I know I am being unreasonable but am a little sad that ds will stay in the younger nursery group

[islandofsodor]

Ds goes to a private nursery attached to a school. They are registered for 36 children and they are split into 2 groups, red and blue. The blue group is the younger ones and the red group is the older ones who will go to reception next year.

Today I took ds in and the teacher said to him, Oh A, X will be pleased to see you, he has missed you. She then confided that it was nice these two children were friends as they would be staying in the younger group whereas the others were moving up in September when the older ones left for school.

I know that this happens sometimes because they don;t always have exactly 18 children in each year group and I know why ds would have been chosen to stay down, he is young for his age, not toilet trained yet, but I wonder whether he will now find the transition into reception next September hard if all the other children are in the other group. ds has a very good friend who is in his group now but will be moving up in September

He will be fine, children adjust very easily and he has a whole 12 months to make new friend, and he will probably find Reception easier as he will be 12 months older

Have you read Steve Biddulph's 'Raising Boys'? He advocates little boys staying behind a year in nursery/primary school - infact, he thinks it is absolutely crucial to their development and that this one, simple thing can have a huge and positive impact on their academic and social development - all to do with their delayed social skills and fine motor skills when compared to girls (he's not the only one who thinks this way, either)

Look on it as a positive. xx

He is better off as he is - ds1 goes up this year and I'm not entirely happy about it.

DS's nursery class was split like this and he started Reception a bit later. He was in awe of his friends who'd moved on to uniforms. He's now amongst the oldest in his year (October baby) and is absolutely fine.

I would suggest that he is best where he is - DS1 went up to pre-school class in nursery when he was 2.8. He was in a class with children aged 4.5! In fact, there is a child in his class that is 5 on Sept 1, and so is still in nursery until he starts school. The age gap between DS1 and most of the other children seemed IMMENSE. Luckily DS1 was toilet trained etc, otherwise I think he would have found it VERY hard. He has an opportunity to meet lots of other friends, and if your nursery is good, then the staff will ensure that his development needs are nurtured differently to the younger children (to ensure that his development continues and he doesn't start emulating the younger children).

Please don't worry about it - he will be much happier staying in a familiar environment and I am sure the staff have left him in that group for very good reasons - i.e his welfare.

LoveAngle, that Steve guy talks a lot of sense, me thinks...
my es was one of the younger Kids in reception class...his Birthday was in June and he started school the september.....he was NOT ready, and he would have greatly benefitted to stay a year behind...however, sadly the system in the UK is, that if you don't have them go into Reception the year they meant to, then they just gonna start in year 1 the following year anyway...what is the point in that...stupid system...I mean, they do learn so many basic skills in reception....
anyway, my es is now 11 and finally has started to catch up a bit, but still not caught up completely to his level
MS is a november Baby, so, he will be almost 5 by the time he starts and that is brilliant...but am worried a bit about ys, as he is a august child and will start school next year after turning 4 about 1/2 a month before school re-opens....not good, but hopefully he will be readier then his oldest brother, sigh....

Agree with others - plus surely there will be a new nursery intake to boost up the numbers again, allowing him to make some new friends, which as you know they do very quickly at this age.

I know he will be ifne in my heart of hearts.

My concern is that he will still start reception as the same time as the others who have moved up. The new nursery intake who will join his group will stay in nursery when ds goes into reception next September.

do they do visits in the big school etc...like from teh term after x-mas on...if so, I would assuume that they will still take your lil one there, tbh....