Children start school at 5, oh no they don't

[Sadworld23]

We should stop taking about children starting school in the UK at 5.
Whilst that may be the legal age, even Gov.uk says most parents send their child to reception class at 4.

This makes me sad tbh, bc our child is (generally) happy at his nursery, 7m-3y, and I can't see him being ready for school at 4y.
He's barely out of nappies and bottles and I'm already choosing a school for him. And that's without the worries of sorting wrap around childcare to make my work hours work.

I had considered holding him back but nursery are already calculating giving up his place.

YABU children don't really start school til 5y.
YANBU children start school at 4y.

Umm I'm August birthday. I'm pretty sure I started Sept at just turned 5. My brother ( Oct 74) also started Sept but just before he was 5

@RubySquid- I believe it varied by county, but yes, in the case of end of July and August babies who wouldn’t be 5 in term time, you were allowed to just miss reception and go straight into year 1 (or middle infants in old naming.) if you turned 5 during the school year, you started at the start of the term before you turned 5, so October baby in September, February baby in January, May baby after Easter etc. some schools would allow parents to hold you back to do reception if you were an August baby but it was optional and didn’t become a right until recently.

Also then there were no class size limits, and catchment schools would just take you, so 40 in a class happened.

Reception isnt that much harder than nursery, theres lots of free play.

I'm pretty sure it was summer term for summer babies where I was. They'd keep them in reception at least a term into the year 1 so everyone got at least 2 terms of reception.

Yes as the piece says you started as a 'rising 5', which was normal in some areas by the 1960s. But across the whole of england most children were 5 (and a bit).Then rising 5s became more common. Then 4 year olds.

Unfortunately the even earlier starts we have now at 4 don't seem to have helped summer born children, especially boys. And although there's not much good research on this, lots of downsides, again, especially for boys.

I would think a child who has been in nursery since they were 7m would be fine! It’s the ones who have only been at home that will struggle more.

Why do children who have been at home struggle? Nursery is just childcare. Children who are looked after by a parent are often the most confident as they have made very secure attachments and most SAHPs take their children to toddler groups and socialise with friends regularly. They also tend to spend time playing, reading and educatiing their children by taking them to intresting places, talking to them about the world around them and they have had the undivided attention of an adult.

In my experience, children who have spent long hours in daycare from an early age have had less one to one with adults and are less secure, have less general knowledge. They are also more peer focused and care less what their parents and teachers think and more what their friends think as they have learnt that being popular among their peers is an advantage for surviving in a large group. But this makes them less focused on learning from the teacher and listening to adults and they perform less well.

Obviously lots of generalisations there but I don't see children of SAHPs being disadvantaged at all in my experience.

Even SAHP send their children for some hours at pre-school. There aren’t many now who haven’t been to any sort of childcare. It can be a bit of a shock going straight in full time to a reception unit with 29 other children. I didn’t mean struggle academically.

My just3 struggled with the transition to preschool within the same nursery setting where he's been very happy until now. Any child can be resistant to change, I dont think categorising is particularly useful.

Surely any child with siblings have less one to one adult care? If you have twins then when do they get it?

One parent with 2 DC v one staff per 6 or 8 children in nursery is a little different I feel.
But I would inagine children who've been in a nursery type environment with few staff per child would move better into school than children who have been in a home environment.

My concern for my DC is moving to a formal setting rather than being play based. He can't sit still on demand and isn't independent at dressing, despite repeated attempts to try.

Lol my aunt had 9 children . The first 2 were twins. Not much one to one ghere.

When my son was in baby room at nursery ( up to 2 years) it was a 1:2 staff ratio.

Was only 1:8 I think at preschool room which is same age the sahm mum would send kids to playgroup etc. So i want see ge difference tbh

And kids from large families are think are generally more independent as the parents font have time to pander to them and do everything for them so they learn to dress themselves, get a drink etc from an earlier age