Skipping a year in primary

[deanstreet]

I see it is very very rare to skip a year in UK whilst it is not uncommon in America or Australia or France. The most commonly cited reason is social and emotional development rather than the academics.

After reading a few research papers found online, it seems very inconclusive, just like any social science and is eventually "it depends".

The US Accelerated Institute advocates skipping.
I am reading its [clearly self-serving] book now and it seems rather logical and aligns with my common sense.

Problem is almost all 7+ preps (Latymer etc) state entry year is strictly by age. 11+ admission policies also state it is essentially by age, except special circumstances and at the discretion of the school. Even the child is absolutely fine coping with a year ahead and can perform well in 11+ assessment, the age policy alone will handicap the child.

Opinions?

Depends what you want from education I suppose. I'd rather have a child, in with their peers, developing self confidence, learning how to be a leader and a team player. Will take them much further in this Ai era than being one year ahead in memorizing Latin and practicing Maths.

One important point is all team sports are selected by age. So your kid isn't going to have the opportunity to play alongside his or her peers (see leadership and teams above.) They will always stand out as different and not in a good way.

When I was growing up we had two girls who were a year young in my year. Both struggled throughout secondary with organization, keeping up with social cues, were just known s a bit naive. Imagine growing up with that sort of self image. Both were also rubbish at games, avoided it at all costs as they were obviously younger, smaller, less coordinated. But then there was a vicious cycle where they didn't develop skills or love of sport. I know school sports generally put plenty of people off, but it is all part of the picture. And although both went to Oxbridge they really struggled to find their way in life afterwards.

I don’t think it is beneficial for children to skip a year in most cases. I think generally even the most academically able children would struggle socially moving up early and I don’t think it wild be of social benefit at all.

we don’t need to rush children through school!

Also, I see you're looking at private schools. They generally work at least a couple of years ahead anyway and there are options to take some GCSEs early. At the sort of school you mention, academic kids will be well stretched within their year group.

Why would you want to?

I can’t understand why you’d want a child to skip a year of childhood and race into adulthood.

I skipped a year in primary. Academically it was fine. Socially and emotionally it was anything but.

My oldest son’s primary offered the same to him, and I couldn’t say ‘not a hope’ quickly or loudly enough.

I skipped reception then came up across exactly the issue you’ve described and had to repeat Y3 to move to a selective school at 7+. But actually that was a blessing in disguise as better that than an enforced gap year to avoid uni at 17.

It’s very rare now precisely because it’s usually a bad idea socially/emotionally. Better to have a child in with their own age and give them differentiated work to stretch them academically.

What are the benefits that you perceive for skipping a year? Unless a child is a certified genius working several years ahead I really can’t see the point! What do they gain?

The U.K. schooling system is very different to the US.

you might as well say that carrying a gun is fine in America so I’ll just get on the plane to England with one.

I did skip a year (not in the UK), no issues with the social aspect or sports - but then sports was more PE than Games.
I don’t understand why people are so reluctant to do it in the UK.

It is also common to have children repeat years when needed academically.
No deferring summer born children, though, I don’t know why this is so widespread here.

I skipped a year at primary (private prep) and it was a social disaster. May birthday so I ended up well over a year under the average age in my class. Academics were fine. But I was utterly miserable for four years. Luckily my secondary school wouldn’t hear of it so I did Y7 in two different schools. I was only sustained by external friends and am friends with no one from that school.

Not having to spend a year learning how to read when they already know how - for example. A child will do better if they are academically challenged than if they are bored.

But in a half decent UK school the teacher will differentiate. Both my DSs were ‘free readers’ (along with a wodge of their class) by Y1 and have been extended with additional activities.

I skipped a year.

I resent my parents for abbreviating my childhood.

I was a teacher for 40 years and never knew a child to skip a grade. I am in Australia. May have been a practice pre 1950 but unheard of since then

Such a weird thing to want. What’s on earths the rush ?! Surely the whole point of life is to enjoy your childhood with your friends? There are some really odd posts on here at the moment.

How would that work when you can’t leave education until 16 at a minimum or 18 unless in work?
you would just have to repeat a year at some point or have a ‘gap’ year.

