anyone put their dc up an academic year?

[SerapisBey]

just wondering if anyone had approached their school about putting their child up a year group due to ability? have mixed feelings about it but a few people have sugg it. seemed a popular option back int the late 70s/ 80s when I was at school - but it is do-able now? what have you found to be the pros / cons of it if you have? what age was your child? my dc is 5 and in reception. any news / views greatly appreciated!

thanks for providing some interesting points on both camps. Yes, the social side worries me with regard to age milestones, this is our main concern.. The school so far has done nothing to differentiate work so maybe year 1 may improve with a stronger teacher? I will pursue the IEP in more depth, and really like the idea of just taking a year out as snailoon suggests!

There is a (slightly old) paper summarising research on this issue here, if the link works www.archive.official-documents.co.uk/document/ofsted/veryable/able-00.htm

If you look at the accelerating section you can see the different views or policies of various countries. Personally we have taken on board the Australian thoughts - essentially that only those who would be several years ahead, think it says IQ over 160, should be accelerated. The others miss out socially, seems to be the theory, and our experience. There were a couple of girls who went through medical school with me starting age 17, and even "intercalating" (taking an extra year to do a research based science degree along the way), didn't give them back that year of their childhood that they had missed, IMHO.

Have also just seen that a boy who started a year early at the grammar school with ds hasn't made the top Maths set or even the second in year 8. That has concentrated the mind wonderfully that our dd will be doing lots of extension work for year 6. We have been lucky, up until now that she has been able to work with the year above her as it is a very small rural school with only 5 in each year group -so they just move them around between reading and maths groups according to ability rather than age.

Sorry but I haven't done a link on here before. Got that one from a NAGC advice sheet. Is anyone able to put the link better?

www.archive.official-documents.co.uk/document/ofsted/veryable/able-00.htm might work. Look forward to reading.

I'm in Australia and DS skipped Year 6 which meant he started secondary school a year early. We did it because he was so bored and miserable at primary school and being bullied and I think another year there would have really damaged him. We also did it because a place came up at a very unusual school that we knew would suit him and they only had a place in year 7.
18 months later he is happy and relaxed in himself in a way he has never been. The other day I asked him if he had felt he missed out in anyway missing Year 6 and he instead expressed gratitude that we have given him back a year of his life.
I do worry about the peer stuff and him having friends who are drinking etc before he is, but he is happy now and for that I think we did the right thing.

I think the problem with accelerating children who are several years ahead is that you'd have to accelerate them several years to make it worthwhile. And to my mind, that would be a disaster socially - you would be robbing them of their childhood.

If we had gone along with the school's suggestion to put dd up a year, she'd still have needed differentiated work, so not really sure what we would have achieved. And putting her up by any more than a year would have been cruel from a social point of view - she is physically quite small and slight in any case, and I think she would have been viewed as some sort of freak. Who would want that for their child?

As it is, she is blissfully happy with her peer group. Her friends all seem to acknowledge that she is "clever" but it is no big deal. She gets her own work in class when they're doing maths and she has her own targets for literacy etc. She is able to work alongside her classmates for art, pe, ict etc.

I would really, really think long and hard about what you want to achieve by acceleration before going through with this. If 1 academic year would be enough to bring her in line academically, then she is not actually that far ahead, and the teacher should easily be able to cater for her in class without the need to disrupt her friendships. If 1 academic year isn't enough to bring her in line academically, then accelerating her by a year seems pointless as it won't solve the problem anyway - and you have to ask yourself how far up the school you would be willing to push her, to get her in the "right" place.

You may find things are different in year 1 anyway. Reception is all about child-led activity and learning through play, so to some extent, it's up to the bright kids to stretch themselves! We found year 1 quite different in terms of the teacher actively challenging dd and setting her individual targets.

acceleration does work out fine for some children but not for others and it's difficult to know in advance whichchildren it will suit imo. I also agree that skipping one year doesn't make all that much difference academically and the difference there is diminishes as they get older, so the benefit to the child in terms of academic challenge isn't that great.

