Scottish primary school deferring

[Pumpkinseason3]

Hoping I might catch some of you on here for your opinions if you have experience either through being a parent or a teacher!

If you teach, do you see any benefit in deferring? As parents, do you regret deferring your child or are you glad you did? Any main factors to consider when making the choice?

Im 80% sure I’ve made my choice for DD but would like to hear some opinions if I may?

I'm a teacher. I think it's a bit sad that something that started off with such good intentions has ended with the situation that if you don't defer you're putting your child at a significant disadvantage simply because so many do. My friend has a little girl who is born at the very end of February who should absolutely be starting school next year - she is ready socially and is clearly going to be academic. The fact is, she's going to be at a disadvantage compared to all the children born in the February (and January, and December...) before her but who are in her year group.

I don't know how you sort the system but deferral should be for the minority who genuinely need it or we should just have children start a year later so they finish at the same age as their English counterparts (a Feb born child born child in Scotland and attending in their correct year finishes the year before a Feb born child in England starting school in the same year).

@Pumpkinseason3 what month was your dd born?

When my kids were younger it was only the January and February birthdays that would be deferred. My kids were October and November birthdays

There's a thread on this in Scotsnet.
www.mumsnet.com/talk/scotsnet/5194985-what-is-going-on-with-deferrals

@dementedpixie Yes that was the case for a long time I believe. I’m not sure when the change was made, but you can now defer any children born from Sept-Feb.

DD is Nov born. Very academic (if that’s even a description to use at this age 🤦🏻‍♀️) but extremely shy.

I am surprised that as a teacher you have this opinion. The fact is most children don't really benefit from being sent to school at 4 regardless of what month they are born. Deferring is also taking the bigger picture into account when they are sitting exams as teenagers.

I done it for my 5 year old she wasn't ready at all last year and its the best thing I done. it not only helps in primary but also for secondary school. my son is 17 and a Feb baby but wasn't deferred and I wish he was. like I said didn't really notice so much in primary he was a bit immature but thought he would grow out of it but never really did all his mates are 18/19 and he's a young 17.

@TheWoodpeckerSighed Thank you. I personally believe that we start kids too young here and that the whole system needs an overhaul.
I absolutely agree about it causing young ones to be at a disadvantage if they are not deferred because of the number who are.

We have a Nov born DD (very clever but extremely shy). The number of deferrals from last year in her nursery class is in double figures. So if I start her in August as she “should” be, she has a huge number of deferred kids starting with her, a large proportion of which turn 6 before she even turns 5.

Right, so start them all a year later so they finish at the same time they would do if they were born in England (and can go to uni as 18 not 17 year olds). Don't expect 4 year olds to start school with nearly 6 year olds though.

To be fair, I've read the first few pages of the other thread and that pretty much covers the issue anyway.

As a high school teacher of 20+ years experience (in Scotland) yes I absolutely see the benefit of deferring. Children who are not deferred- thinking of the ones in the standard Jan/Feb birthday bunch- tend to have to work that bit harder than their deferred peers. They struggle that bit more socially as well, which they wouldn't have to if they had simply deferred at primary one level. You don't see the difference so much at primary level, it's high school that it kicks in. That extra year of maturity makes a very big difference and yes it does give an advantage. To say it doesn't is incredibly short sighted. The evidence of starting school that little bit later is widely known and freely available nowadays thankfully.

We deferred our DS(January) birthday.
Academically he was ready to start school,but we felt he wasn't ready emotionally .Also we were looking at the bigger picture and looking at how old he'd be when sitting standard grades and highers and starting university.We don't regret our decision and he didn't get bored at nursery.When he did start P1 he was the 4th oldest in the class.

Jan and Feb = definitely defer. Oct-Dec = consider it. The Christmas leavers situation is dreadful. If your child wants to leave at the end of S4 and they are a Christmas leaver they are hanging around doing dash all of any use at school. For academic or confident kids it all comes out in the wash because they are likely there til S6 anyway.

I don't have an opinion from an academic point of view, but my just about to turn 18 year old has taken a year out this year and deferred his university place as he didn't feel ready.

We didn't defer him because it wasn't really a thing for Nov/Dec children at the time, and academically he's been fine, but he's ended up deferring himself in a way.

We deferred mid February born ds(20).

Never regretted for a second. He was a smart cookie, but was a bit shy and that extra year, starting school at 5.5 instead of 4.5 made all the difference. It was most apparent in secondary school especially at exam times, when he approached them with confidence and maturity that he wouldn't have had the year before and I genuinely believe he wouldn't have done as well if he had sat them a year younger.

Once he settled into primary his age helped with his confidence and I think that helped him have a wide circle of friends. When older he was one of the earliest to learn to drive, and because he was 18 when he started uni he could enjoy the social life there, including being old enough to do bar work at a local hotel. There were so many benefits and never had a single negative.

Private nurseries are very reluctant to push or even mention deferring. They do legally have to mention it but the reality is they want children to start school ASAP because they get more funding from the younger children.
Council nurseries are a completely different ball game. They will give very honest unbiased advice, and will mostly promote deferring from an educational point of view. I feel sorry for children in private nurseries that their parents are basing their future on the back of the nurseries bottom line, but a lot don't know any better.

