Repeating Yr 1 - experiences of explaining to child?

[WildPine]

My DS is at a lovely supportive school in London. He is August born and though working at an expected level he has struggled with reading - phonics in terms of his enjoyment and confidence since the move up from reception, and bubbled just under the average. He took a massive confidence knock right at the start of Year 1 seeing how much more advanced other children were, particularly the girls, that he decided reading and writing just wasn’t for him and gave up. He would much rather be playing.

he has started attempting to refuse school, hiding in his wardrobe and getting very upset each morning. The drop offs have been awful and hard with his crying and not wanting to go in. Staff have been great but I’m so worried about this. We are always encouraging a love of learning and books etc so it’s heartbreaking to see. Since January most mornings have been full of upset.

His school operates a Danish model in year 1 so there is still a great deal of play-based learning, but come Year 2 it goes back to traditional classroom learning.

The Head has suggested DS might benefit from repeating Yr 1, to give him the chance to continue in the play-based environment for another year and crucially to feel like he is one of the more advanced in the class- gain more confidence in his abilities - as he does tend to compare and compete with others despite us trying to teach him otherwise.

Overall we think the decision could really benefit him. The school is very supportive and say they do this quite a few times each year for all sorts of reasons to support the child, not only in cases of SEN. (We don’t suspect SEN at this stage). They would also help with secondary applications when the time came to alleviate any knock on issues and seem very relaxed about it.

So in terms of his learning and confidence we think it could work well. I think he would really be boosted by feeling as if he was as good as most of the class at phonics and even “knew more” than some kids - just the way his mind works. What we now need to think about is how to explain it to our DS. He can be very sensitive and proud and we don’t want him to get a whiff of “not being good enough / clever enough” vibes from this.

Has anyone else’s DC repeated Year 1, and if so what was your experience and how did you explain it to the child?

No it’s a state school! No fees.

I don’t know if you’re in London but it’s fairly common from my experience these days- as in there are usually a few each year.

I’d be very wary of this. We considered keeping our younger son back a year so he could repeat reception, but decided against in the end.

If we had kept him back, he would not be able to play in the sports teams with his year group, and sports is a massive part of school life for us. There have also been various school trips, special events and competitions that you have to be the right age for.

More importantly - our preferred secondary school simply does not allow people to be out of age group, so he would have had to skip year 6, effectively leaving primary school having done the year 5 curriculum and then go straight into year 7!

It’s easy for the primary school to suggest it will all be fine, they’re not in charge of the secondary schools!

Ime Y1 can be hard on boys, because they usually aren't as mature as the girls but are aging into a level with higher expectations. In my experience the biys who struggled in y1 were much more settled in y2

Thanks @HairsprayBabeCan you explain more about the sports issue please? I was confused by the post post on that.

@arethereanyleftatall it isn't true at all, and if your school are not letting children play outside their cohort then they are going against most sports dispensation policies.

FA, RFU, ESSA, ECB, Pentathlon UK and many many more that I cba to list have dispensation schemes for out of cohort children - it is up to the parent to apply for the dispensation but they absolutely can play in their adopted year.

I have never heard of a state school that keeps multiple children who are at the expected level back a year. Genuinely it's almost impossible to do so even if a child has severe educational needs?

If this is a state school I’m very surprised that any head would be advocating him repeating a year for the reasons you’ve stated. Deferred entry to reception is one thing but to keep a child back after they have completed two years of school is another thing entirely. I also very surprised that they seem to think that they can promise a move to secondary school without any problems.
I have only ever seen this done a handful of times across my 25 years of teaching. All those children had diagnosed Sen and severe developmental delays. Only 1 remained in mainstream education and that child had to miss his year 5 year in order to move up to year 6 and move to secondary with his chronological year group.
I would think very hard about this and look carefully into the repercussions before you do it. Don’t take schools word for it about secondary school.

