To Decelerate School Entry

[Bl00dyH3ll]

My daughter was born 26th August due to start school September 2022. I just don't know what to do 🥺. She's small for her age and I worry that she will visibly be the youngest and struggle. Statistically speaking she's likely to be at a disadvantage, who wants to deliberately place their child at a disadvantage? A year is a huge difference! Children in her year group would have learned so many skills when she was being birthed, from words to walking! I can absolutely see the difference in a September/October baby from the previous year, yet no difference between her and October babies who are 2 months younger. As a summer baby, I was all good academically but fell short socially so I just feel she's likely to fall behind in one of these areas.

No developmental issues and is perfectly fine at nursery with children her age, aside from speech regression last March when the nursery closed and lockdown began she didn't say a word for 6 months, not even mummy but her speech is now spot on. I do worry about her ability to deal with change and pressure at this young age. Another concern is potential covid restrictions and I don't want her first year to be tarred by the current crap.

Gosh, why couldn't she have been born on her due date - 1st September!

[quote Bl00dyH3ll]@Highfivemum yes my LA do allow it, you just have explain reasons. I just feel like she could do with another year. At the same time I want to make sure I'm making the right decision.[/quote]
Then go for it. Good luck

@GreyhoundG1rl

How could a school say yr 7 isn't necessary!! Of course they don't. That's why the year change happens at primary school. Before Year 6.

And your evidence of this is what? Do tell?

questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-questions/detail/2021-03-15/169002

This is helpful regarding the secondary question

Not all schools allow you to defer. My son's friend deferred- has definitely been the right decision as he had speech delay. Very confident and happy at school now. But mum had to approach several schools before finding one who would allow him to start in reception.
My daughter is August born. I will definitely be sending her 2 weeks after she turns 4, she wants to go now! Children are all so very different and you need to do what's best for yours.

Thanks all, I think I'm going to apply for delayed entry 😊

Thank you @ThornAmongstRoses, @Shantotto and @Wisewordswouldhelp - some very wise words there and I will look into it.

In my LA these requests must go to a panel who make a decision but I assumed (off the back of what I was told) it would only be granted due to issues like severe delay. I suppose there is no way of knowing if it would have been granted for us. But from this thread it sounds like many many summerborns have successfully offset their admission - I had no idea it was this common. In hind site I would have definitely applied for this.

@queenofwobbles I'm sorry you didn't get a chance to know and apply to defer. It's that hindsight I don't want if she struggling 🥺

I’m sorry you didn't get a chance to know and apply to defer. It's that hindsight I don't want if she struggling

This was the driving factor in my decision.

“How would I feel if I sent him just after his 4th birthday and he really struggled which then led to having a long term impact on him?”

Could I live what that sense of guilt knowing I could have prevented it from happening?

It wasn’t a risk I was prepared to take.

The secondary school thing does happen, and has happened. Mainly around safeguarding and funding for FE. I can't go into detail but it is not guaranteed you will stay with your deferred age group.

What happens if everyone defers and you end up with an April born who is now the youngest, do they start a deferral campaign?

It's not a question of who is the youngest in the year.

It's a question of whether the particular child is school-ready.

4 is ridiculously young for children to start formal education.

[quote Bl00dyH3ll]@queenofwobbles I'm sorry you didn't get a chance to know and apply to defer. It's that hindsight I don't want if she struggling 🥺[/quote]
Good luck - If there is a chance to help your child avoid being (statistically) disadvantaged you should take it. Could be wrong but it sounds like teachers can move a child back up a year if they excel, but not down.

Having said I am really thankful for the people who posted summer born success stories and I am sure many other factors are involved in education. It's a tough one!

Depends on the kids nature- if they are clever, resilient (eurgh) types, with a social advantage of older siblings/cousins I'd consider keeping them in their own year.

If they're sensitive, quiet types or less socially confident then I'd delay.

I've got a 4 year old who is going to reception this year as one of the oldest in her class. I have a nephew who is currently excelling in reception despite being a very young summer born boy. There's only a month between the kids but because of their personalities what worked for one would not work for the other.

The only thing to watch out for is admission to secondary, the decision to remain with their cohort would need to be remade so make sure you're fully aware of what you'd need to do. However I can't imagine any secondary school really wanting to put a rising year 6 straight into year 8 so I'm sure it's just a LEA scare tactic because they seem very anti the idea of delayed school starting for summer born kids.

The LEA are anti it because it can skew the size of year groups.

