choice.

What I meant is that I would like to delay her Reception start by 1 year. From your replies I take it that is not really possible.

The system is wrong I believe. I understand that they have lowered the compulsory school age to 5 to protect children from disadvantaged backgrounds and I understand why for the parents it makes more sense (financially) to send them to school early, but it does not always benefit the child.
I must admit that for me, knowing that I will no longer need to pay for childcare because my dd will be in school for 6 hours a day sort of lifted a lot of pressure off our shoulders but at the same time I am worried in the long run it will prove to be detrimental to the person she will shape up to be.
In terms of schools, we have (fingers crossed) pretty good chances of getting her into a very good primary - not sure how her chances of getting in will be affected if we try to delay her start.
As I said, socially I do not think she is doing great in nursery, at the teacher parents meeting we were told they would like to see her socialise more (?!) and that she prefers to play by herself - or that she gets very attached to her teacher or TA and wants to play with them. In the first few weeks she came home almost every day saying some boy pushed her. Maybe that stayed with her and she feels intimidated.

I am not sure, I know my child and `i obviously want the best for her, I am certain that a delayed start would be best for her, but I am uncertain as to what extent she will be "damaged" by an early start - is it worth fighting this ridiculous system?
I just want her to flourish and be allowed to be the best that she can be.

I have just noticed i said "best" 3 times in the same paragraph - it has been a long day

@lonicerajaponica i can't type!! X

My DD was an August born, like your DD got told to socialise more at her creche etc and started reception when she was just turned 4. I was extremely worried that she would be massively behind the others, complicated by the fact we had moved back to the UK not long before reception started.

Thankfully although she had a slow start, but as the year went on she made some good friends. She struggled academically but thats because of her mild dyslexia, nothing to do with her age.

shittjebed No no no you can start in reception at 5! What local authority are you? It varies area to area how simple it is. Where I am you just apply a year later.

Please join The flexible school admissions for summerborns Facebook group. They know everything about this issue. Unfortunately the majority of people on mumsnet don’t, apart from the few of us who have done are are doing it.

OP a vote for @shantotto here - join yhe facebook group for info. Finding out if you are in an easy area or a v difficult area to delay will make the decision much easier too

@Shantotto We are in Kensington and Chelsea.

Op please ignore that BBC article about research showing no benefit to delay !! It makes me annoyed - all it looks at is phonics ! So completely ignored the emotional and social basis for children's wellbeing ....

I have a summer girl who I nearly deffered and didn't in the end. Hand on heart if it was more normal for people to do it I still wish I had done...I didn't want her to feel odd later on and I felt a lot of pressure to send her to school

I the UK school system ends play far too early and is overly obsessed with formal learning
4 year olds in most European countries are not at school for another two years

It still hurts my heart a bit sending my baby girl in for such a long day every day of the week...but I will say that she is perfectly happy at the moment in school

I think she would however have been just as happy having another year in nursery

If she had been August birthday I would definitely have delayed her entry.

The secretary of state for education a year or two ago said that summer born children should be allowed to wait until they turn five to start reception.

I really hate that parents of summer born children come in and try to make other parents feel bad.

Obviauoly it isn't going to be 'bad' for a child to have delayed entry - they are literally going to be a week or two different in age from the oldest children (the September Born's )!! How could it really matter ?

And all the stats show that September born children do better than their younger peers so why on earth should it be a disadvantage to be delayed and become the oldest !