Just a thought, the view that many children level out after a few years of starting school, are you sure that that is not simply down to the brighter children not being stretched and ultimately falling in line with the majority, which let's face it is probably easier for the school.

I was put up a year and as I was an August baby did my A levels at 16. The main problem I had was that some girls in my class were just about 3 years older than me and when we became teenagers it made life difficult as I wanted to go out to parties and things when I was only 13. Also I was really upset when they all started to drive and I had to wait. I ended up having a gap year before this was normal, and I think I found university easier as a result.

Strangely, given the above, I was keen to get my DS1 put up a year when he was bored senseless at school when he was about 7 (prep school, so slightly different) He did very well and was very advanced when it came time to go to grammar school, he is now at Oxford doing PPE. A couple of his friends actually went to grammar school a year early, they ended up having gap years they didn't really want as they were not really mature enough to go to uni.

Overall I think it has been a positive thing, but there are certain ages where it is very frustrating being younger than the others in your class.

In our area they mix the years quite a bit to suit the abilities of the children this happens in various subjects and various ways throughout the year. Also like evolucy7 said many children level out around age 7.

I was moved up a year at school skipping year 5 straight into year 6. In the end I dropped back a year because I was very unhappy. Academically yes I ticked all the boxes, but emotionally and socially I was not ready at all. At 38 I still clearly remember hiding in the cloakroom crying because I just didn't fit in and as a September born I was one of the oldest in the year. It was the unhappiest year of my life to date.
Moving my child up a year is at number 2 on my list of things I would never do to my child.

OP, my experience, FWIW: DD thoroughly enjoyed reception, and reading between the lines at the end of term parents evening she was doing very well. When she entered year 1 she started to do extra stuff, sometimes with a couple of others from her year, which got me thinking that they are extending her, although nothing was ever said formally to me IYKWIM. Her particular talent is literacy and she did a cross-year extra reading group for the most able, went to year two for guided reading and phonics and dropped into the conversation one day that she was allowed to do "Stuff with dictionaries and thesauruses" whilst the rest of the class was getting on. So the point I am making is wait to see ehat year 1 brings in terms of extension, the academic pace cranks up a gear for all anyway after the play-based reception environment.

Hi,
My DD skipped a year about a year ago. She was a P1 in a P1/2 composite class (Scotland) - she is now in P3 and has just turned 7. She was one of the oldest in her year group with a March birthday.

Academically, I'm not sure it's made too much difference (she's not greatly stretched), although she has loved the topic work (ancient Egypt, etc) and is mature enough to have enjoyed the opportunities to join the choir, play recorder, perform in the show, etc.

Socially, it was absolutely the right thing to do (presumably because she was one of the older kids and mature anyway), with some really fantastic friendships within her new peer group. I think she would have struggled to continue with the friendships formed in her original P1 class.

She's tall for her age, confident and mature. It's only been a year, but I feel it was the right thing to do.

Who knows what the future will bring, none of us have a crystal ball (unfortunately)

Would also like to add that, I too am concerned re age miles stones, but have to remind myself that I was drinking in pubs aged 16, thanks to my homemade fake ID (I'm not advocating that, just highlighting that resourceful teenagers will find a way to do what they want, if they really want to do it!).

I also started Uni aged 17 and it was the making of me; the fun, the freedom and the opportunity to reinvent myself in my chosen image (heavy metal rocker, as it happens!), especially as I didn't arrive there with half a dozen school peers, so was free of old baggae. I'd argue that Uni is tougher on mature students!

Vegasmum sorry only just been back. Number 1 is not being with my child whilst they are anaesthetised - I had two anaesthetics in the 1970s when parents were not allowed to be present. The fear of the black mask over my face on both occasions I was 5 and 7 and really didn't understand.
Going back to the moving up a year I did move back a year and took a year out before going to Uni and extended my Uni course by a year to get 2 degrees. I have been happier and more settled as and adult for being older when I left Uni.

