Should i put my child back into reception

[DianaSoraya]

I had a parents evening call today. My son is 5 years old born 3 months early and is an august baby. The teachers are concerned hes not fully developed to be in year 1 as hes struggling to catch up to the other kids. We suspect he has a case of adhd but cannot be diagnosed as hes too young. They have suggested putting him back in reception and starting year 1 next year . I dont know what to do. I see he has difficulties but he has come so far. Hes learnt how to spell his name count to 20. And he has made so many friends already his class loves him. But is moving him back a year going to help him in the long run? I have no idea what to do !

@Namechange600

Jump at the chance. Writing as parent of a august born due September child who has struggled through primary and now looking at sending a struggling child to secondary, with a long list of sen.

This is important to check. I’ve worked in a school where a child who was moved down a year had to leave us in Year 5 to go to secondary. This was about 10 years ago so things may have changed.

Who is it who suspects he may have ADHD - the Sendco? If so, has he/she told you why ADHD is suspected?

Sorry, quoted wrong post - should have been the one about ensuring your child can stay with the same cohort even when he moves to secondary school.

I have a child in reception - they can write their name (10 letters), count to quite a way past 20, and I just had parents evening where I was told she was average for her stage at writing and maths, so I'd definitely keep him in reception to give him a chance to feel good at stuff rather than just always the worst in his class (my eldest feels like this often).

It would take it. THe chance to be the eldest in the year vs the youngest would be a great advantage to them that will carry them through their entire time at school

My DS is probably 6 weeks younger than yours and has just started reception.
I genuinely cannot imagine him being in year one, and he's a NT child with very very mild speech delay.
He's absolutely flying in reception. Just started reading books, counting to 20 etc. But I still feel that emotionally he's very young.
I would absolutely do a second year in reception.
It's just a shame your DS didn't do an extra year in nursery really, as this would have been easier for him. Hindsight is a wonderful thing though!

He was supposed to be born november

In that case do it. Kids start school in the UK very young. Without effectively going into school a year early. November is 3 months after the cut-off right? You'd never consider putting a kid into school that early. I'm Scotland so different cut off dates but deferred my eldest.

Questions I would ask is how do they propose to do it, best answer would be a composite class so it's not dead obvious to the other kids. And how you tell him without destroying his confidence.

As long as they won’t correct this and have him miss a year later if do it.

My friend did this with her daughter (also prem, July born) but later on - I think it was year 3 or 4. She never looked back.

You need to find out exactly what the school are proposing:

1. Will he remain in his current class and join the Reception class for some or all activities?
2. Will he formally remain in Year 1 but be placed in the Reception class. Will he then rejoin his chronological cohort at some point, and when might that be? Would it be a gradual reintegration or would he jump a year-group at some point to catch up with his current cohort? If he goes right through primary school with the younger age-group, would he then be leaving at the end of Year 5 to go into Year 7?
3. Will he be permanently and formally placed with the Reception cohort, so he remains with them all through his school career, in the same way as he would if he had been deferred?

If either scenario 2 or 3 is agreed, make sure you get what the plan is in writing. You don't want to be in the situation where a new headteacher over-rides this decision or you need to change his school and the new school can't or won't follow the same arrangements and you don't have the paper trail to support this.

As a Y1 teacher I would say if the school have recommended it, do it. The transition from Early Years to KS1 is massive. They go from a very child centered approach to learning to a 'sit at tables and focus more' approach. It's really difficult for a lot of children. I see so many struggle with the transition and miss their reception class. We have a few children now who just aren't accessing the Y1 curriculum at all and are being taken out in groups all of the time to catch up - they work on a separate table because they find the work so hard. I would say that most of the time they're away from their classmates during learning time because they struggle so much. I try to make it's as inclusive as possible but the curriculum constraints make it very, very hard. I don't think you'd regret the decision to give your child an extra year of the Early Years curriculum.

I would leap at the chance too. I wanted mine to repeat reception but they wouldn't let him he now struggles a lot. That extra year would have made so much difference.

I have a ds year 10.. He has adhd. Academically he is fine , emotionally as he has grown his lack of maturity shows.
At that age friendships are very fluid.

