Not to send my child to reception year?

[IzzyPopp]

It is not compulsory in this country to start primary school until 5 year old (I find even that is early) but children even start at the age of 4 in reception.

How important is the reception and what is taught, given it is not compulsory to start until the child turns 5.

And then once the child turns 5 they must start the term after their fifth birthday, not in the following September after they turned 5, which is the beginning of school year. What is taught in that year given it is ok for the child to miss the beginning of that school year?

Do people in general send their kids to reception at 4 or do they wait till 5? Or does it vary quite a bit?

Yep. It's based on the learning authority's decision. In our case all our primary schools are governed by the local authority so it was their decision.

They've approved my eldest who theoretically should have started last year, but who will be starting Reception in this coming September.

My youngest isn't school aged yet, but we'll be making the same application for him and have no reason to believe they could/would deny it.

Presumably because OP isn't from the UK and children starting formal education at this age is strange to her.

Whilst it is mostly learning through play…to say they don’t learn a lot of horrendously wrong!! An expectation at the end for reception is that they can write a sentence independently- there is a hell of a lot of work that goes into teaching that, and that’s just one example!

OP, your child’s reception year sets up A LOT of the groundwork for your child’s future in school. Reading, writing, maths skills (which isn’t just counting - it’s having a deep understanding of numbers to 10 - composition, cardinality, patterns of counting!) This isn’t all we do of course but miss these…unless you can confidently say you could teach your child these yourself to the he same standard… it’s likely your child will be behind when they go into year 1!

DS1 is a November baby so he’ll be a few months shy of 5 when he starts in September. But he can’t wait to go!

If you don’t send them they won’t keep the place , you may not get the school you want or nearby as they won’t just keep an empty space for you if over subscribed. Also your child will miss making friends it may or may not be harder for them
although young children often make. Friends quickly
the school day tends to be 9-3pm ish

I would recommend joining the " flexible school admissions for summer borns" group on Facebook. We deferred my summer born DC so they started reception a year later following their advice. This is legally possible for anyone and very common in most other countries.
I would not recommend allowing your child to miss out on their reception experience although this is also legally possible.

I think most of this will have been covered but depending on where you live your child may struggle to get into your local school if you don’t apply for them to start in reception.
there was one child that started straight into year 1 in my DS’s class. She really struggled and needed separate teaching to get her up to speed as she had missed the reception learning. It could be that a lot of this could be taught at home but you’d need to find out what needed teaching so they aren’t disadvantaged.
Some things I think would be more difficult to replicate as it is learning about the routines at school and how to interact with peers.
my DD is born at the end of August and started school in September just after she turned 4. She has always thrived at school and enjoyed it.

Why wouldn't you want to send them after all it's a little more advanced than nursery. My lo loves it. They play, get fresh air, go to trips, go to Forrest school and slowly dip their toes in phonics, maths, P.E, Music and understanding the world. My lo is going to struggle in year 1 though so I would hate it if he jumped from nursery to year 1 without doing the warm up in reception.

@valensiwalensi it's not massively different at all in many many cases. Full days at a private nursery are often a lot longer than at school for a start. Maybe your nursery is more informal and your Reception class more formal than most.

Thanks for all the responses. This is very helpful. I haven’t read through all of them yet.

To address some of the points and questions basically my thinking was (as some PP also said) nursery is basically play with some structure and learning. I didn’t know what exactly happens in reception and 4 years old seems rather young to go to what I imagine school is (from what I know from my childhood). We start school at 6. And I have seen some very tired 4 year olds coming home from school/reception.

My DC is born in March, so if they turn 4 in March 2026 they would start reception in September 2026. Or alternatively, when they turn 5 in March 2027 they must start school the term after Easter in 2027 which would be reception and then they would start in year 1 in September 2027? Are those the options?

Reading the responses, even though I think 4 is quite young (having said that sounds like the reception is a lot of play despite the tired 4 year olds I have seen - I know at least one PP mentioned tiredness as well) if that’s what majority of people are doing I wouldn’t want to disadvantage my DC by making them way older than everyone else in their class.

I’m in England.

Yes people send their kids to school the September after they are 4 because that's when they should go !

If your DC is already in full time nursery then reception hours will be less.

