July born child held back a year

[AlorMy]

Not my child but DN (nephew)

He is 3. Seems average in development and is well socialised.

His birthday is late June and his parents are wanting him to be in the class below because they feel that he’ll be at a disadvantage being so young in the class.

Reception is saying no.

How can parents push through with this?

My youngest was an end of August birthday born 2 months early so the school suggested holding him back - I think mainly as he was tiny compared to the rest. I think it was right for him as he really should have been an October birthday.

We kept our Late August-born child back a school year. But he was premature so should have been born in the Sept anyway and he has SEN that the feeder pre-school were well aware of and had been helping us with. Eg language delay, toileting delay etc. School were well on board with it. He took Y6 SATS at the same time as his year and has passed into Secondary school with his year group, but he does have an EHCP which legally entitles him to support and protections that may not be the case for non-SEN children. It was, without question, the right thing to do for him. He is very happy and thriving in school. But I think every case is different - you will know what’s right for your child but when we did it we received dire warnings about post-16 ed funding. That is - children receive free ed until age 18. For most that sees them through A-levels/ A-level équivalent. If your child has only done one year of A-levels by age 18, you may end up in a position of having to fund the final year. (This doesn’t apply for children with an EHCP, who are guaranteed funding for ed up to age 25.)

In our school (10+ years ago) the school had the option to hold a child back at the end of reception if they were not quite ready, deferred entry definitely not possible.

My own DD is end of July born and coped fine and is about to take her GCSEs now. Yes you can see an emotional difference to some of the older kids, especially around starting secondary, but in our case that's harder to judge as she also has ASD to is not your typical teenager.

But I have seen the holding back in action, and it's worked well.
Another child in her reception class, a day older than my DD, was totally not ready age 4 and repeated reception and it's worked out great. At that age their friendship bonds are not so strongly developed.
So I would say go with the schools expertise. Speak to them see what systems they have in place.

Our school have done it for a couple of the children at nursery. One was right at the very end of August and immature for their age and one was a July birthday with delays. They needed a good reason why the children were recommended to stay back a year and it was quite an involved process I don’t think they allow it unless it can be proved it will benefit the child.

I had July and August birthday children. My August baby was ready for school but my July baby wasn’t. I ended up home teaching my July baby for a while as there was no option to delay but start in reception then.

My August baby did fine but struggled more in the GCSE and college stage. She was a bit immature to really settle to study and she found it frustrating all her friends could drive a year before she could.

Our May born ds was held back a year while in reception, it was the schools idea. They didn't think he was ready to move in to year 1. Though he has since been diagnosed with being on the autism spectrum. Being held back a year really helped him.

Wow the newest obsession. If we don't have something to worry about we invent it. (this said by the mother of a child born on July 31st). If they don't have any special issues they will be fine.

Do they have other concerns? Just having a June birthday seems an odd reason to want to hold him back.

I really can’t see the point of going back a year for children that have no issues developmentally. Children should be catered for as they are in the correct year group.

It just seems like parents are worried their children won’t be top of the class and they’re doing everything they can to ensure that they are by making their child a whole year and two or three months older than other children in the class. It’s just weird to do this for an NT, not premature June baby.

I was a late one and have always felt I'd do much better in the year below in terms of confidence etc. As a parent I'd be tempted to hold them back. However having said that, if he gets held back then the youngest children in the below year are going to have it even harder as not only are they 11/12mths younger than a lot of the class but now they are also going to have someone 13/14mths older than them - it's unfair on all the youngest ones in the below year, as a parent of one of those children I'd be really annoyed this was allowed to happen.

So much misinformation here. Join the Flexible Admissions for Summerborns page on Facebook, they will offer lots of advice.

What is reception in terms of schooling? We don't have that in Scotland so I'm so confused by all these kids going into school aged 3?!

I was born in August 1992, and I went into primary one in August 1997, a week before my 5th birthday.
I was in the same year as a boy born in January 1992 and also a boy born in March 1993.

In the UK, admitting in January would put that child massively behind and he would really struggle to catch up. The curriculum moves on so fast now. Unless he's got SEN I wouldn't, I feel a lot of this is a fad. Our system isn't set up to start at 7, it's set up to start at 4. Anecdotally, the children who have come to the UK from abroad, at around 6 or 7, have still been behind at the end of KS2 because you can't usually cover all the ground you need to as well as moving forward.

You’re getting some incorrect advice here OP. Just join the Facebook group, all the info is there.

@happytoday73 thank you for your post- really helpful! Your suggestion about looking into what they will be taught in Reception is especially helpful while we'll be doing the tours- I think if it is used as a 'settling in' year rather than an academic one I'll feel alot more at ease if she absolutely has to start in the September-

It's also very interesting to hear the pp's personal experience re the social aspect, not something we've thought about yet but obviously really important to consider- thank you

Funding for education is up to age 19 not 18 as pp has stated.

