Missing Reception - bad idea?

[whizzylala]

Great to find this T&G board, haven't been on it before. Just having a real dilemma and wanted to pick anyones brains. My DD is due to start reception in sep, she is currently at local prep school in their foundation class, it was meant for just a yr as she was bored at pre school / nursery and subsequently behaving like a monster. Now she is great company, stimulated and doing really well. I fully intended her going to the primary school we have chosen but on giving in our notice the prep school have offered us a decent bursary because "they don't want to lose her" (have said they believe her to be T&G) wow - what a pleasant surprise! It would still be a financial struggle though. Went to speak to primary head, told her roughly what level she was at and she straight away said it sounded as though she needed to go straight into yr 1 as she wouldn't be stimulated enough in reception. (They did this last yr with a girl with a sep b'day) Now if she was a september b day that would make sense but my DDis feb and I am a bit worried about her mixing with such older children, she is still a little girl!
Head also said she would have to repeat a yr at some stage to fit back in. All sounds a bit worrying to me. The head sounded surprised that I wanted to look at the possibility of her staying with her peers (more work for them?).
So now I just don't know what to do - fork out for what I know is working and where I believe she will thrive or go to state and give it a chance - the school has a great reputation locally. Also I have a DS who would have to have the same treatment......
I have though t about this for hours - literally and cannot get ny head around it, I really feel as though I am sitting right on the fence and don't know which way to get down.
Sorry it is SOOOO long! Thanks in advance.

[cory]

I would go to the state school and demand that my dd was taught at an appropriate level within her year group.

But if anything had to give, then I would think it better if she missed out on some academic stimulation in reception than missed the social advantage of being with her peers. Remember a lot of reception is play anyway, so the difference between her and the others will be less obvious (assuming that she knows how to play- and if not, then practising is probably good).

Repeating a year later on sounds miserable. And going up through school a year younger potentially very isolating. IME the difference in maturity between Yr 2 and Yr 3 is very big.

[loadsofsmiles]

My dd was very advanced at Nursery. Her teacher spoke to a Private school about a bursery for her as she thought it would best cater for her needs. She was working at a Year 2 level well before she started school.

We decided however to opt for our local state school which is very good. We weren't prepared to be finacially commited for the next 15 years as we have 2 children. Why pay when you have a good state option?

She is now in reception and loving it. The school differentiate her literacy and Maths work and she does quite a lot with the year 1 children in her class (it is a mixed Rection/ Year 1 class). What she really enjoys though is the playing. She can do this at her own level, playing is open ended and children learn so much through this.

I can't tell you what is best for your child, but I do know that starting school is often enough of a challenge in itself, and it may not be necessary at this stage to skip a year.

[whizzylala]

Thank you all soo much for your help, advice and thoughts.
I went back to the head of prep and have managed to get a bit more help so we are going to give it a go. A bit scared of the commitment but if we just can't keep up with it then we can always go to primary school. I do think that it is the right thing for her at this stage, much better than repeating a year etc etc so here goes.....
Thanks again,
I am sure I'll be posting again now I have found this board. Have come to conclusion that my DD is definitely bright rather than gifted having read some of your stories but think she is probably G&T from schools point of view.
Thanks again,
Whizzylala.

[critterjitter]

Can I confirm that it is the case that birthdays between 01/09 and 28/02 can skip a year?

My DD is September born, and the Head point blank refused to allow her to skip a year (Reception) on the basis that they were her cohort and would always be.

We're now home educating and DD is relieved to be allowed to count beyond 10 and request harder books without being told off by her teacher. However, she does want to be in a school environment still.

[Littlefish]

I have never heard that Critter (I'm a teacher and former deputy head). Most LEAs are extremely reluctant to move a child out of their chronological year group. I've only known it in one case, where a child moved from Finland and had never been to school before (aged 8). He stayed an extra year at First school (which goes up to Yr 4). However, when he moved to High School, the school insisted on returning him to his chronological year, thereby separating him from all his friends.

WendyWeber, where does your information come from?

[seeker]

There was a child at dd's school whose very determined mother managed to get him to repear Reception for various compliacted reasons. It was a nightmare at secondary transition stage because the Authority insisted that he went straight into year 8 to catch up with his original cohort. It too a year of arguing for him to be allowed to stay with his peer group.

[susia]

It's years ago with me but when I went to school I was a year above, my parents were encouraged to let me miss a year and I didn't have to repeat it. I don't know if the same applies or not nowadays. TBH it wasn't great as when I was around 11 I was physically alot behind other girls in my class some of whom were about a year and a half older than me.

Also, I think it would have been better for my confidence to have been the top of the year below than middle of the year above.

[1dilemma]

I'm with cory but perhaps a little less demanding (but I also agree that the state school will be more concerned with getting the below average achievers up than streatching the above average)
tbh I can't really see why anyone would move a child up at the age of 3/4

[gigglewitch]

we have a similar-ish situation but here it's almost the norm - DS2 and three of his peers who have all been in the [state] excellent school "nursery" class are going straight into a class of Y1 children, at the same school. A small group of them is obv better than a single child being put in an already established class of older children, though.
They are apparently the group who already mature and academically at the level of the Y1 children, and in the case of my DS he needs someone brighter than him around to make his head shrink a bit because he is sooooo smug at being top of the class / teachers pet / Joseph in nativity / main bit in concert although proud i do think he needs both the pushing forward academically alongside realising that others can do what he can IYSWIM!

[twentypence]

Ds is in a new entrant class in NZ. He was given the option to move mid term 2 to the year 1 class with some children 6 months older. As he is changing schools in term 4 anyway I asked for him to stay where he was, and so he just goes to that class for reading and maths. Most of the other work is topic type work anyway, or he gets a group to "lead".

He will be in year one for a whole term and then go into year 2 in Feb. So technically he will have somehow missed at least 6 months of school, but I guess the main thing he won't have to repeat a year at any stage.

[1dilemma]

Forgive me gigglewitch but IMHO your teachers behaviour is soooo wrong! They should be obliged when children are little to 'spread the load', she is teaching all the other children in the class a really bad lesson, it's sad. I really don't believe she couldn't have found another Joseph/concert performer. She has missed the whole point if she thinks it's about a) ability b) showing off her favouritism at that age. Sorry.

I'm the opposite of whoever it was earlier and thought you were not 'allowed' to accelerate in English state schools. When you read about some of the struggles of late August born premmies or twins who would presumably be better if they had been kept 'down' a year it's very sad for them and their parents to have inconsistant application of the rules.

Our school has combined classes but we've not got to that level yet, the cynic in me would think how much of this is for the schools benefit and not my childs