I specialise in swimming. ESSA do NOT allow this unless for medical reasons. As it would be grossly unfair.

I’ve seen it done in a couple of schools for SEMH reasons but the child has then been filtered back into their ‘correct’ year halfway through a school year.

It’s a state school.

the other way of looking at it is that being the youngest, and less confident at phonics is damaging his enjoyment of reading and knocking his confidence permanently. Having the opportunity to be one of the oldest (maybe only a couple of weeks older than other kids) and a chance to go over the learning will support him to feel more confident and boost his confidence and enjoyment in learning back to where it was.

The risk here though is if any of the Year 1 children are more academically able than your son - it will have the opposite effect.

I think that the number of children being deferred entry to Reception is becoming more common place, I do not dispute that. However it is very unusual for a state school to keep back a child already on roll, with no SEN and working at Expected Level. That is the aspect that does not ring true for me or other posters who clearly work in education.

Why would it matter if he was playing for a team consisting of kids in the year above? Sorry I don’t fully understand the issue here or why it’s a problem. Eg if he turned out to be good at football aged 8 and played in a team of 8&9 year olds why does that matter?

Yes I agree. Deferrals are very common these days but in over a decade of teaching I've only ever heard of a child being held back a year twice and both children went on to special schools.

The fact this state school apparently holds back multiple children each year, some of whom are at expected level is completely mind-blowing to me. I would be looking to move schools.

Not if he repeats a year.

@MyTealOP youre obviously a bit out of the loop if you’re talking about a child who has already completed secondary education - ie 18+ now. My kids are young primary and this is really very common now - there’s a handful in every class in my children’s 3 form entry London primary, though admittedly they all deferred reception start so none have the experience of repeating years.

All summer born children (April born onwards) are permitted legally to defer so your opinion about when it’s appropriate (prematurity etc) is irrelevant. OP’s child is one of the very youngest so only days older than the oldest in the year below - as long as it is handled properly it can be a wholly positive thing.

It is definitely more common in the private sector as well. Izzy Judd (married to Harry judd mcfly) posted about doing this with their summer born middle child, who repeated reception, but I think combined it with a school move.

Deferring is completely different to having two journeys through the same year.

No it’s not impossible at all. I checked the guidance from the London borough we are in and it states quite clearly that within school it is at the Heads discretion based on their rounded judgement. This is DfE guidance for state schools to be clear. There is a more complex application process at reception intake obviously

He wouldn’t be playing in the same team as his classmates, but with kids in the year above. Tbh my son would think that was supercool/would get a lot of kudos in that position so wouldn’t see it as a negative, but some might.

Sideofnoreturn deferral and being kept back a year are two very different things.

But his year group wouldn’t be the year above, it would be the year below? So for example if he repeats a year, then he’ll be in year 5 when his age group for sport (1/9/x - 31/8/x) are all in year 6. So, yes, he can play for the school year 6 team, but cannot play for the school year 5 team (ie with his classmates). This is due to health and safety, and fairness - as children grow and get bigger and stronger with age so there needs to be a cut off date - risk assessments and insurance don’t cover an injury against a player over a year older.

Possibly yes, in the short term. But you probably need to look at the message it gives long term.

Not really - both result in the child being in the same (lower) school year. The main arguments people have raised on this thread against it (different sports teams, being the oldest in the class, finishing school a year late) apply equally to deferred kids.

But if it was a competitive team, he might have to earn his place in the team by being better than the 'older' boys . He might then work out he should be with those team mates for all his lessons too, but oh yes, his parents decided he wasn't ready to be with that group.academically.

thanks @SideofnoreturnI feel like the system must be different in London and in more recent times and perhaps these posters are located elsewhere or their DC are much older. It is not that shocking to do this, though still a massive decision for us obvs and not to be taken lightly. One of our son’s friends sisters has repeated year 2 this year at the same school and has been thriving - no SEN but some pastoral and confidence issues, and the school were great.