children being held back

[allthelove]

It's not so much of an aibu as an is this something other people are coming across.

I'm in Scotland. Children who are born between 1 march and 28 Feb are all in the same year group and start in august meaning the eldest are 5.5 and the youngest 4.5.

I've just applied to put my DD into a council nursery in August and the nursery teacher has said that she doesn't stand a great chance of getting in as 5 out of the 8 who were meant to be leaving in august to start school are being kept back a year since they were born in Jan/Feb.

I asked her about it and she said that off record it's not a practice she agrees with as

1. it stops younger children attending
2. it's becoming a fashionable thing to do
3. unless a child has serious developmental issues/ delays, she thinks they would benefit from school rather than another year in nursery.

This teacher is 60ish and has nearly 40 years experience in primary education so I'm thinking she knows what she's talking about. However, is this something that's quite common?

So it's not that you care about this issues at all ? You only care about your child getting the place that you want when you want it.

Nice.

It's very unusual to have 5 out of 8 of a cohort all having Jan/Feb birthdays and delaying their start.
It should be only 1in6 on average born in those months and where I am about half who can delay so that's 1/12 overall of a nursery class.

Yes that right, about half of the Jan- Feb born kids are deferred.

UK based mother of a DD with late August birthday.

In short it's becoming 'fashionable' because the research about summer-born children is conclusive and the government are now supposed to be facilitating children whose birthday falls near the intake cut off point, to start later. Which is June, July, August in England. The same would apply to children close to the Scotland cut-off.

Compulsory school age is 5, not 4 and children benefit from a first play-based Reception year. I have an exceptionally bright 4 year old whose reading and speech and vocab skills are that of a 7 year old.

She's not got the emotional or motor skills to match though and has really struggled having to start in Reception so young, a whole year younger than many of them. Sounds like more nursery spaces are needed but you can't blame the parents. I am fighting so that DD can repeat Reception she has found it so hard with just basic stuff like pencil grip, colouring and lost all confidence. She thinks she can't do it as well as the others, is the smallest and is very demoralized. It's a terrible start to a school career for a little child who was so excited.

My friend who just turned 40 was in the same school year as me despite her being a year and a month older. We're in Scotland too. I'm January 3rd and started at 4yrs 7mths and she started at 5 yrs 6 mths. It's hardly "fashionable" it's been going on for years and the evidence supports the later the better.

Niceglassof your child sounds like my nephew - very bright but struggled with some physical and emotional aspects - he has dyspraxia and once diagnosed got loads of support and his parents got him special eqpt etc

When I started school (several million years ago ) children started the Aug/Sep after they turned 5. I think we should go back to that. As several pp have said numerous well respected studies show that later starting of school is beneficial.

Provision of nursery places is to a degree a separate issue.

She sounds awful, and very out of touch...Do you really want your child going somewhere headed by someone with so little clue?

Fashionable my arse.

My May born could defer, it covers anyone born in the summer term.

My mum's in her 70s, taught all her working life, and would have disagreed with that nursery teacher. She's in England and was often frustrated that summer born children were expected to start school at just turned 4 when they clearly weren't ready. Another year of 'just play' would have done them the world of good and ensured they weren't starting so far behind the Autumn born children that in some cases they never caught up.

It's not becoming more common because it's fashionable - it's becoming more common because parents are better informed that a) it's possible and b) the benefits of it.

The shortage of nursery places is not the fault of parents of deferred children. I'm sure as heck you wouldn't send your child to school too early (if you felt that) just to benefit someone else's child nursery place wise.

There's a shortage of nursery places in general if there are only 8 potential spaces locally. The decisions of the parents of 5 of those children are neither here nor there really.

Also I wouldn't be sending my child to a nursery with such an unprofessional teacher. She shouldn't be telling you about the decisions of other parents (yes it'll become obvious in August who is staying on and who isn't, but she shouldn't be telling you) and she clearly has no knowledge of the recognised benefits to starting school older - which is worrying when parents of children outside the automatic period sometimes need the back up of nursery staff (who should be neutral about the decision and only comment based on the child's readiness).

Doesn't this all just make it worse though. At the moment you have a max gap of 1 year. There is always going to be a youngest and an oldest. Now there's a max gap of 14 months in Scotland, and 15 months in England. That's worse.

I don't agree that this teacher doesn't know anything at all because she doesn't agree with research. I think 40+ years of working with children in early years education should give her an insight, an opinion and a perspective on things.

The only thing I can think is that if it's becoming more common to defer then why not change the admission age to Jan to Dec birthdays instead? Someone's always going to have to be the youngest I guess.

My DD was 4 years and 4 days when she started school . I asked the Head if she could start later and he said yes, but he wouldn't make any extra provision for her - friends, routines and teaching teaching would already be established. I had no choice but to send her.

I am not sure about the English system works but is Reception play based? The youngest you can start school in Scotland is 4 1/2

Not in Scotland and my dd is January born, just started reception in September. She was not ready for school academically or socially and is just about doing OK but struggles with the pace. I don't think it's got anything to do with how long she was at nursery as she was there since she was 8 months - so 4 years.

If the teacher was on board with CfE then she would not have made such comments. It's about getting it right for every child! So if that means deferring school entry for a child then that should be the pathway for that child! Lots of nurseries round our way often cannot give a 3 year old place due to the increasing birth rate meaning to accommodate all the preschoolers, all 120 places are given to preschoolers. We have a shortage of nursery places in our area.

groovee I know where you're coming from but she's entitled to an opinion. I complete my day to day job but there are areas that I don't agree with and I voice them. She's not wrong to have an opinion.

I have same situation as a few PP, summerborn DD (jun). She seems quite bright - i was teaching her to read at 3.5 phonetically. She always had good vocabulary etc. But she has really struggled with reception, starting at 4.3 yo. It's mainly behaviour as she is immature. But other issues are friendships and party invites as many are much older and have more in common. She started reception not writing and still cant form most letters. She fades into the background especially in things like the nativity. When before starting she was very confident. Also she is distracting the other kids in class because she doesnt want to do phonics. An immature sept born would have to be 12m below average to be worst but a aug born would only possibly need to be average...
Also dd only had 3 terms preschool compared to sep born 5 so only 3/5ths.

The kids seem to be more judged on behaviour (by parents) nobody cares that say a child can read best if they are disruptive.
Yes someone has to be youngest but maybe it should be the ones who are deveopmenally on track or advanced

Teacher might be entitled to her opinion but she hasn't expressed it very professionally.

Naty1 - that's exactly what my DD has struggled with. Pencil grip, forming letters & socially. Same thing in terms of fading into the background. She started school a week after her 4th birthday and immediately the 5th birthday parties began.

Had she been born when she was due we wouldn't even be thinking about school until
September. It has nothing to do with intelligence and everything to do with other skills. Swinging on monkey bars for an extra year and painting in nursery for another year would have made all the difference.