Yes lots of misinformation on this thread.

Contact the council/school admissions. Written permission needs to be given by the school they wish for him to go to though. They can’t legally refuse I don’t think but a lot of schools are against it.

*you still have to apply for a school place, don’t miss the deadline’

I would recommend him going to school though. My daughter is a July birthday and has developmental delays. I started the process on keeping her back a year and decided against it and put her in at the correct time mainly because she would be with the group of children from her pre school who she loved.

School has brought her on loads. An advantage was that over half of the class were summer birthdays too.

So much depends on the child. My summer born girl is ready for school now really bar a few personal care things but I can see already a few of the August borns are going to struggle as they just seem much closer To the just turned 3 year olds (so the older ones in the year below) than the 4 year olds. The difference between them and the autumn ones is quite pronounced. You can see some
of the children’s targets on the board and the ones that are school ready are developing their writing, numeracy etc and the ones that are struggling are working on listening, sharing, following rules etc. It’s not a fair playing field at all.

@Meggie2008 in England, children start Reception in the September after their 4th birthday. Then they go into Year One, Year Two and so on.

So a child who was born between 1st September 2014 and 31st August 2015 would have started Reception in September of this year.

PPs talking about 3 year olds at school probably mean their child went to the nursery attached to the school at that age.

I have a mid-July child and also come from a country where children are regulary kept behind if they are deemed "not ready", either academically or socially.

I was worried but it really depends on the child. She is now in Y8, academically where she belongs. She was behind in fine motor skills but these are areas you can work on.

Her pre-school also destroyed any doubts, they were open with things they felt she would struggle (like fine motor skills) but also encouraged us to belive in DD and pointed all the things she showed a large readiness like taking turns, playing with others independently, listening and being independent in a larger group setting. All these things were worked on the half year before they went to school.

She would have been utterly bored if she had to do another year pre-school.

Other children, even autumn born ones were a lot more quite and timied, in my home country they would have been prime canidates for another year pre-school.

We were also lucky that DD's primary school was very good in making sure all children were taken care of and worked with each child's individual strength and weakness.

My summer born child skipped reception and went into Y1 when he was just over 5 as that's the statutory age. In fact none of mine started until after the term they turned 5.

However, I was willing to lose a school place and home-ed (until one came up, if needed).

Reception in England is for children who will turn 5 between 1st Sept and 31st August. A child could start the day after their 4th birthday on 31st August. The curriculm is part of the Foundation stage and is still largely play based but introduces more formal table based written work, to build up ready for more formal schooling in year1/ KS1 (y1 & 2)

Posters talking about going to school at 3 are a little misleading about the pre-school nursery which can be based in school. Many children will be in private nursery at that point also following the same early years curriculum. The early years education is voluntary, and tends to be part-time unless a childcare arrangement is involved.

As for holding back, it is useful if a child has a significant delay (prematurity, SNs, delays in communication skills) the majority of summer borns will be fine to adapt to their school year. I would have had more concern over DS1 who had SALT input prior to starting school than DS2. Fortunately DS1 was born in the autumn-winter term and had closed up much of the communication gap in time for starting; it turned out it was one of his markers of ASD, and he also has dyslexia and dyspraxia which weren't evident until he was in school and was held back from diagnosis until juniors. DS2 who is around Easter, so falls at the older end of permissable deferring was ripe and ready for school much younger based on age. Had he have been a few months younger, I doubt I would have had concerns.

Solely an issue for the parents: wouldn’t get involved at all!

As PPs have said, the Facebook group is good.

April and may babies here. All did fine. Right where they should be

If there is no sen issues been diagnosed and he seems like a normal 3 year why do they want to hold him back? My two eldest are August born and one couldn't even talk when starting reception but he started as normal. He's now 8 and has no issues at all.

Seems delaying summer born children without any actual issues diagnosed is getting more common these days and for the life of me I can't understand why.

I held my son back so he went into year R a year late. Contrary to advice on here he can remain in his deferred academic year throughout his education as per a letter from our LA. I haven’t RTFT because I have read so many listing all the many weird objections which people it doesn’t affect have to this. My LA supports parents choosing to do this, so I did because I couldn’t see any reason why not to. My son has no SEN, in fact he is very bright but he struggles socially. It’s the best thing I could have done for him. My DD was a summer baby and while we didn’t have the option of deferring her, I wouldn’t have, because she is a different child. She was desperate to go to school at 3.

Sadly it’s a postcode lottery (still) so it’s not something you can do everywhere, which I expect is for administrative reasons only. Everyone would not defer their child even if there was a choice so the argument that it will push March babies to be latest in the year is illogical.

Join the Facebook group, it’s good.