Are you using nursery for child care? If so you may need to look at breakfast and after school clubs too

This is it. This resonates with me. But if that’s how the whole system and society functions than not following it might not be the best thing. My DC has also been doing really well and appears to be quite advanced so maybe would benefit not to be held back by a year (I would still aim to put them in reception but as late as legally possible)

If born in March, the expectation is that you start in Reception in the September of the year you turn four. They would not be of compulsory school age until they turn 5 (so they would be for the summer term of Reception) so you can't be fined/penalised if they miss days before that. Although, in theory, you can delay sending them until three summer term, I don't know anyone who's done that nor schools who would like it.

My DD was summer-born and premature, so we delayed her school start by a year - she started Reception at 5 (some counties put up a fight against this). If this were possible, I would have rather she'd started Reception at 4 due to the play-based introduction to school, rather than start school straight into year 1, where learning becomes more formal.

A full school day of 9-3ish will be less than FT at nursery.

Sorry, I meant if a delayed start were
NOT possible ^^.

If they are at nursery full time they will not find reception tiring.
My children found the first few months quite limited compared to their private day nursery where they had been doing 10hr days.
Reception is mostly play with some structure.
It's incredibly similar to most nursery classes. But it's important for both social integration and also learning the school approach.
You might learn to read but if you learn a slightly different variation of phonics you may struggle in year 1.

You are being incredibly unreasonable.

In reception they learn to read, write, count / calculate, and behave in school. It is not nursery. They learn so much.

My son was in Reception in 2019/20, and in his year the effects of missing a part of that year are still visible.

And don’t come with the arguments of “in other countries they don’t start until 7” - yes, but then they’re not shoved into a classroom with kids who have been in school for a year already and who are miles ahead.

I think the OP has asked perfectly reasonable questions when coming from a culture where schooling is different.

Sorry that you had a child missing out through lockdown.

My kids loved reception. They made friends, learned how to behave at school, had fun! Not sure how much they learned, but it was like a year long bridge from play to schooling. I think going straight in to Y1 would be too abrupt a change.

My son is 4, turns 5 at the end of May. He started school in September. He absolutely loves it. He’s made so many little friends, he can now read, write with his phonics, count, add, throw and catch a ball, tell stories, tell the time to the hour, works through conflict better with peers. It’s all continuous provision so it’s lots of play. I don’t think he’d manage very well if we’d held him back as a summer born and then gone straight into Year 1. As we work, he is in breakfast club from 7:45 and a couple of times a week stays until 4 with after school club.

@IzzyPopp you have to remember that most countries where school doesn't start until 6 or 7 children usually go to "Kindergarten" for a few years.
Reception year - and sometimes even Year 1 - is essentially the same as most other countries Kindergartens.
(obviously I don't know what country you are from)

My summer born started when she was 4 and settled in really well
I don’t think she would have handled going straight into year 1 where the expectations were higher. Most of the kids had already made their friend groups by the end of the first term in reception so that’s something to think about too
Also, if you don’t start in reception you won’t be applying for school the same time as everyone else so will be a lot more limited in school places as you will have to go to somewhere with a space. This might not be at the school you want

We have experience of two different schools. One was mainly play focused in reception but still had to deliver the curriculum. At the other I had feedback in week two that my child had missed part of playtime because he had been required to sit and write out several rows of a letter and had been messing around. They had made him sit until he finished. That first year was a miserable experience. Check how the school approaches reception.

I'm surprised by all the people saying Reception is all about play - it certainly wasn't at my kid's school - very structured, strict rules (walk to dinner hall in silence and single file) and heavy focus on phonics. It was really intense, ans
I was not comfortable putting my just-turned-4 year old into this environment fill time.

So I sent her part time in reception. The school didn't like it but I didn't ask permission - I explained she would go 4 days a week I til Christmas and we'd review it after that. It was definitely the right decision for us - we had a lie-in on Wednesdays, spent time outdoors, baking, playing, reading - she was able to decompress from the intensive school day and went back for the second half of the week in a better state.

I was glad she didn't miss the first term altogether, as it was really important for socialising and starting to learn the rules. And she would have survived 5 days a week, just with a lot more meltdowns and pain for the whole family. I was lucky of course to only work part time, but it worked out very well for us

I'm sure all schools differ but at my dds primary they cover alot of phonics in reception.
Youngest is in nursery, will start reception in September and this term they've already started on phonics, all the kids who are moving up can write their names independently and recognise all the letter sounds. It's still play based but more structured around phonics.
Then in reception they learn lots of other skills too plus they're reading short easy sentence books before year 1.