Scottish school ages

[Tifsy87]

Hiya,

In what month does a child have to be born to be the oldest in the school year in Scotland? I know in England & Wales, September children are the oldest but is it different in Scotland?

Many thanks :)

February.

Actually that’s wrong- that would be the youngest - oops

No, oldest is March, youngest is February.

January and February birthdays can defer so they can be the oldest in the class or the youngest depending on year of birth. My youngest has a December birthday and I've just deferred her so she will be one of the oldest in the class.

March would usually be eldest in the year.

Although Sept - Feb birthdays can now defer starting and get extra year of preschool funding, so if you have a birth in one of those months and then defer school entry they'll be the eldest in the year!

Technically March but DD1(Feb) & DD2(Nov) deferred so were the oldest in their years.

Jan/Feb deferrals are more common than Sept-Dec deferrals & not sure about now but we had to get DD2's deferral signed of by a variety of professionals in order to secure the extra years nursery funding so that she didn't have a year out.

School year age groups in Scotland run from March-Feb. However children born in Jan and Feb can defer starting school until the following year.
So oldest is normally born in March (starting school aged 5 1/2) youngest born in Feb (starting school aged 4 1/2). If there are deferred kids in the class with Jan or Feb birthdays, they will be the oldest.

Better than the English system IMO where children could literally have just turmed 4 when they start school.

With 1140 hours coming in 2020 I think it will be a lot harder for Sept-Dec birthdays to get a paid deferral place due to the costs involved. It varies through local authorities as it is. You have the legal right to defer but not the legal right to get additional funding.

This is what gets me, in most aspects I love the Scottish education system but we're faced with with my ds being in a class with children a more than a whole year older than him because they are deferred starts.

These older children are reading and writing, even doing times tables, whilst my much littler DS can only write his name and count to 20. It must be very difficult for the teacher to manage this? A few years ago all the children would be starting a broadly similar baseline but now with all the deferrals they have brithdays up to 18months apart? Which at 4yrs - 5.5yrs makes a big difference. (Feb 2015 & sept 2013 dates of birth potentially in the same year group).

We couldnt afford to defer ds because another year of private nursery fees is more than we can comprehend (local council nursery is 8:30 - 1130am only). We've got in debt to get this far another year is not possible. So it seems to me that deferral for sept-dec birthdays are really only an option for better off families.

@Invisimamma I chose to defer DD1 as she's a leap year baby so technically not really any older than the March born kids in her class.

DD2 was deferred because she wasn't ready for school (educationally, socially, emotionally or physically). So although she was a year & a half older than some kids in her class she didn't have any advantages over them.

DS is a January birthday & wasn't deferred as there was no need to, so started school at 4 & a half but has never been behind his peers in ability.

Parents don't tend to defer unless they have a reason to & schools don't encourage it if they don't feel it's beneficial for the child.

Our schools are no longer allowed to separate classes by ability, it must be done on age, and due to this all classes have a broad spectrum of abilities so the issues you outline would still be there irrespective of the age range of the children.

As a pp said, there has to be a reason for deferral unless the child is born in Jan or Feb (in which case they would only be a month or two older than the oldest kids anyway). Usually this is if the child has a learning difficulty or is not emotionally ready for school. As a teacher I find that even in upper primary, those children who deferred often still find school trickier than their peers and I certainly wouldn't say that they had an advantage. Deferral is supposed to even the playing field as much as possible for children who we know are likely to find school a challenge. It doesn't give anyone an advantage.

We deferred our youngest as has had major surgery twice over the past 2 years and spent a lot of time in hospital. She is delayed in some aspects of her development and even by deferring she won't have an easy time starting school. We had to send letters from her surgeon and HV along with the form.

I understand that in some circumstances, it can be beneficial and I have no issue with that.

In our area most deferrals and approved and in fact encouraged. The families I know who have chosen to defer all have very bright, sociable children and also happen to be financially well off. I just think it puts the families/children who can't afford it at yet another disadvantage.

@Invisimamma I'm not sure that you can take finances into account for deferral (or at least the schools shouldn't be taking parents financial circumstances into account) as your choice/need to use private childcare isn't the fault of the school or the other parents who don't & as is so often pointed out on here school isn't a replacement for childcare.

With DD1 I was a SAHM so it made no difference to me financially but DD2 went to school nursery (9-11:30) then either a childminder or my parents had her for the rest of the day if I was at work. If I couldn't afford it or my mum couldn't help out I'd have given up work as there was no way she could've gone to school at the correct time - she was in age 2-3 clothes, child size 5 shoes & as stated previously wasn't in any way ready for the challenges of school (she was still having a 2hr nap in the afternoons).

I've never heard of a Sept-Dec born child being given an automatic deferral & funding for a LA authority nursery - we needed the nursery teacher, school head teacher, education officer, child psychologist and head of education & child services at the LA to sign off on DD2's deferral & the extra year of nursery funding & at that time she was the only child in my LA who had ever been approved for the funding.

Your LA must be rolling in cash if they're approving all these deferrals & extra years funding.

I think Falkirk is the only council to automatically fund Aug-Dec deferrals. Most other councils have a multidisciplinary panel to make the decision and as authorities make the move to play based learning the number of deferrals granted will decline I think.

My DD is the oldest in her year.

She started at 5.5 and was born in March.

My DN is at school in Scotland and is a late Nov birthday and was effectively deferred but was at school abroad (and not at school for a while) till secondary so was not ahead.

We are in the authority that has been mentioned where deferrals from sept-feb are automatically apporved. For additional years preschool funding.

Obviously there are some very valid circumstances where deferral is in the children's best interests.

But when faced with a £7k annual childcare bill, unfortunately we couldn't take up the offer of a deferred place. Which unfortunately will place me ds at a disadvantage when so many of his peers are being deferred.