I am probably the lone voice here who will say I'm not sure its the right thing for every child. I have a son with Autism and he has associated difficulties including poor attention span. He is also an August baby.
If a child has additional needs then the school should be putting support in place for that child, and making reasonable adjustments to the classwork, homework etc. Although resources are severely stretched in school, every school will have children with a range of additional needs, and many that need extra support. Repeating a year will not solve problems if your son does have ADHD or similar. It will not fix this. He may need more time to mature, but it isn't a magic answer.
What if he repeats a year, but is still struggling?
How will he feel being separated from his peer group and friends? How will this impact him and his confidence? Especially if he is the only one?
And as others have said, what happens later when he should be yr5/6 and they are preparing for sat's and the transition to secondary school? At what point will he miss a year and jump ahead?
I just think you should ask them to support him in yr1, and for him to get extra support. If you have concerns about his development go to your GP and explain and ask them to refer him for assessment. If its a long waiting list (probably at least 12 months) then better to start that process now. If your child does have any additional needs then repeating a year will not change this. They are still going to have issues in 12 months time, and what then?

I'd definitely do this. Otherwise you risk him playing catch-up throughout his school career rather than being on a level playing-field with the other kids.

In your case, it's not an abstract question of "should I defer my August-born child in case he struggles?" where you always get people jumping in to say that someone has to be youngest in the year and children will cope fine. In your case, your child has been identified by the teachers as not coping and the school have suggested a solution.

Just for context, children in year 1 should now be writing several simple sentences and lots of their work will be geared around that. As a reception teacher who strongly believes in deferral, I’d grab both hands and run with it. What your son can do is what able children entering reception are able to do, far better to be more able in reception and thrive than struggle constantly in year 1.

If this was an option when my ds was in y1 I would have done it. He's caught up with the others but it's been hard work

How did he do with the reception stage phonics? Is he reading yet? If the answer is no I would 100% move him back a year.

My son is 5 had had just started reception as he is an October birthday. He can count for ages, he understand the concept of how numbers keep going and can identify written numbers in the hundreds. He can read simple sentences like “the sheep can jump over the fence”. He is slightly above average for his age but many in the class are similar. By year 1 he will be expected to do much more and so I would definitely repeat reception now if your child is significantly behind expectation for his year group.

At some point he may well have to miss a year and go back into his chronological age unless they are anticipating an EHCP and specialist.

The decision making on this long term does not sit with the school.

Yes definitely go for it . My twins were early but fortunately fell just past the date for admission so they were 5 + when they started. The difference that year made was massive.

OK. I have a 18 year old, birthday 31st August. When she was in a private school she was kept back a year. Her academic knowledge is fine, emotionally not. When she went into the state system she was not mature enough (Street wise). Jump at the chance. I wish I had. Now a neet.

Yes do it. It will transform his school experience

@smartiecake your right, repeating a year isn't right for every child, but this school is recommending it for this child, who's really a November baby, not even on the cusp of the cut-off date. Not just days or weeks from the date.

He'll soon forget he ever repeated a year but it needs to be handled sensitively

I agree that it sounds like he may well thrive with another year in reception, and that the skills he has now mastered are not uncommon at reception entry.

As for the question of what happens at secondary transition, definitely get that confirmed in writing. However, I would say that in my opinion that is a problem that should be solved definitively in the next two or three years, as the policy change to looking more favourably on summer-born children deferring entry is about to work through to secondary transition in that timescale. They can't be permissive for going through primary a few months older and then not change the policy for secondary entry!!

Good luck. Given how prem he was, is he still under paediatric followup? I'm wondering if they were considering his developmental age when saying you'd need to wait to have ADHD diagnosed. I hope you can get advice on the timeline for such assessment and recommendations for how best to support him in the meantime.

I'm a teacher - definitely go with schools advice. It's so hard seeing kids struggling when you know that repeating a year or an extra year in nursery would have done wonders for them.

I had children in my primary one class last year that really really shouldn't have been there. It didn't benefit them and I wish their parents had listened to the advice to keep them in nursery for an extra year. They couldn't sit still or join in with group activities because they hadn't developed enough yet to be able to.
It impacted on everyone, not just them.