Child repeating reception what are the limitations for senior school?!

[mumtumtru]

Exactly that!

Our son got behind due to covid, didnt really get any preschool and as a result is currently repeating reception, he's now doing well, loves school and will be going up into year one in September. I'm not sure if he'll ever catch up to go into his correct year group later on, or if he'll stay in his current one. If he doesn't, are some of the independent senior schools 13-18 a bit funny about taking him, even though he may have got the appropriate grades/passed all the admissions stuff they now require children to do?!

Anyone have any insight would be grateful.

Given you're in the private system, I would say don't worry. Maybe contact local schools to check what their policy might be - but it's so early for that!

FWIW, you needn't be aghast at the idea of SEN. It's obvious that might be in play - you describe a situation where you had more time than many for preschool education. Or, it could just be that children are all different. FWIW, I come from a family with SEN, all of whom have ended up being very academic. Please don't assume SEN or a slow start mean your child won't or can't be good at school (not that being good at school is the be all and end all).

@SparkyBlue because in the state system, the age cut offs are very rigid. School years are determined by date of birth, and until the fairly recent introduction of flexibility for summer-borns, you basically had to go to school (and then onto secondary school) in the 'right' year. The same is often true of sports teams - if it's Under 14 football then you have to be under 14. This rigidity often seems bonkers to those not from the UK (and some in the UK).

Some of the replies on here are mad!

@mumtumtru your sons school sounds similar to DS’ prep school. They are led by the child not rigid age boundaries and we have maybe one or two a year who repeat a year as they aren’t ready to move up. I would talk to to the school about what the options are, he won’t be the first child in that situation. Good luck.

Our experience slightly different, we’d been in the US where the first proper year of school is later. DS is end of Aug birthday and very prem. Private school offered flexibility and when we switched to state school he was able to keep his out year placement. We thought he’d always be oldest in year, but there are quite a few others. It may not still work like this, but I do remember that our secondary school place had to be done with a paper application as the system couldn’t compute the birthdate. I suspect it’s more flexible now though.

We may discover he has SEN later on and we will certainly continue to get him assessed yearly both privately and via NHS. I think there are few factors that could have impacted - firstly covid, not having preschool for a good 9-12 months of that time. We couldnt provide any education as we were both expected to work full time with demanding jobs, we were also having to look after my mentally ill mother in law which certainly also impacted him. Ive seen plenty of responses on here how others children managed and Im really glad they did, ours did not, and these types of answers aren't overly helpful if I'm honest but as I mentioned glad your child did. That aside he was slow to talk we had speech therapy with him up until the age of 4 and his hand strength was terrible, hes only just mastered it half way through reception now he's flying (thankfully!).

I think you are right in your theory of learning from the start. His prep school were very clear with us that if he doesnt have these foundations down hes going to struggle going into year 1 and all that was required as you go from EYFS to KS1. We thought it was best for him to redo those foundations as it were, which he has and thrived thankfully.

Thanks for your reply, thats good to know. We'll have to see what happens later on, if he likes sport or not. Interestingly when I was in school I played for both my current year and the year above because I was in A team and the tallest so I got roped in some times to filling in.

Of course, hence being hot on the assessments - we certainly don't want him to be anywhere where its not the right place for him. So far, that doesn't seem to be the case but who knows what the future will bring, just glad he's happy, had his confidence and appears to be progressing which is all we can ask for really.

In a state school he'd have to go to secondary school with his age group, not his peer group.

Agreed, most of my european friends think our UK education system is a bit nuts! My colleagues nephew only just started school at age 6 and still struggles with writing. What Ive learnt so far is that if your child isnt hitting the markers set out by the goverment exactly at the right time then its likely you'll child has SEN?! Not that they might need a bit more time for whatever reason!

I think it was partly that yes, when he first started he would run off!!

Thanks Ill take a look, ill also ask if any of those 20k are mumsnet users!? 🙄

Agreed! Clearly if your child doesnt tick off all the boxes at the age of 5..when most of the rest of the world starts their officially schooling at age 6 it must be SEN, not that he just needs a bit more time!? Ive heard what people have said on this topic, I'm not sensitive to the fact he might, but we've had him assessed and they are saying no, just a bit shy! We will continue to get him checked just in case.

Ironically my husband was behind, then jumped into the year above in year 6 and did all his qualificiations a year early, maybe he'll end up going up again later on, we'll see.

Thanks for replying, yes hes April and there were birthdays as soon as term started so I'm guessing theres 4-5 months between them. Hes always been a bit young for his age so repeating has suited him really well, he runs into class now has made lovely friendships, is excited to tell me about his day. Wheras before due to the speech delay and handwriting and social he just wasnt quite there and would often cling to me before school started. I think Covid and looking after an ill relative in our house didn't help things.

I just wanted to reply and say thank you for this :) thats really reassuring to hear. I agree with you, not ruling it out and will continue to get him assessed yearly.

This is untrue. For summer born children educated out of cohort, when transferring to the next stage of education, they remain with their adopted cohort unless it would be beneficial to them to skip a year (which it almost never is).

I’m in the FB group OP as my daughter is an end august baby and we are fairly set on starting her at compulsory school age which in her case will be two weeks after her fifth birthday. I’m not comfortable with her being 4y 10d in reception and I’m even less comfortable with her being 5y 10d and expected to do desk based learning in Year 1.