What happens if everyone defers and you end up with an April born who is now the youngest, do they start a deferral campaign?

NO -BECAUSE THE PROBLEM ISN’T ABOUT BEING THE YOUNGEST IN YEAR - ITS ABOUT CHILDREN NOT BEING EMOTIONALLY, SOCIALLY OR ACADEMICALLY READY FOR SCHOOL AT JUST TURNED 4 YEARS OLD!!

And I had to ‘shout’ this because so many people seem to be completely missing this point.

To imply that parents only want deferral just so their summer born child isn’t the youngest in the year is really insulting.

I wish I had posted this in January- my Dd is very late August born, she's not ready for school, we were always going to defer her. She was due late September so would have been starting next year.

We were swayed by her nursery that she was doing really well alongside her peer group and that they thought she was ready for school so we made an application.

Now we have received a progress report from the nursery age ranging her as behind in virtually every category- when we discussed this with the nursery we were then told that they've placed her with children in the year below (!?) So basically the children that will be starting next year, exactly as we were intending.

She's very small for her age anyway (25th percentile) and looks tiny next to a 4 year old. Although she's really confident she has no attention span, she has a massive vocabulary but her pronunciation needs alot of work...., she's just not ready and I can't see her being ready for full days in 3 months time. I'm also worried they're going to jump all over this nursery report, lots of which I disagreed with, she knows far more than they've made out, it reads like she has learning difficulties and although certain areas do need some work she's 3 and has come on so much in the past 6 months.

I'm seriously worried that she's going to be knocked by school, her confidence shines right now and I'll be devasted for her if this has been a massive mistake, after reading this I really want to try and pull the plug....but I'm guessing it's too late...or is it??

I'll be devasted for her if this has been a massive mistake, after reading this I really want to try and pull the plug....but I'm guessing it's too late...or is it??

Your daughter isn’t legally required to go to school until the term after she’s 5 so up until then, you can do what you want. If you have changed your mind and don’t want her to go to reception this year then of course you can pull out - there’s no comeback on you for it.

And then you just start the process of securing a reception start for her next September instead.

Could you not just claim to be "homeschooling", and then enter her into reception at Christmas or Easter?

That being said, your dd isn't even 3 yet... A LOT can happen, developmentally, in a year.

To imply that parents only want deferral just so their summer born child isn’t the youngest in the year is really insulting.

Some April borns won't be ready.... Especially if they start becoming the "youngest".

Everyone has used stats about summer borns to justify their decisions. Not sure why it's rude to say you want to not be the youngest (which summer borns currently are).

my son is the oldest, his best friend was the youngest.. there was literally 2 weeks between their birthdays starting school.

She probably 'caught up' academically with him in about yr3 i think? So it didnt cause a huge deficit for long.

Remember it has knock on effects, they can't do interschool sports with the kids in their class as it's by age and at 18 she might not be best pleased she's got a year of school left. I'm a late August birthday and went to a top university, I really wasn't disadvantaged

I have a September child and an August one both now at secondary school. Academically my September born was more than ready to start school and although he wasn't too far behind my August born struggled a bit with his work until year 3 when he absolutely found his feet and caught right up. I will say though that socially my September son struggled throughout primary school with making friends, something that he has had no problem doing at secondary school but my August son was more than ready socially with starting full time school when he had just turned 4, so although he was slightly behind hitting his targets at first he settled in very well with his peers and sending him was absolutely the right thing to do.
I now have another August child who will start school next year and I'm 99% certain that I won't be deferring him either.

Its trickier but not too late. I would join the fb page flexible admissions for summer borns they will be able to advise. Usually there is a member who has experience of this in your area

Oops that was in reply to frazzledd

@HercwasanEnemyofEducation

The secondary school thing does happen, and has happened. Mainly around safeguarding and funding for FE. I can't go into detail but it is not guaranteed you will stay with your deferred age group.

What happens if everyone defers and you end up with an April born who is now the youngest, do they start a deferral campaign?

This is wrong because the first summer borns are only just getting to secondary age this September. As the scheme only started in 2015!

Now there may have been children with EHCPs out of cohort before then but they have a completely different set rules and funding arrangements.

All children are clearly different and only you can know. However my late August daughter is in the top 10 highest academic achievers of her cohort and has the social skills of a mature teenager (this may be influenced by our family/life).

At 12 she is ready to rule the world!! and make a better job of it than most!

Consider your own child and do not compare.