Have you sent your August-born to school at 4 and later regretted it?

[Sandrine1982]

Hi

I know this has been discussed many times before but I'd like to hear from parents who have not deferred the school start for their kids.
I know some parents with August-born children and they all want to defer their children so they start reception at 5.
But I want to hear the other perspective.

Our DD is just 3 but the registration period will start soon and I really don't know what we should do. She was born 25 August but her due date was actually 1 September. She was born a bit early as I had to be induced.

She seems very bright and is an extremely active, lively, friendly and sociable child. She has been at nursery full time since she was 1 year old.
Her speech is developping fine and physically she's also developping great - she's quite tall and athletic for her age.

The only thing I'm worried about is emotional maturity and just general readiness for school. I'm not really worried about reception but her schooling later on, and the impact of school on her confidence levels if "it doesn't work out".

Can people offer their experiences if they haven't deferred and it all turned out ok?
And if we do send her to school and she's really struggling later on, can she repeat a year or something like that?
I'm not familiar with the UK system as I wasn't born here..

Thanks in advance.
xx

Deferring wasn't an option for my child who is now 13.

She was one of four August born kids in her primary class. It was/is fine.

She is very bright, and has dyslexia (reading is her super power- but writing/spelling is her Achilles heel) and she is being assessed for ADHD. The primary tests they do are age adjusted.

But... An awful lot depends on the cohort which is something I never considered at the time. Her primary class were a lovely bunch of kids and she had good friends. But that is not always the case and I think that has a huge impact on children.

If your child is happy with their cohort I would not move them unless absolutely necessary.

I also agree with you @MyBrilliantFriend - there’s actually a campaign to introduce a kindergarten stage going on in Scotland right now and there are a handful of kindergartens now open near me taking kids up to 6/7, though kids would currently have to transfer to P2/P3 if using that option.

But there’s a distinction between formal education and what we know about when children are ready to learn formally, and making sure that children who need, or might need, additional support can access it early through the right means. One doesn’t necessarily mean the other.

In many cases, these children aren't identified until they are in school. In the examples I gave, the issue isn't that parents have been trying to access support and been unable to. In those examples, the parents are part of the problem. Whilst some children would be fine not starting school until later, leaving other children in environments that aren't stimulating or developmental would just serve to widen the attainment gap further.

If we are considering formal education as sat at tables having structured lessons, that typically doesn't start until Year One and, even then, in most settings Year One involves an element of provision based learning through play anyway.

There’s nothing to say though that extended play based early years non-school or preschool settings wouldn’t have the same outcome though. I can’t be as certain that formal education is the right thing to do!

But Reception is largely play-based and child-led, not formal. It's just also run by people with teaching qualifications who have a much stronger idea of what the children need developmentally in order to best prepare them for their more formal education.

The same is the case of many many preschool settings and the staff who work in them. Starting school later would delay starting formal education which is what we’re trying to say here. I can see all sides but do find the certainty and sureness disconcerting.

This popped up as a Google suggestion. Made me think of this thread...apologies it's from The Sun

September babies

It’s also a ridiculous piece of smug nonsense. So many people don’t get to plan even the time of year when their babies come. So many struggle to conceive. And talking about babies being ‘advanced’ well that has nothing to do with when they are born as the school year cohort doesn’t come in until they are four anyway.

That said, my summer babies were sort-of deliberate, it worked well with work for both of us and my DH was able to be home from work early all the way up until autumn (and it was less lonely with all the night feeding not being in the cold and dark).

I have worked for and with some incredibly intelligent people, some were summer born. A former boss was a world leading scientist, and FRS, his birthday is at the end of July.

My dd was late summer born. She used fall on to the floor to sleep as soon as we got her home from school at 4. She caught up in later years, but I always remember thinking that was hard on her.

Thank you all so much. I must say I'm leaning towards sending her next year, as expected. I spoke to the nursery staff and they said she will be ready. She's always gravitated towards older children so if I deferred, I might regret it more than if I didn't ... and if I deferred there is no way back, so to speak....

@Thistleinthenight oh yes the tiredness is actually my biggest concern! DD still loves her naps, even though many kids her age have already dropped it :p