Is it possible to defer entry to secondary for summer born?

[Echobelly]

This is beyond even theoretical at the moment, but I've been thinking about this, as we may just have enough money to manage if possible...

DS, now coming to end of Y2, is August born, and not mature for his age on a number of levels and though bright us still struggling a lot with even basic maths, for example. We missed out by just one year the opportunity to defer start to Reception, which would have been ideal for him had it been an option.

I realise he is still pretty little and may yet catch up, but if he gets to the end of primary and really doesn't seem to have gained ground, would it be theoretically possible (if we can afford it) to have him privately tutored at home for one year to catch up a bit and then start him in Y7 at secondary after his 12th birthday? Or is the LA likely to insist he can only go into Y8 if we were to do that?

Most (possibly all) selective schools use age standardisation on their 11+ tests. This means that, if two children get the same number of questions right, the younger child will end up with a higher score than the older child. There would therefore be no advantage to deferring for a year. Note also that only the parents of summer born children have the ability to delay entry into Reception in this way.

Good point. Parents around here often say that the age standardisation doesn't go far enough, but I don't know if that's true or not. There'd be quite a reaction I think, if they changed the rule so you could take it older.

I think I wouldn't think about this for a while. My August born boy is now in yr7 and doing great.
In yr2 not so much. It kind of clicked at the end of yr4 and then definitely in yr5.
His yr2 sats were awful and he did wonders for the school progress results.
I personally wouldn't take him out as I think that one of the most important aspects of primary is the social stuff.

There’s nothing wrong with sending DD to private now and wait for DS if he doesn’t have the ability yet. You could always try again when he catches up (or indeed if he does, he might never get to the stage your DD is regardless of being August born).