Starting school a year early

[Boglin]

My son (3) is due to start school (reception) in September 2017. He's quite bright and SIL suggested to me today after speaking to a teacher friend of hers that we could apply for him to start school a year early.

Is there any advantage to us doing this?

I do have concerns that he will be bored in reception year as I'm led to believe that he can already do most of what will be covered but I don't know if him starting early will be too detrimental socially.

Has anyone done this and can share their experience? Or is there anyone who regretted not doing it? I really have no idea what to do for the best but decisions will need to be made soon as school applications for Sept '16 will close in January!

Thanks in advance.

Don't do it.

Lots of private schools used to let people go up a year but socially it becomes difficult when they are going through puberty etc. and they have now stopped (eg St Paul's, KCS Wimbledon, Millfield). There are always exceptions but generally it is not beneficial to the child.

Yup. Its really, really not fun when all your classmates hit puberty a year before you do.

All through school, my classmates would tell me i was sooo baby-ish. Now, with Facebook, I've spotted that most of them were year older, others two years older. Wish i had known then, or worked out the implications. But at school, its all about growing up and anyone who lags behind will, well, miss out.

And for what?

The age difference really is not noticeable at all in most cases - by secondary school a 3/4 month age gap is nothing.

The age of puberty is so variable that it's a silly thing to worry about. DD was on the early side of average, so she was always at about the same stage of development as her friends (and ahead of some). DS is not going to be early but it doesn't seem to matter - there are certainly some other (older) boys in his class who are still physically immature and much shorter than he is.

I don't think acceleration is necessarily a "good" thing (whatever benefits there are soon wear off) but the arguments against it given in this thread don't really correspond with my experience.

Have you considered that if you put your son up a year that unless you are very tall he will likely be physically smaller than many of his peers for the whole of his primary schooling?

I really noticed this when watching my sons play sport at their prep school. All the first team players were physically bigger than average - and guess what? They were mostly September / October born. There were hardly ever any first team born late in the year.

Don't make life hard for your baby. They can always resit an exam, but they cant resit their childhood. Believe me you wont be rushing for them to grow up when they are 16 or 17.

A 3 year old is far too young for Reception.

Two views on this - I was year-accelerated for secondary (skipped Year 7) and DS was an unusually bright pre-schooler -taught himself to read, could read and order very large numbers, could add and subtract mentally with 2 digit numbers. Doing the same with 3 digit numbers and negative numbers took him into reception. Left the school reading scheme at the Christmas of reception because he'd moved on to chapter books, that sort of thing.

Don't do it. Socially, even at 17 when a year is a small proportion of overall age, it was a nightmare. I was just 'late' for all social milestones - who wants a 16th or 18th birthday party a year after everyone else's? - and chose to 're-set' my year group by taking a year out before going to university.

And DS LOVED Reception, because actually, a play-based curriculum is excellent for self-extension: when you are playing 'teachers' or 'football reporters', it is entirely possible to be writing large calculations on the blackboard, or negative goal differences in you imaginary fiootball league, and for your teacher to notice and take photos for evidence. Year 1 was MUCH worse because the move to more formal teaching and learning put a much lower 'ceiling' on what he could show he could do,... the worksheets / tasks he needed just weren't on his Year 1 teacher's radar.

I wouldn't. I doubt they'd allow it for a start and I think he needs to be with his own age group socially.

My nephew is really, really gifted. At 5yo you could ask him any maths sum such as what's 217x12 and he'd tell you the answer within five seconds.

His school obviously realised he was slightly unusual in his maths ability and he has always gone into a higher years maths class, but just for maths. He is with his own age group for everything else.

I think there's a lot you can do at home to encourage his talents. By that I mean fun games where they're learning without realising.

I was a year ahead all through school, from the age of 6 - we moved countries and initially I was put into the correct year group, but was put up half a year (sept and Jan intake at that time), then after a day in that class was put up again so u was a full year ahead. I then went on to secondary school at 10 (and incidentally also started my periods at 10 whilst still at junior school) and it was absolut fine. The only slight problem was that I couldn't legally leave school at the same time as the rest of my class but as I went on to A levels that wasn't an issue either

DS2 went to school at 3.8. It was because they would have had to lose a teacher had they not have taken the children from nursery who could cope with it. My mum thought I was terrible and phoned daily telling me so!

