Wide age brackets in each school year at some independent schools?!

[rewildedgarden]

I read somewhere that some independent schools have been putting dc who are quite different in age together in different year groups? Has anyone got any information on this. I am looking at boarding schools but some day as well.

The information I read mentioned dc can be several years older within any one school year and this has worried me a bit as I'm not sure it's in the interest of the younger dc to be mixed all the time with older dc. Perhaps for some sport or other activities but not all the time.

Yes I have experience of this. My DC is in the year above but is September born if that makes sense.

Thanks @NotaFR are there many dc in that situation? I don't mind one year up and down but I've read it can be more than that age gap within an academic year

I know of one child born at the very end of August who started a year late, so he is the very oldest in the class by a week or two instead of the very youngest if he’d joined in his correct year.

I’ve never known anyone be any more out of kilter with their year group than this. Interested to see the replies.

Yes, I know of this - sometimes with children who are from abroad - they are older than the class they are placed with. I assume they are either academically behind or don’t have sufficient English to be with their peers.

I guess you need to ask specific schools what their policies are.
In the 80s I was a year up at my independent school, and I'm a summer birthday. It was right academically, but bad socially.

In my DCs senior schools it hasn't been unusual to have DCs +/- 1 year in each class. Not common, but it happens. Possibly slightly more common in 6th form where some students have been allowed to repeat Y12 - usually with a change in A level subjects.

I know of a couple of instances in DSs school where a boy has been placed several years ahead due to their academic ability (this is over a 10 year period so not at all common). Presumably this is done after discussions with student, parents and staff.

I think it is another advantage of private school education - there usually is some flexibility.

I know cases of children with August birthdays / premature births being held back a year for maturity /academic reasons. it is a rare thing to find 'lots' of cases of this happening. It should not be a concern at all.

When it comes to older children playing rugby with contact then they will probably not be allowed to play with their year group.

In our prep school there was one boy who had had been adopted from an African country who was not in sync with the other ages but this was due to needing to catch up with the curriculum/age unknown.

I’ve heard of it a few times but nothing like years out of whack. Like summer borns deferring a year so they’re the older ones or bright Sept/Oct birthdays being moved up or allowed to start early- I was one of these back in the day, was at the school nursery and was bored apparently. Then there’s kids from abroad where the school system doesn’t quite align with ours, my DH was one of these at a boarding school, and he should have gone into Y11 based on age but was put into Y10 instead so he had time to complete the GCSE syllabus.

@rewildedgarden only within a few months and only a handful of children. I would be surprised if it was a larger age gap and lots of children in a school

At the prep my boys used to attend there was exactly two years (to the day!) in age between the eldest and youngest in DC1’s class. But that’s because my son (the eldest in the class) was moved down a year due to complex disabilities, before moving to a special school. The youngest was an extremely bright little girl who was very academic and thriving in the year group above her chronological cohort.

In DS2’s class there was a boy who was a year older, but that’s because he’d come straight from a non English speaking country. I imagine it was both the language barrier and his home country starting school at a later age that made sense for him to be in a slightly younger year group.

I haven’t come across any year groups either there or in the independent senior school DC2 attends now where there are students who are significantly (more than one year group) older or younger.

My daughter went to a tiny independent school between 3 - 11 years of age and they mixed one class as there would have been only 2 kids in year one so they merged the groups.
She is now at a different independent school for her senior years (2000 pupils) and they have tutoring groups with a range of ages in it - maybe that's what you've read about?

Never known an individual child more than year out of sync, although in theory you could have a September born a year behind, and an August born a year ahead this spanning almost three calendar years. In practice it is a few months either way.

No experience of this bar one child who came from abroad with an august 30th birthday who was in the year below. Otherwise all in dc private schools we have experienced have been in the ‘right’ year group.

When I was at Uni, decades ago, two of my friends were a year ahead.

At DD's secondary school i know one girl who is a year ahead and remember another joining the year below (she was a native Spanish speaker-now back in her home country).

Like others say, it does/can happen but it is unlikely to be very common or more than +/- a few months.

I disagree with whoever said that it should not be a concern at all. The only acceptable exceptions are summer borns, as whether a kid turns X and celebrates their Xth birthday with their mates (of the same age) at the end or the beginning of the school year matters neigh.

Apart from summer borns, where there is room for discretion, such practice in the puberty years 10-14 should absolutely be considered a crime😎

When I was in school it wasn't uncommon to have 1 or 2 older kids in each class. They were typically 2 or 3 years older and had just come from abroad, with limited English ability at the beginning of the school year. They learnt quickly though and we all got along.

Saves time and money differentiating, I suppose.
These places are run for profit you know!

Only 1 year above or below was normal at my dd's prep. As standard, they 'accelerated' everyone they pecked for their scholarship stream at some point and made them jump ahead one year (so roughly 1/4 to 1/3 of cohut). They also allowed dc developing more slowly/summer born to repeat year 1 or 2, or have children with no/little English start a year or 2 below their age group. But in the end all children had to leave at 11 or 13, so the scholarship class spent 2 years in year 8 and anyone having repeated a year or even 2 earlier had to jump ahead at a later stage, as most senior schools/state secondary schools were very sat in their age requirements for years 7/9. They also had regularly the older ones helping/teaching the young ones, but that was just for a morning each week to teach the older ones responsibility and to excite the younger ones (who were in awe of the big kids). Early years/pre preps are often quite fluid and often have open spaces with loads of mixing of age groups, at least for some of the time, but that has become relatively common in the state sector, too.

@rewildedgarden
My experience has been mostly with summer borns at prep with a handful a year down. We had a scholarship set. No one ever moved up. A decent prep won’t need to move bright DC up. They will have great teachers and put Dc into sets with appropriate work.

At secondary. Mostly those in the wrong year were the handful of summer borns and nearly every overseas child. Not all and depended upon language development. It did mean a standard late summer born could be nearly 2 years younger than an overseas September born. They were 19 for most of y13. A late summer born would be 17 throughout all of y13. This didn’t really cause many issues and wasn’t noticeable. I hadn’t given it much thought until DD said a 19 year old had been smoking in her room.

You're unlikely to find more than a year or so's difference, unless it's a school with a deliberate policy of grouping "by stage not age". As others have said, it's often due to coming in from abroad - even if they're arriving by the start of year 10, it may sometimes make sense to start in year 9 to give time to fix any curriculum gaps (and improve their English) before GCSE work starts.

It's not necessarily a big deal. I'm sure most people consider maturity in making decisions, so wouldn't put their child in a situation where they would be way out of line with their peers. I can see the worry with contact sports, but there's a huge variation in your typical year 9 class even if they are all the same age. A lot of the private sector have everyone out on the sports field at the same time, so it's actually probably quite easy to organise things so that your school year group does not define who you play rugby with.

DD's friend is nearly two years older than she is - DD was a prem August birthday, and friend is a September birthday who has come in from abroad and gone down a year. There is a bit of a difference in maturity and confidence, but it's a good friendship.