@mumtumtru I don't think it should make a difference; assuming he continues to move up with each year now, i can't imagine it being a huge factor. 11+ results are standardised, taking into consideration age (due to typical vocab development with each month). So if he's older,
I'd assume it would just mean he's need to score higher.

Agree with you, our experience similar. DS late August birthday and prem, so he’s in right year group. He might be 6ft tall now, but was the smallest child in his reception year and oldest. The only glitch with secondary transfer was that the application had to be on paper because the computer system wasn’t set up for out of year placements. It’s much less unusual now, so they have probably fixed that

Hello OP my son is out of year due to COVID affecting learning but also mild SEN. There are quite a few out of year in his school- we made the transition last September and my child repeated year 8 in the previous school. I would say it depends on the school you are aiming for - speaking to admissions and asking about admission out of year. In my experience they are more open than you might expect. I also understand why you might repeat reception- my child was not ready really for year one but we went along with it. Good luck

It is great so few other children seem to have struggled with lockdowns. I know a head teacher of an infant school and they said they have seen clear differences in 'maturity' between the kids who had gone through lockdown and previous generations. So, it definitely has done some damage in that regard, and perhaps OP's child is one of those kids for whom this is the case. There must be (loads) more, although apparently not on this thread.

OP, I think you are being very responsive to the child you have. Just keep on acting in his best interest. Self-confidence is so important for effective learning. I would focus on making sure your child continues to feel good about themselves and will believe they have the ability to tackle learning tasks, instead of worrying too much about the medium future of their school career. Any schools not understanding this reasoning would be schools I would not consider suitable anyway.

Thanks Palley, they were okay to put him up into year 1 if we wanted but that he would struggle and better to get foundations in first so we chose to repeat, it was a tough one though. A friend of mine had similar feedback and pushed hers up into year 1 and he is struggling but is catching up now so its a tricky one to balance. We also thought if we repeated a year earlier it would have less of an impact as hes younger. I'm glad it all worked out for you :)

My heart soared when I read your reply, thank you! I'm in total agreement! My mum is an ex school teacher and she said confidence is key and if hes got that then the rest will fall into place. What you dont want is a kid thats struggling his entire school career which will naturally make them feel rubbish about themselves and they'll hate school as a result, i certainly dont want that for him. The school so far has been great thankfully, we've been lucky. :) I was just worried that we might have issues getting him into a senior school later on but reading some of the replies I dont think that will be the case and like you say I dont want him to going to that type of school anyway really i dont think.

@mumtumtru I read an interesting book recently, called "Of Boys and Men" which is all about your exact point, that sometimes the physical and emotional building blocks (like fine motor skills) need to be in place and on average little boys don't develop them as quickly but the school system doesn't take that into account. It's not a huge difference but when you're starting school as young as 4yo, even growth differences of a few months become meaningful. I recommend the book.

I also come from a country where you only start formal schooling in year 1, no formal kindergarten/reception aside from childminders/daycare if applicable. I do think it's quite young.

Hi OP

Of course I can see why you’re worried, but I think this all sounds very normal to me and I can’t see future problems if you are staying in the private sector (there may be no issues in state but I’m not familiar with that route). My children are all in a quite academic (ie it’s selective and a good chunk of children don’t get through the entrance tests, but we’re in the regions not in London so it’s nothing like a selective London school in terms of selective-ness!) private school and even though it is selective it is not at all unusual to have kids out of year for the whole of their school life. The school has entry at 7 (year three) and then goes all through to 18.

In current year 4 (which my youngest is is) there is one boy who is a whole year older (ie he is a Sept birthday in the school year above) who is down a year because his family moved to the UK from the US and ability/curriculum wise he was a year behind, there are two boys and one girl who are summer babies from the year above (two repeated year 3 on joining one had repeated reception at another school like your son) and there is one girl who’d had a similarly difficult covid time with parents living abroad then and her getting basically no schooling for a few months.

The sport is not a problem as far as I can see and they play with the year they’re in not with their proper age group. I’ve never heard of this being an issue and they play competitive fixtures against other schools in their “wrong” age group - it’s never been raised, but maybe the official sporting body rules change as they get older (but in my older child’s year 7 they’re still following this approach). Others might know the rules but it seems fine.

My husband is a primary school teacher teaching year 3 in a prep school (ie the first year of the prep school) and he says that the teachers have very regular meetings and training to address the fact that very large numbers of the children in current year 3 are behind because of covid affecting their early schooling. They’ve hired extra TA staff to provide more focussed small group learning to those who need it. It’s great that others’ children’s education did not suffer but to reassure you, teachers of those primary years are reporting that whole cohorts of children are behind but of course will catch up.

I would also add that boys not being emotionally or physically (in terms of fine motor skills) ready for reception is a very well known thing a ping education professionals (my husband lectures outside his school on this) and I my personal opinion you’ve done totally the right thing holding him back. It’s not at all uncommon in the private sector!

That isnt quite right either

If it is a formal agreement with the LA they remain in that cohort
If a school just decides to move a child in any year group (so repeat Y3) then the senior school does not have to honour