Has anyone ever kept their DD/DS back a year at school?

[2ManyPimms]

I was wondering if anyone had any experiences with keeping a child back a year at primary school. I am contemplating this very seriously at the moment and need a bit of feedback. (DS is in year 2 and is 7, BTW.)

Ta!

(I may not be able to get back to this thread for a while as I am travelling at the moment.)

i know people who have kept them back by not starting school when they should, but keep again in year 2? why?

He is extremely immature for his age, his grasp of basic concepts is poor, he is in a class of 30 and he is at the very bottom. Something is just not getting through. He does not have a learning disability which would explain it. What'll happen is that he'll get put through to year 3, barely having any grasp of what he has been taught in year 2 and so on and so on....

(He will be "put back" in a different school as we are going to move towns shortly.)

I don't see why not. It can only help him.

I grew up in Holland, and children who were underachieving were regularly held back a year at the end of the school year. It was quite normal. In fact, if you 'passed' your year and moved on a year you got a letter home from the headteacher saying 'I am pleased blah blah blah that your daughter/son XXX has been placed in Y3 next year'

Every year there would be 1 or 2 that would not move on. And those that did move up (the rest of the class) would end up with 1 or 2 new classmates that had been held back from the year ahead and joined our class.

Just read that back - does it make sense?

It was a huge motivator - most of us were terrified of being kept back a year...