cut off date for starting school?????

[sha11]

Hi Please can you all advise me on what to do - I have a 23 month old and baby due in early september.

What I would like to ask is, if you had a choice of when the baby would be born 1-2 days before 31 august or 1-2 days after 1 september what would you choose.

I would prefer the aug option so they would be closer in years at school. What would you advise and the reasons for it.

Chasing squirrels - are you 100% sure about the term after they turn 5? I ask because we had many, many meetings with different schools re: ds who is late Aug born and every school insisted he was legally required to be there from Summer term BEFORE 5th birthday. You're right in that they don't have to attend as soon as they turn 4, but in reality that means that lots of them would miss some or most of their reception year to settle in - effectively meaning that they would have to then settle in in Y1 when the work really starts.

Definitely the term after they turn 5 , legally . Don't schools get funding for children all year even if they don't actually start until summer as they get included in the headcount

"IMO, if children don't start when their peers start it makes it much harder to make friends."
hmmmm, well children do transfer between schools for lots of reasons too and most of them seem to manage to make friends.

Yes they do but for a child coming fresh into formal education at Year 1 there would be a lot to take on board at once.

September, September, September.

If you genuinely do have a choice, from an educational point of view (I'm an ex Reception teacher), I would always go for September.

Blimey - all of my local schools are wrong then - perhaps they just meant it to avoid missing a year altogether...who knows.

I'd say september, purely for the age advantage (I am Sept, DS 1 & 2 are Sept & Oct). Having said that I know several summer babies (two of them 31st August!) who have coped fine in reception year.

No idea about benefits of closer age gaps at school because my DC are all a year apart.

Sha11 - do you have a choice of dates?

I had the same decision to make as you.

I chose August but only because there was a 14 month gap between my 2, it defeated the point of a close gap if they ended up 2 school years apart.

I was very relieved that it was girl.

All this said I would still recommend September the school dd is going to has them all going full time by October, just 6 weeks after her 4th birthday. Although she is ready she would benefit by waiting another year.

Just wanted to add my opinion about when they start school. Different LEAsdiffer over there intake rules. I have two nephews who willbe 5 soon. One is 5 in June and started school in January, the other is 5 in August but he livs in an area which only has one intake so he's been at school since september and had only been 4 about 10 days.

having googled it and found the education act - it is their 5th birthday, but it does seem to be applied by the authorities as the beginning of the term after their 5th birthday, but as mentioned below there are lots of other points to think about (availability of places, taking out of year group, missing reception etc).

there will be LOADS of people who know someone with a aug birthday who was fine - the majority of them are, and of sep birthdays who didn't cope - some of them won't so well. But STASTICALLY a sep birthday does better.

Thanks for all the replies the majority of u think sept is best, I do have a choice so i'm still confused i was a july and my friends were sept aug and they did not do any better then me in school! so please a few more personal reasons would be appreciated.