School deferral, how does it work?

[Darkestseasonofall]

Excuse the complete ignorance, but I'm in Wales and don't really think it's a "thing" here (or certainly not that I'm aware of anyone doing anyway).

I've seen lots of threads on here about deferring a place for a summer baby, a quick Google hasn't really explained, how does this work? Do you just say you'd prefer the child to stay in private nursery rather than do the reception year, or does the child join the year group behind them? If the latter, when do they then catch up, do they have to skip a year?

In Wales we have a scheme called Rising 3, whereby dc can go to school nursery the term after they are 3, so we seem to be doing the complete opposite to England.

Kids go to nursery in England and Scotland too from age 3. In Scotland you would normally start school in August if you have had your 4th birthday by the End of February in that year. You can also defer entry for 1 year and still go into Primary 1. You normally get funding for extra time at nursery especially if they have a January or February birthday. It works differently in England as they have different cut off dates for starting school.

www.bliss.org.uk/parents/growing-up/starting-primary-school/delaying-school-entry-in-the-rest-of-the-uk looks like its harder to do in Wales

Thanks for the replies, but I'm still confused . I'm not looking to do this, just curious as to how it works.
So if I had a dc born 31st Aug I could say I don't want them to do reception year, I want them to stay at home / stay in private nursery. They then join year 1 in their "proper" year group - is that correct?
If so, what's the point? They are still a year younger than some of their peers. Is it that the year matters less as they get older?

No, in some cases they could miss the year and start in Reception. Its easiest to do in Scotland (go into P1 after deferring), harder to do in England and Wales looks to be quite resistant to allowing it

Not sure about Scotland & Wales, but in England they can start a year later and go into reception, not year 1, so they don't miss a year. My youngest is 5 on Tuesday and starts reception in September.

As far as I am aware standard practice if you defer, is that the place is held in their current year groups so the child would miss reception and start in year 1. If this is the case then I would strongly suggest that you don't do it as reception really is a vital school year.

However I do believe that you can fight really hard to defer and start school in reception but I'm not sure how easy this is to do.

I've got a DD born mid August and she is just about to go into year 2 (she started school as normal) She isn't the highest flyer of the class but is doing well and managing to get expected across the board which We are pleased with.

I'm not sure this is the best place to push for advice, as each answer will Be time/ place specific. In some areas it's relatively easy, in others it's much harder. Your Local Authority will have a policy to work with ( more or less) and an officer to contact. Call the education/ children's services department for advice. There's also a great Facebook page called something like 'flexible school admissions for under fives' which is full of knowledgable advice and documentation. That's your best first port of call I think.

post not push. Not suggesting you are pushy! 😁

@dementedpixie and @ler83 if that's the case wouldn't they be for example 2 weeks older than the oldest child in the class? So putting the younger children at even more of a disadvantage?

@Darkestseasonofall yes he will be the eldest by at least 6 days, if parents of summer borns are worried about their child being disadvantaged by being youngest they need to look into deferring. All 3 of mine are summer born, the eldest 2 started at 4, without a doubt they would have done so much better if they had started school at 5. In my opinion the age should be raised to 5 for everyone anyway.

@ler83 thanks, I'm not being at all goady, sorry if it came across that way. What would be the cut off for deferring then? So if all August parents deferred I guess July parents would feel their child is disadvantaged?

My son is a year and five days older than the youngest in his class. He has hearing loss, verbal dyspraxia and ADHD. He spent the first three years in an out of hospital and his development suffered because of constant illness and pain. There are lots of ways of being disadvantaged. Age is only one of them, and given he's also August born, we chose to take that out of the equation. It was a wise decision which some parents choose to take.

In Scotland (and I appreciate this is different to England and Wales) the year runs from 1st March to 28/29th Feb. So when the kids start in Aug half have turned 5 in the last 6 months and half are 4 but will be turning 5 in the next 6 months.

If the child is in the youngest 2 months of the catchment year (Jan and Feb) then it is entirely at the parents choice whether the child goes to school. Some are ready and the parents really keen for them to go. Some are not ready. The council will normally fund another year in nursery for these children without quibble. I think normally about 50% defer in my experience.

The kids who are Sept-Dec can in theory defer. But it isn't really encouraged. If there are educational reasons (and this is decided by appointments with educational phycologists) then they can be defered and the council supports another year in nursery. The parents can choose to decide to defer the child if they feel very strongly about it, but there is no obligation for the council to fund a 3rd year in nursery for Sept-Dec kids.

So in reality in Scotland, there are children in a school year over 14 months. In my daughters year there are 01Jan08 - 28Fe09, with one child from Nov07.

I don’t think you can get your child put into the year below in Wales. So hearing about the rules in England will only mislead and confuse you.
In Wales we have the foundation phase and also The Donaldson curriculum which applies a more wholistic approach to learning.

@BigGlasses thanks, that's a really helpful explanation. So some children are over 17 finishing their compulsory education?

@berthatydfil my dc are both October born so this isn't about me deferring, I've just recently heard about it on MN and wondered what on earth it was is all. I'm absolutely pushing my dc out the door and in to school as soon as I can