my daughter is the youngest in her year!!!!!

[pheobesmummy]

Im really worried about my daughter, she turned 4 on the 30th august and started school on the 4th september (yesterday) so 5 days later, she only got into the year by 1 day and they didnt do january starts, shes cryed both days ive dropped her off and has come home sayin she had fun but that she didnt like it, also her speach has always been quite slow and she does seems quit behind. Her talking has worried me for some time as she has a friend who is a 2 months younger than her and speaks fluently, she is an only child and he isnt so i know that must have helped, her nursery have said that she is doing well but im just so paniced that if she cant express herself at school she is goin to stuggle even more. There are 2 other august birthdays in her class so i know she isnt the only young one. Can any mums relate to this or am i being overly worried? xxx

Hi,
It is tough isn't it... My dd was in the same position as yours last year. August birthday, physically small too so was very babied by some of the other children. She cried on leaving me in the morning every day until February half term, then suddenly stopped. As though she'd decided she was ready for school now. We had a few wobbles towards the end of the summer term as she was getting exhausted.

She nearly brought me to tears this morning, the way she breezily wandered into her new yr1 class without a backward glance. She's come a long way in a year! I'm sure your dd will be fine - it just may take some time. One thing which helped my dd cement friendships was inviting new friends round for tea - not in the first couple of weeks, but pretty soon after. She was much happier about school once she had a couple of good friends.

She could go back in year one surely? There is no legal obligation to start education until the term after a child turns 5.

But hte school don't have to keep the place unless you take it up during the reception year. Schools round here are so full there'd be no chance of a place if you risked it.
In my dd's case I thought it would make it harder for her, socially, to be the new girl and the smallest and youngest, rather than being the smallest and youngest who'd been there all along and knew everyone.

god, the english system really is barbaric, isn't it? to think i thought it was a tough decision for us in scotland...

It is early days - older children will cry etc. when starting school. DD1's birthday is the beginning of August so she had only just turned 4 when she started school 2 years ago. It hasn't held her back in any way as far as I can see. She was slow to start reading but reads perfectly well now as she just enters Yr2. Here in our part of Wales all children start school the full term after they turn 4 so a September-Dec child would start after Christmas and a Jan-March after Easter so they are all quite young.

I had the same problem (DD is Aug 18th). In hindsight, I wish I'd kept her back until Jan or even Easter, but at the time I was concerned about everyone else making friends and her being left out. In retrospect though, I realise that this wouldn't have been a problem.

At her pre-school, she was never allowed to join the "Plus 4s" class because she was never "plus 4" while she was there. Even though I argued that she was starting school in Sept, and that the Plus 4s class was supposed to prepare the kids for school. I think it might have been something to do with funding.

However, that was all a long time ago -she's now a strapping 17 year old, who's main concern is that all her friends will be allowed to drink legally way before she can, as she's managed to chose all the kids who were mainly born in the first half of the year as her best friends.

Oh, and the fact that she can never have a birthday party anywheren near her birthday day because everyone is on holiday. We alsways have it in September, then everyone assumes she's a year older than she really is, and she always gets at least one card with the wrong age on it!