I was put up a year in the 70s when the 11 plus still existed. I had to do two years in the last year of junior school as I wasn't old enough to be moved. Instead I did a CE exam and moved to the private sector (with hardly any fees). As the boarding school had none of the restrictions of the state I was allowed to take my Maths'O' level at 14 (ie 2 years early).
Peer wise I found that it made little difference as my friends all lived near my home rather than the school,IYKWIM.

As a teacher (at an independent school) I really don't think it is a good idea. You could move a child up two or even three years and they would still be better at academic subjects than many in the class. But education is not just about that.

To state the obvious, the goals of education and schooling are far broader than Maths/English etc - social skills, emotional literacy, confidence, learning to work in a team etc etc are hugely important too and will probably be more important to them in their lives as adults.
Being youngest in the year is a considerable disadvantage for sports and even for music, but most of all socially.

Reception is definitely too young to be thinking about it anyway but IMO it should really only be considered if a truly exceptionally gifted and mature child has an early autumn birthday and is therefore close in age to the July/August youngest of the year group.

Every class will have a large ability range so the teachers need to find suitable activities for a child who has special needs like this. You can also add extras like music and extra-curricular activities. With bright children one worry is making sure that they experience challenge - doing some activities which they don't find easy is important whether it is experiencing not winning the swimming race or struggling with learning an instrument.

My DS3 was off the reading scheme and reading books like Harry Potter when he was in Reception class. He could also write a punctuated, correctly spelled story to cover an A4 sheet in neat handwriting. He won an academic scholarship to an independent school at age 13 but throughout I have been more concerned about him 'fitting in' socially with his peers (doesn't like sport!) than whether he was being 'stretched'. He is now in the top sets for everything but is not the top in those sets. He doesn't need to be out of year and it would have been disastrous for him socially.

The best case for being out of year is if you have a July or August birthday child, especially premature or a boy, in which case it is an excellent idea to keep them DOWN a year so they are not disadvantaged.

Phew. That was a bit long. Sorry!

My DD1 was moved up a year, together with a classmate, at the head teachers suggestion. They officially moved from year 2 to year 4 (but had previously been in a mixed year 2/3 class, so had in effect done the year 3 work). DD1 has an early September birthday, so we thought it wouldn't make that much difference, as she would have been in the higher class anyway if she had been a week older. Her classmate had a November birthday.

Both were at the top of their (accelerated) year at primary school, and both moved to secondary (grammar) school a year early.

DD's classmate did very well, both academically & socially, and is now at Cambridge (he went aged 17).

DD also did reasonably well academically, staying in the top sets for most subjects, but it became obvious during her teenage years that she was not as mature as her classmates. She didn't have many friends, and those she did have were in the year below. Also, as the academic work got more difficult, it became obvious that there were some areas where she would have done better with the maturity that comes with being older.

So in hindsight, I think now she would have done better if she hadn't been moved - but the level of extension work she would have needed in primary school was not available otherwise.

But in her classmate's case it was the right decision.

NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER
It was done to me (for what were sound reasons at the time)
I basically missed year 6
I am young for my year so was in with girls nearly 2 years older than me in my teens
I took my O levels at just 15, my A's at just 17
flunked them
retook at 18 - sailed into an RG uni and have done OK since then
but the social side was HORRENDOUS
luckily DD & DS school does accelerated streaming in subjects so that socially they stay with their own age but academically move ahead in their good subjects

I was put up three years, and I am fine. I honestly think I would not have been fine had that not happened. But we are talking mid 1980s when IEPs were unheard of and gifted and talented were dirty words to the county council I was being educated under....

My dc is very old for their age - regularly (even the teachers think they are 2 years older than they are).

The school has suggested due to academic and social ability to move my dc up - currently in yr 1. They have asked whether we prefer to do it this September so when yr 1 move to yr 2 (pre-prep) our dc moves to yr 3 (prep) or when yr 2 move to yr 3 (prep) our dc moves to yr 4 (prep).

Anyone any suggestions as to which one will be the better move? Or which one will be the worse move?