out of year group

[Begemot1]

Hi, everyone! My son has started reception being 5 years old. He is summer born and had a speech delay (didn't speak at 4). We went private and now i am facing the fact that most of the schools would not consider out of year applicant. I.e. he would have to sit 11+ in Y5 in most schools, which seems quite tough thing to do to a child.
Does anyone have an experience with that? We are based in SW London, so i am mostly interested in the schools around.

If you stay private I think it is less of an issue and definitely know of schools who have taken a child out of year group but if you were applying to state grammar schools for example it might be more of a problem. Perhaps talk to the schools you would be interested in and your current school who would surely have been through this before if they were happy to delay your son's start.

i have a late August born DC who is out of year group because of moving from OS. No problem at all in private system. Now in 6th form. Able to drive/drink first!! Definitely better than being underage for entire 6th form!

Could he not be put up a year in this school? I have a relative whose child could not put two words together by his third birthday, but was, in fact, very intelligent and soon caught up once at school. Also the 11+ tests are weighted to take account of age within year.

You need to ring round all the schools you might consider - see if any through school will take him now. 11+ might well be out of the question unfortunately.

OP are you planning a move from private to state education for 11+?. If not , then no problem.....

I assumed the OP's child is in a state school that goes to 11 and so will be doing the 11+ for private secondary.

Sorry, I thought she said her DS was already in private...may be i misunderstood.

Sorry! I meant private prep that finishes at y6 and therefore needs to do 11+ for private secondary.

Thank you for the answers! My DS is in private prep. He is doing vwry well, however, I don't like the idea to move him year up. He is bi lingual, started to speak slowly after he was 4, so he needs this time to catch up.
I have spoken to good schools around, St Pauls, Kings, Upper Latymer all say he would need to jump up a year to sit 11+. He was denied 7+ out of the year group.
I will talk to his teacher what does she think of the idea to move him up. However, it feels he is at the right place at the moment. Also will see Headmaster to seek advice re senior schools.

If you know any schools who are relaxed about it, please, let me know. Feel a bit stressed about this situation.

International schools like Dwight may be more relaxed

My son is August born and repeated year 1 so us now out of year and transfered from private to state last year. He was allowed to stay out of year. He does have some learning difficulties so not sure how much that helped, but the head was happy to take the advice of the private school headmaster. I think all schools are much more open to it now, even grammars. Don’t assume it will be a problem, stand your ground. It would be hard to bump him up a year now and I’m sure any head teacher would understand that.

Ibstock Place definitely has pupils out of year group as I have a babysitter who went there not that long ago and was 'old' for her year

Hi - I know people in Surrey who were in a similar situation. They couldn’t apply to KCS or St Paul’s because of it...however Hampton were ok with it as were most of the big name boarding schools like Eton, Wellington etc

I would move him up. Our DS2 wasn’t ready to start at age 4. He is also bilingual and was very late.

We put him straight into Y1 at age 5. Also at private prep and they’ve been great, fully understood and adjusted for him not having been in school before.

Meanwhile, DS1 has just been through the 13+ application process, to top and second tier public London schools, and it stated clearly that the applicant must be 13 years to 13 years and 11 months, some of them had it clearly written that no exceptions would be made.

That would mean that your DS would either have to choose a school that would accept an older child (which might not be his first choice or the best school for him) or he’d have to independently study for the exams one year before the others - which is a huge undertaking as these prep schools have their curriculum based on 11+ and 13+ exams. They won’t have covered the correct subjects etc in school by the time your DS will be tested on them.

My late August born DC got in to a private selective school (85% A*/A at GCSE) for year 9. Best decision. So hard for the younger ones in 6th form....last to drive ( more likely to want to go in someone else's car), last to be able to drink (therefore, relatively, the drinking issues start younger). School sport was never a problem and county level hockey fine ( done on calendar year of birth). Everyone thinks about the effects when the child is young and forgets how much better it is to be one of the older ones in the teenage years. Academics not the problem!!