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?

I'm in Scotland, we usually start no earlier than 4.5 years and my dd was deferred with an extra year in nursery and started high school at 12.6 years.

Scotland is much more flexible. Minimum starting age 4y 6m with the ability to defer starting school by 1 year and still have the full 7 years of primary school before starting secondary school

If you stay in Scotland, that is fine, but if you move to England you may have to miss an entire year. My friend chose to hold both of her children back, so her DS went at 5.5 and her daughter at 5. They then moved to England and missed years 3 and 1 respectively. Luckily they are in a small school with split classes, so the impact has been minimised - but with all the new targets for school, missing a whole year's "non-negotiables" could mean that they never catch up.

For me, it's the emotional intelligence thing that bothers me most. I look at the boys in DS1's years and they seem so much more grown-up and don't have a lot in common with DS1. He is so much happier and has made far more friends now that he's in the older half of a split class.

MillyMolly, if a parent's request to start their child a year later is granted by the Headteacher, they then have to re-apply for a space the following year, and be allocated it under the normal admissions arrangements.

So in theory, yes, if the "out of year" child lives closer than a "correct year" child, then the "correct year" child who lives further away could lose out on a space.

Eyeofthestorm - private schools manage it because they bank on the fact that parents will then stay within the private system, possibly in a school which goes all the way through. I don't know if a child moved from one private school to another, whether that agreement would be honoured.

I'm pretty sure that if a child moved from a private/independent school back into the state sector, then they would have to go back to their correct yeargroup.

I'm not sure how old your ds is, but I think that now, if you have the support of the Headteacher, then a delayed year would go ahead. The headteacher has the final say-so, not the Local authority. That's the way it works in my local authority, but I don't know if that's the same everywhere.

I agree with Happy. Children start school much too young here, across the board.

In the USA, where parents can choose to start their children late, it is very popular to hold little boys back a year. It's seen to give them an advantage academically, and also in sports as they get older and are bigger than their peers all along.

The problem it causes for schools is this: the spread of ages within a year group spreads from 1 year max, to 18 months or more. This causes problems academically and socially. Poorer students disproportionately because the youngest in the class because their working families cannot afford to "hold them back." School is free and daycare is not.

I have a lot of sympathy for summer born children. There isn't any "silver bullet" though. Aside, from just waiting till their all about 6, which I would very much like personally.

Because=become

Their = they are

sheesh! I need to concentrate more

We've just moved to Sydney and where we are living it is common to hold children back a year. We don't know whether we will ultimately stay beyond my dh's initial 3 year contract, so we have put our summer born DTs into Kindergarten at 4.7 yrs so that they will be in the right year if/when we return to the UK. They have friends who have turned 6 in their year group, but the DTs seem to be holding their own.

They manage the logistics in Scotland where the cut off point is different - 28th Feb rather than August - and all Jan/feb birthdays have an automatic right to defer. Deferring does not mean missing out a year but a child who is deferred starts in Primary 1 rather than missing out the year. In reality few do defer but for those who need the extra year to prepare for school, it makes a real difference.

Bliss are campaigning for the ability to defer for children who were born prematurely. An August born child who was premature can have even more to do catch up with a September born child.

There isn't total flexibility in the private sector. Quite a few major schools are very strict about children being the correct age at 11 or 13+ and won't let old ones sit, or even make young ones go away for a year and repeat year 6 after getting the place (less usual).

Incidentally I have known more children ahead of their year than behind in the private sector.