Would you delay your May Born child by one year

[Worrier987]

I have a young child born in May and I keep thinking about delaying his school start to when he is 5 years old.
Has anyone got experience of this and was it difficult to do that ?

I agree lack of knowledge is the main barrier - but finances definitely play a part, we are well off comparatively but it's going to cost us thousands in nursery top up fees even with the funded hours (because of how our nursery does the top up fees/ lets you use the funded hours).

@beachdays27

How does this cost compare to wrap around cafe at school? At ours your looking at £20 per day for breakfast and afternoon club

And I suppose school holiday care as well if you want to compare like for like. This is about £45 a day where I am. A lot of parents I know have found it more expensive than nursery to cover all of this

@Toffeebythesea I know it would work that way in lots of nurseries, but in ours sadly it will cost us a huge amount just to go school hours term time only.

The 30 hours free funding will continue until the child goes to school whereas before and after school wrap-around care is probably quite costly.

Exactly, I currently pay £12.50 a day for wrap-around care so £62.50 a week compared to having no costs when he was in childcare before he started school.

The 30 hours is the equivalent of TTO - but is usually 15 a week, which can leave quite a few other hours to find a second provider for (the remaining 12 or so. before and after a session).

@HeadAgainstWall0923 yes but not all private nurseries let you use 30 funded hours term time 9-3. Not everyone qualifies for 30 hours (eg a sahp). And nurseries generally have top up fees.

There are ways around this sometimes, eg state nurseries, sending for 15 hours instead etc, but it's important that financial reasons are not just dismissed as they will be a real consideration for many families when weighing up what is already a difficult decision given how much it goes against the grain.

I agree and I do know people who have used this as the deciding factor as to whether to defer their child’s start or not. I do understand the points you are making and I can see how it could be viewed as a system that probably only works in the favour of children who are born to parents who have more financial freedom. Which admittedly is unfair.

Those arguments are no diff to having child born in sept.
Maybe it wouldnt only be rich parents if it were only a tick box. Or 100% guaranteed to not miss a year.
Richer people are more likely to realise that private school all accelerate or decelerate kids. Plus most other countries.
If you are aiming for kids to pass vs get 9s too.

Dd was 3yrs ahead reading age yet still only managed to just scrape exceeding on sats reading.With eng maturity matters.
Maybe less questioning people assume that if it were in a childs interests then they would be advised to do it rather than have to apply.
Until your child goes to reception you dont know how much is expected by the end of the year.

I didnt realise
how busy it would be with 60 kids allowed to wander around undirected.
How tired they would be
How other kids would be mean and not told off
How ill they would get
School would be stingy will letting kids be exceeding
About the lack of motivation and rewards
How tired from birthday parties
I thought as she had great speech from 18m and memory that would be enough.

The youngest in their year has apparently really struggled moving to secondary

Does anyone know how easy/hard it is to defer later in the system if they've never been to school? I home educate at the moment but will probably send to secondary. She 'should' be in Year 2 but as we've been going at her pace she's more like Year 1 in terms of where she's at. She might totally catch up. Or she might not in which case I'd like her to start Year 7 when technically she could be in Year 8.

@AmyandPhilipfan I'd recommend joining the Facebook group mentioned in this thread - I'm pretty sure this q has been answered before there.

Every child is different, so it's really up to you to make that decision on what is best for your DD.

I have a DD who is born in May and she is thriving in school. She loved reception (could read, add and subtract etc..) and currently she is enjoying Year 1.

When she was in reception she was also involved in swimming, football, taekwondo and theatre.

Reception was a great time for her to develop her social skills, which I believe is really important alongside academics. At that stage, kids have formed friendships and friendship groups, have playdates, you also get to know the parents as well.

If you feel thing strongly about deferring, I would definitely do the research first and talk to people that have deferred as well. I think there is a Facebook group that provides info and guidance.

Good luck!

When deferring they still do reception, just a year later. They won't miss out on developing social skills or friendships etc