Too old for Preschool, too young for reception?

[element]

The local council would not issue the application as his birthday was 4 days after the 31 Aug 2006 cutoff. So he will only be going to reception year next Sept on the day he turns 5. I assume he will be the oldest in recetion year
All of his friends have left to go to Reception in Primary School and he has stayed behind. He has to play with the younger children of 3 and in some case he is twice their size.
Now the school has changed room managers and does not allow any personal toys to be brought to school. So having lost his friends and his toys...He does not want to go to Pre-school in the mornings and sobbs his heart out every time I take him.....It is really upsetting for me ...any advise on what to do?

I had a similar with my September born. Fortunately the nursery managed this a bit better than yours seems to. They only moved children up into the next room in smallish groups based around age and made sure that 'school year' groups were kept together. Early social engineering!

I have no advice to offer you - the last year for at nursery was a long one. Mine did the nursery foundation stage work virtually twice.

Change pre-school, it doesn't need to be a problem. DD has reached all the targets of what a child needs to do before they start reception and she has a year to go - pre-school have bought her harder puzzles, games, letter stuff for this year. They say she could have easily started school this year but I think its a bonus to have her at home with me for another year they have so long at school.

Seriously, can you change pre-school, the current one doesn't sound very good at all.

Do you need him to go anywhere? If you don't they why not just keep him with you and do fun stuff until school time?

But surely several of the 3 year olds will be 4 too soon?

DS1 is a September birthday and most of his original friends from pre-school went up to primary before him. But he made new friends amongst the other children who were eventually in his school year.

change preschool

Ds2's was ideal for him but wouldn't have met Ds1's needs at all.

I'd look for a new pre-school, or take him out and do other activities with him this year. There will be children in most pre-schools who will already be 4 at this time of year (as the cut-off is statutory) and a good pre-school should be able to cater for them.

Change pre school if you can. DS was in this situation (3/9) this year and the change helped him because he felt that he was moving on as well. All his friends started reception this year as well.

Does the local school have a nursery?

Move him to a different nursery. There is a huge difference.

The nursey attached to DD's school has the most able pupils joining reception phonics etc.

I'd change preschool, but if you can't find a better one you could 'home school' just for the year, try and find some cheap regular clubs, sports, drama etc?

I know i'm getting a bit ahead of myself, but in a few years time you WILL see the benefit of having a September born. (My DD is mid Sept.)

Some August born children have a terrible time and it is no secret that there is a much higher incidence of SEN diagnosis among August born boys.

There is also statistical evidence that shows Autumn born children gain higher exam marks and account for a higher proportion of university entries.

And re making other friends... Will the children in the existing nursery likely end up as your childs classmates? IMO thats a good reason to keep him at the nursery.

If you feel that the staff are't providing challenging opportunities then you need to work out an appropriate strategy with them. They have a legal obligation to cater for every childs individual needs.

My sil had a similar issue with my nephew who was one of the older children and academically very able. She ended up keeping him at the local pre-school for 2 sessions a week, so that he would be with friends the following year when starting school, but she also put him into the nusery of a selective, more academic prep school for another 2 sessions a week to give him something different to do and keep him interested. I'm not saying that's the solution for everyone, but it certainly seemed to work for them.

Some of the children must also have just missed the deadline, maybe by a few more weeks or months even, but he can't be a whole year older than all of the other children.

It's great that your son will be the oldest in his class! well done...

He can't be a whole year older than ALL the other children. Surely there must be other autumn babies in the preschool.

He's not "too old" for preschool - my 2 eldest children didn't start in to primary 1 (Reception) until they were 5y6m. That last year at nursery was really good for them and they are doing brilliantly now. However, it does sound like your ds's preschool are not catering to his needs.

DId you really want him to start into reception on his fourth birthday? He's still a baby, really!

Do you have other preschools you could consider?

I moved mine from one I had become increasingly unhappy with, and found a brilliant one which, among other things it did better, did "mini-lessons" for older children who were ready. The teacher was lovely; the children were stimulated (eg letter recognition by punching balloons about), and as well as active lessons, they also learnt how to sit nicely and listen for short periods - a skill which really helped transition to the classroom.

My DS is 4 in a week so in a similar position to yours. I moved him from his tiny pre-school as all of his little friends had moved to Reception, and put him in a bigger pre-school. He and his new cohort will move up together to reception.

I look on pre-school as an opportunity for him to make the friends he will be with for the rest of primary and also to get used to being in a learning environment. He wants to learn to read so we are doing that at home. He must be learning something at pre-school as he can now do basic subtraction and addition.

I thought that my DS was ready for reception but he is so tired after 4 mornings of pre-school he is fit for nothing on Friday. I'm glad we've got the extra year.

How about a montessori as they tend to have more mixed ages, they don't start children in primary til later as well, so they'll be some older ones in the class.

My son is 4 in a couple of weeks. I was thinking "what another year before school?!" as he has a lot of friends a couple of months older who've started reception but I'm pretty glad of it now.
He's at the school nursery now (rather than pre-school) and is getting really tired. He's loving it, chatting about it, doing all sorts of stuff.
I would savour this last year. Definitely look into other pre-schools if he's not having fun where he is. However bright they are emotionally they stay at the younger level end it's a bonus as pp say to be one of the oldest in the year

My dgs attends a small country primary school. He was 4 mid September and,because nursery and Reception [14 in each group] work in the same area,he has been taken to do some activities eg early phonics and writing on white boards with the reception class.Most older nursery children will be allowed to develop at their own pace and shouldnt be disadvantaged[rather the opposite] by their birth date.I'd look at other schools in your area.