What year would my Dd be in in the U.K.

[Putalittlebirdhouseinyoursoul]

She turned 5 in July, if we returned to the U.K., would she be in reception class or Year 1?

Please don't generalize. Scotland has different education system from England, so it's inaccurate to answer as if the UK had one system. In Scotland the maximum class size for Primary One is 25 pupils. And in Scotland it is pretty normal to have some children taking a "value year", which means they are deferred and not with their age-cohort group.

The age for starting school is different in Scotland from England, there is not a UK answer to the OP's question as it depends which part of the UK they move to.
In Scotland the cut off is end Feb, and children are minimum of 4.5ys to 5.5yrs in Primary One.

It depends on the child. My daughter is end of August so will be starting reception a few days after she turns 4. I've looked into holding her back as she's a summer born but she's social, confident and making good progress with numeracy and literacy so I don't feel it will benefit her staying back a year.

Also, have you looked into where you might want to send your child as many schools are over subscribed (no spaces) and if you won't be applying until later on in the year- after the application process has closed and places are allocated, you may not have much choice.

Definitely speak to schools as, with it being her first entry to school they could inform admissions they approve a deferral into year 1. I think this would definitely be more beneficial for her socially and academically (teacher)

@GreyhpundGirl Where I am, they *Have to give you a space if your child is school age…what happens if no spaces? Homeschooling?

The council will place them where there is space but this might not be close to you- it could be anywhere in the authority. E.g I live in Nottingham and the 4 schools we've put down for our application aren't oversubscribed but if they were and we didn't get in to any of the 4 choices, we would be offered a place somewhere in the Nottingham City authority (which is pretty big) where there is a space.

In England, the decision to put a child out of year would be made by the admissions authority of each school - so for maintained schools the LA, for academies the academy chain.

There is a right to request, but it's up to the admissions authority in the end. In YR, Y1 , Y2 there is a legal maximum of 30 per teacher, so in oversubscribed areas you may get little choice, as a school with 30 already cannot be made to take another except in very specific circumstances - if there is really no room for quite a distance the Fair Access Protocol will enable it, for example, but that wouldn't apply if any fairly local school had a place. So you will get a place, but it may not be in the school or year of your choice.

It depends in how well your child engages with adult led learning. Some children are ready and grown up and others might really struggle.with structure. I had two summer born children one was able to cope and one wasn't with the demands of their year group. In England reception and even year 1.are.still fairly play based.

Apologies what I said was in reference to England not whole UK.

I've been a year 2 teacher in London and almost every year I had children joining the class (pre-Brexit) from European countries where they had not yet started school. Further complicated by not speaking English, or being literate in their first language, either. Your DD is at a relative advantage and she would catch up.

Our DC has always been in a deferred year. He was born in the UK, but we lived in the US during part of the nursery years. He has a late August birthday and was very prem. When we came back to the UK, he went to a private school, going into reception a few days after his 5th birthday. This has worked well but he literally has a birthday only days before the official cutoff date. He remained smallest child in year group until mid primary. It was a difficult decision to make because academically he could have easily held his own. But he was very tiny and wasn’t even holding his own with physical strength even deferred a year. People used to say, he will catch up sizewise. He did, but not until the teenage years.

If your daughter was 7 now (born July 2016,) would you say she was 10 ??? @Putalittlebirdhouseinyoursoul

Batshit.