To think DD should get place at nursery over children deferring reception?

[Matronic6]

DD has been at a nursery part time since she turned 1. In March we asked about going full time in August for nursery room and were told it would be 'no problem' as so many were leaving for reception and we had asked so early.
We emailed to confirm we had a place for August, and they said it'd be mid August.

I confirmed with my work that I will go back full time in August. I previously phoned nursery in early May to confirm she had a full time spot to commit to my employer. The only thing is it was verbal, I have gone through emails and at no point have they said 'DD has a place starting August xx'

We have just got an email asking if we were still interested in a full time place. We were confused but replied yes we still needed the full time slot. They have since replied that due to high numbers of children deferring reception and a lot of requests for FT there is less places in nursery and they could not confirm a place at this time but will update us.

AIBU to think that this is firstly really unprofessional and secondly DS should be prioritised for a place over children who said they were leaving but are now deferring reception entry?

@NchangeoYou're absolutely right the issue isn’t really about reception as that’s very play based. It’s as they move further up the school that research shows that they start to really struggle. Summer borns will be sitting their GCSES a year earlier and dealing with all the teenage drama at a younger age. My own DH who was very successful at school and now in work, is an august born and he ended up repeating y12 twice. I have no evidence for this but I wouldn’t be surprised if the statistics are much higher for summerborms dropping out in sixth form or repeating a year.

As I said, if that’s what your child (and others) needs, fair enough. Lots do well having not deferred, and vice versa. There’s no need to be so defensive about it.

See that’s not adding up with what you and others are saying about them being too young to start school. If the issue is the gcse year being at the wrong age. Then fair enough. Move that test to another time.

Thats exactly the reason btw that the people I know are deferring. It’s got nothing to do with not being ready for school. Most are in 8-6 nursery prep currently. It’s to do with the grammar 11+ being year group marked not age marked. I am hoping the grammars/ gov clock onto this and change it by the time we get there. They have already in some counties. Hoping same with gcse/ a level results.

@NchangeoThey are too young to start school but that disadvantage stays with them throughout life, even beyond school, summer borns are statistically less likely to be successful in their jobs, more likely to go to Prison, more likely to commit suicide. The list is pretty extensive. It is not a matter of them being at a disadvantage for a couple of years and then catching up. The government allows deferral because it can make such a significant impact. A couple of people have mentioned that I seem to defensive and I would just clarify that this has nothing to do with my own decisions for my DC. I know 100% that I have done the best thing by my child. I do however feel quite passionate about this topic and feel the need to advocate on these frequent threads where so much misinformation is given.

As more children are deferring, it will be interesting to see how things like age group sport (currently, deferred children may have to play competitive sport in their ‘true’ year group above a certain level) and 11+ (currently, in some areas at least, only allowed to be taken by older children - ie those who are deferred - by exception) pan out. It seems quite likely that there will be a move from invested parents to make sure their child is ‘as old as is allowed’ in these competitive scenarios. I agree that late summer borns, especially boys. from disadvantaged backgrounds will become very much ‘developmental outliers’ in school cohorts, to their educational and social detriment.

I think the whole deferring places trend is a bit ridiculous. Many (not all) parents are misusing it to give their kid some kind of advantage.

@Namechangerage DGS is a summer born boy. By Easter in nursery, he was a year behind where DGD was at the same age. He couldn’t even hold a pencil, never mind drawing or writing. His parents and I tried to get him to hold a pencil and he just refused! ALL he wanted to do was play with his cars. He would play with Duplo revolving around cars; but he didn’t want to do anything else. Frankly, we find it hard to have a conversation with him, because we don’t know the first thing about Hot Wheels!

There was no way, he was ready to go into Reception last September. The school advised he stay in nursery for another year. He is now going into Reception this September. I read his nursery report this week, and while he mainly plays with cars, they have got him onto playing with sand and toy animals. He’s achieving age appropriately.

Out of interest how did your d. Cope with repeating twice? Did they complete year 13 and go to uni? How did they explain the repeats. Were unis sympathetic and accepting?