I just smile and nod when a child I know that is still in nappies at 4 years old, parent tells me that their child's private nursery told them there is no need to defer because their child is "so ready" for school and that they would be so bored in nursery for another year. It is up to every parent to do their own research and no doubt someone pointing out the obvious is not going to make any difference to their descion.

We were unable to defer because having started school elsewhere where this wasn’t an option. Having a child now who is well over a year younger than the older class mates I can confirm that is wasn’t a problem at all in primary but in high school it is a struggle. Shows in poor behaviour, struggles with attention etc and just not interested in the same things as the class mates yet. Wish I could put them back a year but not an option at this point

Thank you all so much for your opinions. Glad to see many have chosen deferral and are happy that they did 😊 That’s what I have decided for DD.

I believe that she is more than ready in terms of the academics but she struggles with the social/emotional side a lot and I feel like starting her at 5 rather than 4 will be better for her. The reason for the thread was - im facing a LOT of backlash from wider family over this decision 🙄(which of course, will be being ignored and I’ll be doing whatever is in DDs best interest) so it’s nice to have some positive stories to share.

Thankfully she’s in an amazing council nursery who are very pro-deferral and very big on the emotional readiness being just as important, if not more so, than the academics.

I'm in Scotland, so understand your concerns.

I've seen mix of deferrrals over the years. Some definitely needed, some not.

I wouldn't be deferring a November child. Shyness is not a reason.
She still has time to build social skills. I would register her in January and keep it and if you decide come august that she's still not ready then defer.

I have a friend who son was suggested before he was 4 (September born) that she defer him. This was in his pre school nursery year, only started in august as he was shy, not interacting with kids or teachers etc
They were trying to diagnose him with autism.
Anyway she moved nursery, which had kids they knew in it, he was a different child, started school on time and one of the most academic children in the school.
If she had kept him in the nursery and deferred him this might have been a different story.

With regards to my own daughter, she has some kids who were deferred in her class, and they are more that a year older than some of the class. They are actually some of the more disruptive ones as they're either bored or know it all types.

@bebopalula111 Registration is this week and deferrals need to be submitted by December. Personally, I wouldn’t put her through the transition process (which starts in March) with all her peers and then defer last minute as I feel that would be more upsetting to her. Plus in doing that she wouldn’t be guaranteed a place at her current nursery and even if she did get a place she wouldn’t get her current pattern which is the one that I need for work. So there’s a lot of factors to consider. She’s shy to the point of still being upset going to nursery after 10 months. Wants to be with her key worker all the time rather than playing with peers etc.
There are also a large number of deferrals from last year so a lot of her class will be significantly older

We deferred DD as she was a February birthday and less than a week from the cutoff. She would probably have been ok academically but was worried about social side. Also age for sitting exams etc when older was also something we considered.

She is now in P6 and doing really well. Have no regrets at all.

This is terrible advice. You can't change your mind last minute. Once you have reached the deadline this year you must stick to your descion. You are giving out false facts and people need to be aware what you are suggesting simply cannot be done in reality.

I think it’s become the default rather than many parents thinking will it benefit my child.

FWIW I have family members who are teachers one has deferred her kids, one hasn’t.

i have one naturally old for year and he really did fly through school but tbh he’s super bright (at Uni now) so I’m not sure his age is the only factor in how well he did.

My youngest is younger for year but not Jan/Feb. He has special needs but wasn’t diagnosed and no one suggested deferral, not sure what we’d have done if they had. Maybe he would have benefited but who knows. I genuinely believe he’s achieving his full potential now and he hated nursery so another year of that would just have made him miserable.

I think social factors can be an issue too. Yes there’s a novelty being one of the first to drive, go out drinking etc but part of the fun is sharing those things with friends which you don’t get if you’re much older.

I think it should have been left as it was, Jan/Feb only with automatic right to defer and the rest on a case by case basis. Its all part of the SNP desire to raise school starting stage via the back door.

i have no skin in the game however now as my own 2 are well past this stage.

I agree with the above. I’m a secondary school teacher so we don’t have the earlier deferrals at us yet, but I can foresee the issues of having 12-18m age gaps in year groups..

I think definitely defer for jan/feb, but the rest should be case by case.

I have a November born, if I'd deferred her she'd have been nearly 6 when she started.
She was a quiet shy girl but more than ready for school academically, I'd send her.

To add I feel like starting her at 5 rather than 4 will be better for her.
Starting in August she'll be less than 3 months off 5, not a wee 4.
Do you think keeping her at home another year will help socially?
If you defer she will be 18mths older than some in her class when you do send her.

@SnoopysHoose Well she won’t be at home, she’ll be at nursery. There are a very large number of deferrals from last year in her nursery currently as they had a high number of kids starting in the January term after turning 3. So my choices really are - send her at 4 with kids who turn 6 only 3 weeks into primary 1. She actively stays away from most of these children at nursery and calls them “the big ones”. Or I wait and send her next year as one of the older ones. The majority of her official year group are spring/summer born. She is one of 6 who falls into the potential deferral category. Starting her in August she is likely to be the very youngest in year with the oldest being 14.5m older and the majority being March-May birthday so still a good 6m older