already accepted into reception this year but we want to skip or delay it

[tommyvn]

Hi

Our daughter is 4 and has a reception place at our local school this year. We want to know if she can skip it and start year 1 at the school when she's 5 (or defer for a year), but so far neither the school nor the local authority have been very helpful in explaining our options or recommending what we should do.

The long version of this story is while our daughter is British, my wife and I are not, we're from the EU, and with the escalating anti-EU and anti-immigrant rhetoric coming from the government we're not sure if we'll be forced to leave the UK in a few months or not. As such we'd rather wait a year rather than putting our daughter into a school we might be forced to take her out of in a few months time.

Compulsory school age is 5 so she doesn't have to go.

I would email the school again explaining the situation.

I am so sorry that brexit is causing this worry for you. The way people are behaving is a disgrace.

I would honestly accept the place...it will be better for your daughter to be ready and in school with all the other children rather than waiting a full year to begin when all the others already know one another and have formed relationships and become used to school.

If you do get forced out then that will be something to deal with then...don't try damage limitation when nothing is clear.

Carry on as normal...as if you're staying. There may be no guarantee of her having a place when year 1 begins because if you turn down your reception place, it will probably be offered to another family. Especially if the school is a popular one with a waiting list.

When is hse due to start?

She isn't compulsory school age until she turns 5 so I should think you can just not send her, notify school you're withdrawing her and then reapply for Year 1 next year. However you risk losing her place if there's kids in tbe waiting list who will take her reception place.

You won't be able to just defer her, there's a whole process to go through for kids born in the Summer, not just because of parents circs.

Personally if you like the school and its popular, I'd keep her in. If you have to leave then everything will be such a big change I don't think her doing a few months of school will make a difference.

I'm sorry you're in this boat, it isn't fair that families have to make these decisions.

It will differ from local authority to local authority.

You can choose not to send her until the term after her 5th birthday (compulsory school age) but the default would then be for you to apply for a Y1 place for her.

If you want to try to negotiate a deferral now (usually these have to be completed before school places are allocated for the child's chronological year) then you need to speak to the school admissions team in your LA; usually you can find a phone number on the information given out about applying for school places. They should be able to advise on the process. If they say they can't, press them until they tell you who can!

In some LAs, you'll also need to have a particular school who have agreed in theory to accept an application from your child to enter reception a year 'late'. In my experience, the head teachers we approached didn't understand the deferral process (as it's unusual) so you'd need to be clear on what you wanted from them before you visit them!

If she's aware that she is starting school this week (and I presume she would be with uniform, home visits etc), then I would go ahead with it now. Don't pre guess what the future holds.

Until the term after your daughter turns five, it is your choice whether she is in school or not. If she turns five between now and 31st December, you can ask the school to hold her place until Christmas. If she turns 5 from January 1st - March 31st, you can ask them to hold until Easter. If she turns five 1st April - 31st August, she will need to start at the beginning of the Easter term if you want to take the place she already has. If you delay her until next September you will either have to do an in-year school application for a year one place, and she may be allocated a different school. Alternatively, if she was born after 1st April, you could apply for a CSA Reception start, and she could join a Reception class in September 2020. That needs special agreement, though, and where you live tends to determine how easily it is agreed.

thanks so much for all the advice, this has been very helpful in understanding our options.

I have just now emailed both the school and the council and I think, with the advice in this thread, i've been clear enough about what i want for them to sort it. forms are filled in and things are happening now.

As for putting her in anyway, at this point we're hoping things go back to the way they were but we're fully expecting to move, so we've been spending time in europe with family with kids her age so she's blissfully ignorant of all of this. We agonised over going that way or not for a long while but school age in the 2 countries that my wife and I are respectively from means she could slot right in at exactly the right age even if we start her next year. We made this decision off the back of that more than a month ago and we didn't buy uniforms or have the home visit, so she doesn't have any expectations about going to school.

The turnaround times on emails to the council is a week to a week and a half tho which is why i've asked in here (where the turnaround time was about 1 minute and the answers so good!) for advice, skipping the back and forth with the council and going straight to the point so to speak.

And as an aside, she's picked up enough of a new language in literally a month (Polish, which is where my wife is from), with only occasional exposure to it before that, that she can now hold conversations with people. I'm so proud of her, kids are incredible.

soz for the essay, and thanks again for the advice and kind words!

What’s the advantage of leaving the country in a couple of months with a child who’s never been to school over leaving with a child who’s spent a couple of months in Reception class?

@HeadintheiClouds don't worry i'm not going to let her roam the streets like a wild beast ;) she has family of similar age in europe that she now gets to spend some time with while we wait to see what happens in the UK. It's looking increasingly likely that she'll be spending more time with them soon so she's now getting a head start on learning a new language with her family in an environment she feels comfortable in. If we leave the UK permanantly it will be an easy transition, if we stay then she goes to school knowing an extra language, and sure she'll have to integrate with kids that have been thru reception together, but the same would hold true for a move anywhere within the UK and people make moves around the country all the time.

LA/school do not have to hold her place until Year 1 so you could be left with little or no choice for year 1 in 2020. Unless she is summer born deferral for Reception in 2020 is unlikely to be an option, especially at this late stage. This would normally have been agreed a while ago.