Delaying your child starting school

[ChillySundays]

I was under the impression that in state school children have to leave primary school at 11.

If a child delays starting school for a year and starts in YR rather than going straight into Y1 how will that affect the age that they leave. Would they have to leave at the end of Y5?

They don't start in yr R they go straight to ?ear one if they miss a year.

I know they do at the moment but isn't there talk about pupils in the future being able to go into YR

In the UK if you try and delay the start you may risk losing a place at the school of your choice as all the places get filled in reception, and unless someone leaves you won't get a place in Y1.

It is extremely unusual for state schools in the UK to not place children in the same academic year as children the same age because there are many social implications.

DS2 didn't start school till yr 1 in September he went straight onto yr 1. Obviously it depends where you live but we had plenty of choices.

Year one is far more structured than reception, and your child might find it more difficult to adjust to full time education if he/she misses reception.

In answer to your original question your child would start secondary school at 11 regardless. As he parent of a teenager I would suggest it would be social suicide extremely difficult for your child if he/she wasn't in the same age group as their peers at secondary school.

My DS had never even been to nursery before he started school in yr 1 he didn't find it difficult to adjust at all in fact the complete opposite. I accept some might struggle but it depends on the child.

Parents of summer born children have the right to request that their child starts in Reception a year after their chronological year group. However, it is up to the Headteacher to either agree or deny this request. IN my local authority, once that permission is given, it is for the child's entire primary and secondary education. I don't know, however, whether that is standard amongst all local authorities.

My DC have left school so it doesn't affect me although my DS was born in August

I was just interested as to me it's all very well if you wanted to and could start your 5 year old in YR but if they had to leave at the end of Y5 and start secondary with a different set of pupils they are no better off?

This issue was on the radio today and some complex points were raised. If a child is held back, said child could not apply for grammar school. One of the mothers was in Kent where I think grammars take 20 or 25 per cent of pupils in Year 7. This is a huge factor for some parents for not delaying starting school.

Another Mum said that her son was not ready for school but had to send him. In Year 1 she was told that her child needed lots of support and was classed as special needs when in reality he was just very young. If he had been delayed a year and allowed into reception when he attended school, they would have had to have put no special measures in place for him.

Delaying summer born children starting school sounds quite simple but has many implications as a result further down the line.

I do know of someone who delayed school for 2 of her 5 children. Both started in Year 1 and both now doing well (ages 12 and 14). Having them at home for an extra year must be similar to home education, one on one so perhaps they may learn quite quickly.

I would love DS1 to move back a year. I asked when he was at pre-school and was told that I couldn't start him late - just go straight to Year 1 at 5. He's fine with the work, but is emotionally young (end of August birthday). He's now in a split year 3/4 class and has made some lovely friends in the younger half of the class - would love him to continue with them rather than his own year - in some cases there is less than a week's difference in age, but a whole year different at school - I hate that it's so inflexible.

It's a shame that it can't be like private schools where a child is kept down. I am sure this would have happened to my son.

My sister has 2 summer born babies. She lives in Ireland, they are both very bright boys, they are in a class below the one the would be in England and are flourishing.

In contrast I have a summer born son in Year 1. He has always been very well adjusted socially, but academically not interested at all. His reception class was very serious, not much play at all. He had problems with an immature bowel, so was always having accidents, with only 2 teachers, how can they be expected to deal with each individual 4 year old's emotional/physical needs and still have time to teach them to read and write? So, the already bright children flourish, as they are easier to teach and the less able ones fall behind.

I have today attended another meeting with his teacher, where it appears he his still at the bottom of the class and they are having to re-teach what he should have learnt in reception. In hindsight he would be much better off in the year below, it would have helped his self esteem and encouraged him to try harder. At the moment, all he seems to notice at school is that everyone else is ahead of him, especially as he and 3 others are taken off for "special lessons".

The school is a high achieving village school, but much of that I feel is due to the catchment area and the academic calibre of the parents of the children at the school. I don't blame the teachers, I blame the system.

I was an August baby and despite being in the top set at school, came out with no qualifications to speak off, I re-sat my exams a year later, when I was 16 and passed most of them, I don't think I ever quite caught up during school.

We are already paying for extra tuition for him, I read with him every night, help him with his homework, spellings, reading, plus some written task, which is generally way beyond him. Far too much homework for a 5 year old in my opinion and when there's time let him do what he enjoys, sporty stuff, music etc, I am at a loss as to what else I can do to help him along.

Chilly - have you read what Tiggy and I wrote? It is possible to start school in Reception a year later just like some private schools do.

