Lets open a can of worms - what are the pros and cons of letting a child go up a year.

[ohmygosh123]

I'm in France at the moment, and my DD has been put up a year in the French system - all very normal here apparently. In the same way repeating a year is quite accepted. Basically you technically have a choice - but saying no was not a real option - and DD has thrived on it, both friendships and academically.

We'll be coming back to the UK eventually, but in the meantime the posts about putting children up a year has got me thinking. Is it a good plan or not. (I was put up a year and it didn't make school that much more interesting - I still snoozed through most of it.)

How does differentiation work - and do they do it in independent schools? Or is it more state primaries that do it. Then how does it work when they go up to secondary school? Do they keep the differentiation up - I can't work out how they can, remembering what my school was like.

So what do they do with kids that are like little sponges and can't get enough of learning. And what do parents do?

I don't have a proper view either way - but am very interested in other people's experiences. All I want is to keep DD's desire to learn alive.

DN was advanced a year at Primary, but had to repeat Year 6 because Grammar School wouldn't take him early. At Grammar he just switched off education and didn't do particularly well. He would probably have been better off staying with his year group in Primary.
Friend's DD was advanced a year at Secondary (comp) and whilst academically she kept up they found she got into things socially (boys, make-up etc) a year early to keep up with her peers, which they weren't thrilled about.
Another girl we knew who was advanced a year at Primary couldn't keep up at Grammar School and ended up rejoining her year group but at a different Grammar School.
Our LA is very much against moving children out of their age cohort, either up or down.