He was/is very bright and coped fine. He was at the top end of the class at the end of the year, and when he did Yr1 a year early.

We hit a problem then because we moved and the school put him in a mixed yr1/yr2 class on all the top tables which was fine but at the end of that year he had to literally repeat Yr 2 because the junior school wouldn't take him. He was bored out of his mind.

I would have done it if I knew there was an option. He used to go year ahead for certain subjects, but didn't work out so well because of timetables. So, if the child can join ahead of year properly, and he/she is ready, I don't think there's any problem. And bright children get along better with older children anyway, in my opinion.

I sometimes joke that my 4 year old could have started last year. She's in year R now and she's significantly ahead of the rest of the class in reading and also confident in maths. Her writing is not at a year 1 level though and that would have held her back. I was perfectly happy for her to play for another year and stay with her cohort. There are some frustrating aspects for me (e.g. this term she has to learn all the single letter sounds in class that she's known for 2 years) but she's a laid back child and takes it in her stride.

Think you've got to be taking the piss. Let the poor lad be a kid and not rush school.

There is little benefit to starting early - find a good full time nursery place and practise social skills.
A 3 yo should not be in a class with 4-5 year olds. Motor skills and sitting still skills would be behind as well.

Look for a strongly academic independent, keep him in his own cohort. I say that as someone that started school early. My DC are both seriously far ahead of the curve, but they would not physically have managed the pace in their school 12 months early.
Their school has pre- reception year equivalent to state reception, and that was good for them.

I have two experiences of this to share.

My DS(4), when he was 2 (yes 2!) was placed in with the pre-school children at his old nursery. The manager mentioned it would be a good idea to think about him starting school a year early (so when he would've been 3) as he would've been academically able to. I decided not to though as I didn't think he would be emotionally and behaviourally ready.

What I did do was to move him to the nursery attached to the school I wanted him to attend. It was great, they moved him in with the reception children at times so he had extra stimulation when needed but didn't have the full on 6 hours a day (I think this would've been too much).

Now he's in reception and goes into years 1 and 2 for certain classes and it's working out really well for him.

My personal experience is that I started infant school in the year ahead (so I was 4 but in year 1). This was great and I was a year ahead throughout primary school BUT the secondary school wouldn't allow me to attend a year early so I ended up doing year 6 twice. Not so great. I nearing 40 now and I can still remember how upset I was when my friends left for big school and I had to stay behind.

I recommend finding a nursery attached to a good primary school.

Thanks for all the input, it's been really useful. He's an October baby so would be 3.11 and potentially only 5/6 weeks younger than the youngest in the class so it wouldn't be a massive gap. Having said that he is on the small side and we don't feel that he would be physically or emotionally ready so the search continues for a suitable school for him to start in 2017. Again, recommendations in greater manchester are very welcome.

A larger year group can help. We have 3 classes so when they mix for English/maths there are at least a few other bright children to work alongside. A good school can differentiate well and is used to varying abilities. Many children in yr 1 could do "year 2" work for example and some are struggling with things others cover in reception.

Try ravenbank county primary in Lymm. Great head teacher and the school feeds to the Grange, Altrincham Grammar schools as well as the local comprehensive.

Boglin - I was just going to echo what other people have said. Irrespective of whether you think its a good idea now, you need to know what the senior schools in your chosen area would allow. Certainly in Trafford (South Manchester) where children sit entrance exams for the state grammar schools there would undoubtedly be issues (e.g. your son would be taking it a year earlier than his true-age cohort so may do less well?!).

As far as recommendations for school entry in 2017, look at Trafford particularly around Hale, Altrincham, Bowdon, Brooklands. I think all schools locally are outstanding and because most are bigger than usual (2 or 3 class intake per year, children are grouped according to ability very quickly).