I'm interested in the "being allowed" comment. I didn't keep my DS at home because I didn't think he could cope, I kept him at home because I believed that I could offer him more than a school ever could.
He went into yr1 not being able to read as I never taught him the alphabet and by the end of year 1 he was the best reader in the class, virtually free reading. I'd taught him very informally "basic" math, counting adding subtracting basic dividing multiplying etc and his math was much better than his classmates, he could draw very well and was confident and highly articulate; he could discuss all sorts of topics, he had lots of friends and therefore good social skills and was happy to sit concentrate he settled very quickly. He could also ride, climb trees, identify birds, flowers, make up stories really well, and he knew what was going in the world. 1 year later he left and went to a boarding school as he had been identified by the school as very gifted child and was bored rigid. At his prep many had been at pushy London pre preps he was not behind in my way in fact in many areas he was ahead of them I never even mentioned his delay in starting school. Now 16 he's doing very well.
We send our children to school to early IMO.

Littlefish - I have read the post but from what Tiggy has said some councils may make your child leave primary school at the end of Y5 which wouldn't happen at private school (unless you came out of the private school system)

Littlefish it is all very well for the guidelines to say that parents can request for a summer born child to be delayed.

In our case, they just said no, even though we had support from medical professionals and the head teacher of the primary school attended by our other DC.

All 3 DC are summer born, but only DS2 needed to be delayed because he wasn't ready for school due to prematurity and a very stormy start in life.

His development was behind, but if he was placed in the 'right' year there was time for him to overcome his difficulties.

Because the LEA said no to delaying him, we chose a local private school where there is at least one child out of their school year and no one turns a hair. Luckily, it goes all the way through to 18.

How unfair that he and we get that choice.

The problem is most parents that want to keep their children back a year do not have a child with any problems or delays, they are just young within the school year and they don't want their child to be the youngest. Somebody has to be the youngest, if we let the summer-born be the oldest in the next year group what happens when the parents of spring-born children think their children are disadvantaged by being the youngest?

But there is no parental choice.

It is amazing how thinking about summer borns has changed. My elder DD is 22 and has a mid August birthday. She was in the first cohort of summer borns at her infant school not to start, part time, after Easter and then go full time, for half a term, after Whitsun. Parents felt this was unfair because other children, the older ones, had been in reception since September so they had the double advantage of being older and having more time in school. The Head did her research and at that time it was known that summer borns did not do as well as older children until they were at least 8 years old. This was believed to be because they had less time in school. Many were still struggling to read in y1 and had missed all the preparatory work in YR. Fortunately the school could afford to change their policy and DD started after Christmas. She was ready to go. Now people don't want their summer borns to do this.

How on earth will schools be able to plan for this? What happens if 6 children want to go into the year below but all the children who are due to start that year decide they want their places? So, 36 children want 30 places. Who gets them? The people who deferred or the others who, reasonably, could have expected a place in their local school. This is one of the reasons heads are not keen to agree! Staffing and planning would be a nightmare.

I heard the lady on the radio this morning talking about her y1 with special needs. As someone who used to work in this field, very few children are given lots of additional help in y1 because they have been identified with special needs. He must have quite significant problems. It is quite a leap to say this amount of learning difficulty was caused by being in a reception class. She also said he could not "write" because he could not hold a pencil. I was not convinced that delaying a year would sort any of this out or that extra support would not be needed now had he delayed a year.

I totally agree with your summary Tiggytape, but the Mum on the radio was insisting this was all due to her child being made to start in Reception when he was not ready and no-one questioned her further on his problems.

When I was working, we did fairly often, have downs syndrome children in a lower year group, or even two years below. We then had problems because some of these children were larger and much stronger than their classmates which had to be carefully managed by the class teacher and sometimes it was extremely difficult.

Will the April baby be in the new Spring Born category that replaces the August born Summer baby category? How is anyone to ever manage this?

But private schools manage it all the time.

There aren't that many children who need it - there will not be a sudden flood.

Children do not come out in a cookie-cutter pattern. Most are ready for school, some really are not.

It doesn't matter if you have evidence that your child should be delayed because depending on the LEA, computer says no.

I only have experience of my child. In all areas - emotionally, socially, academically - he was not ready for school. He could have gone into reception and he would have needed extra help. He would have struggled to behave and it would have been a very difficult start to his school life.

We delayed him - he still had problems, but because he had had that extra year at nursery, he didn't stand out from the other children who were starting with him. He is in the mix rather than falling behind or not enjoying school.