Keeping child back a school year - in Year 5

[Goodnightpeach]

Hi. Has anyone successfully moved their child back a school year at an older age?

We are moving to a new area soon and moving from state to private school. I mention this because DC won't know anyone in her new school, and I think private might have more autonomy over whether to accept her in the year below.

Our 31st August born child is in currently in Y5 and academically in the lower 25% attainment wise for reading, writing, spelling. Her maths is good but she has some dyslexia and struggles with English tasks.

Obviously we would also need a private secondary to agree to take DC when the time comes, but I know of people who have done this successfully with London secondaries so think the secondary school transition part will be fine.

I’ve dine research on this OP and it’s not a good idea. Delayed school entry is one thing, holding back a year (in a country where it’s not the norm) is not good for self esteem at all and has negative knock-on effect for motivation and achievement.

I would actually have given my child the choice. I reckon a lot of 8 year olds would be mature enough to give a view on it. I would sell it as an opportunity to make a fresh start and to go into whichever year she is comfortable with.

Someone has to be in the bottom 25% and if it was me, I would find that easier to cope with if I was one of the youngest in the class. If I then moved into the year below and kids a year younger than me were better than me, then that would have really knocked my confidence.

Our son was born prematurely and has a late August birthday instead of a late October one. He could read at 3 but was really tiny. He began Reception aged 5, eldest in year but wearing age 2 clothing that looked big on him.

We chose a private school to make deferring a year easier. When he was in year 3 another - slightly older - August born in year 4 was held back a year. From the point of view of child and parent this seemed harder to pull off initially, but ultimately the boy settled ok and successfully transitioned to Yr 5 which was seen as a big step up year.

Conversely, our DS left in year 5 and joined the local primary. I was advised by the Head of the Primary to put as strong a case as possible for him remaining an out of year placement. 19 different documents it was. The strongest thing in our favour was that our DS had always been an out of year placement.

The most interesting thing to us about switching from a private to state setting was how far behind the Maths he'd been taught was.

At secondary school our DS is not the oldest in year. There is one older child who’s parents applied for them to be deferred and had quite a battle to achieve this. They have dyslexia.

Deferring a year was definitely the right decision for our DS. At 16 he’s 6 foot tall and most of his physical difficulties are in the past.

Some thoughts about keeping a deferred year if returning to a state setting -supporting the case with many documents was one hurdle at year 5 but we did have material because he’d had physio and a few ops. When transferring to secondary school 2 yrs later a new hurdle arrived: the online portal could not handle the out of year birth date so a ‘manual’ application was necessary. Still typed but submitted as an online form with attached documentation. We had to wait for a letter and email confirming which school, a very long 4 days after everyone else knew.

Where we live this is allowed in state secondary schools. There aren't many children who do it, sometimes they are ESL or have spent time in other education systems. But no one bats an eyelid and I don't think I've heard any parent say they regretted it.
I've always wondered about age in year being an advantage, I went to a super selective school and there was a prevalence of Sept-Dec birthdays. I'm a September, DH is also a September and went to another selective school.
DD is a summer baby and I've always felt she would have emotionally benefitted from being in a lower year, although she is academic.

Not a good idea. I can see why you think it is but for well being reasons reaching into the future it isn't.
Get her help and support to identify the correct interventions needed for her dyslexia, it's very varied. She needs ICT equipment with speech to text and other apps etc for dyslexia.
It's unlikely she would suddenly start achieving in another way by being "put back" a year but she might make huge steps with the right type of help.