I would also worry that the kid would massively resent it when they grew up. Can’t be fun being in a class younger than everyone else due to having a tiger mum.

Happened to my mum thinking about it she ended up at university aged 17.

I don’t see why moving up a very old in a year child (September birthday) would be particularly worse than holding back a summer born child, and that happens fairly regularly. I don’t see why it would be hugely detrimentally socially if deferring an august born child isn’t.
Although of course deferring happens from when they start school, so they aren’t moved away from friends they’ve already made.

The local authorities don't really allow it nowadays as it can cause problems, it's also to do with all children needing to be in school until 18 or something. I think the 11+ etc use age adjusted standardised scores so no one should be disadvantaged by their age really.

What age do children start formal schooling in your childhood country? As the main reason summer born deferment happens more often in England (not sure about Wales) is that summer born children will have just turned 4 when they start school.

I had an autumn born and a summer born (not deferred entry) and the difference in maturity when they started school was staggering. Plus also it’s quite hard to find school uniform for someone who’s the size of a 2 1/2 year old.

Skipping a year used to be more common when I was a child (in England) - more usually at the start of school , as they used to start the term after turning 5, so it was a long time to wait for an advanced child. If they had a September birthday they sometimes ended up in the year above, it used to have a bit of kudos. There were a few 17 year olds starting uni I remember, but they all had birthdays in the autumn,

Fair point, formal school starts around 5/6 vs 4/5 here.

I don't get why you would want to. If they get to Oxbridge a year or two earlier, and start their adult job a year or two earlier. But at the cost of missing out on an entire childhood of social experiences with their peers, which they will never get back.
The MI5 agent who was found dead locked in a bag in his bathroom was a child prodigy who skipped a few years, and the BBC did a podcast on it recently. Him skipping years at school was given as a possible reason for his emotional difficulties.

If you are a 'child prodigy' spending time with other children could be hell. If you can play an instrument, solve complex maths problems, read fluently in your language and/or speak more than one language ... what is there for you on the playground except bullying? Being made to stay with your age year might not solve your social problems ...

As you can see from PPs, moving ahead a year is not encouraged in England. I have always thought that a large part of it for state schools was not disrupting the flow of funds. TBF, state schools struggle to receive the funds they need even though the general populace would support funding them better at every level.

Also, as you can see from PPs, academic progress is not necessarily the first priority in UK state primary schools. Some of this IMO is because many children do start at a very young age (barely 4yrs*) so very much need the socialisation aspect. (But there is a huge appreciation for sporting ability and anxiety about not stigmatising pupils who are not able academically)

In practice, my experience has been, for my 2 DDs and as a teacher myself, that teachers adjust their teaching and offerings related to the pupil's ability. So a very able child will be given resources/work which a weaker child would not be able to mange e.g. longer/more complex spelling words and books; trickier maths problems.

At private/independent/fee paying schools that is an iron-clad expectation. The smaller classes of max 20 (vs state 30) mean that teachers (should) have more time to tailor everything to be appropriately challenging for each child.

NB - 'memorising' Latin is a good use of academic time b/c it trains the brain in all kinds of ways. Even the weakest prep/private pupil will tell you that Latin broadened his/her knowledge across all subjects immensely.

• In my DD's reception year, 2 children had a joint party at the end of August; the girl turned 4 and the boy turned 5 and they both started school on 1 Sept! - he was a whole year older. Amazingly, she was the tallest child throughout most of their years at primary - he was the second tallest.

In my experience, children don't bully others if they can play an instrument/ are very good at maths if the child is otherwise social adept. Children who are bullied are often neurodiverse and don't have the social skills required to navigate relationships.

Playing with other 5 year olds when you are 5 is an important part of development. If you aren't good at sharing, or are telling them about maths or the violin instead of turn based playing or role play, you may struggle to make friendships.

Learning maths is important if you want to work in finance, but making friends and learning how to get on with others is important if you want to have a happy life without lonliness. I don't think many parents hope their child will be a high flying maths prodigy sat alone in their flat on their computer in their 20s. An education should be a full education, not just a way to get a high paying job.