Sending my child to school once he turns 5 and not 4..

[Dreamymama]

Hi guys my sons born in July which means he could start reception this year, however I decided to keep him in day care for another year and start school once he turns 5. Reason being I think he’s not ready for school just yet he’s quite an active baby and has issues with focusing etc, the nursery also suggested this. I am a bit confused now as a fellow mum said the transition between daycare and school will be too big for him but I thought reception is pretty similar to year 1 he’s also quite attached to few of his friends at day care who will be starting school once they turn 5 so thought if he can stay at his nursery for another year it’s okay. Any opinions??

If your child was in Scotland he would have a whole other year at nursery before starting P1 aged 5 and he would be mid age range in the class so it sounds completely normal to me.

Kids are expected to go to school too young in England.

That sounds wise. If you can't I'd consider some private tuition on phonics over the summer if that's affordable. My child's confidence was knocked because starting reception at the normal time he initially fell behind others in writing. Hes not summer born just found it tricky. It surprised me how much the kids notice and care.

In year 1 you have a structured day, phonics, then reading, then break time, then an hour of maths etc. you have lesson time and you are expected to be at a certain reading and writing level and with maths. I don’t think you can just skip reception and walk into year 1 missing the whole of Year R and the learning foundations put into place. Your child would be hugely behind (the children are put into groups depending on ability for maths and reading / phonics) and they would literally not be able to recognise letters or read basic words so they would be at the very bottom of the class and be starting from scratch (if you didn’t teach them at home, as nursery isn’t going to teach this)

He will struggle a lot more if you do this? I'd understand more if you were holding him back a year, otherwise it sounds mad.

Reception gets them ready for year 1. They can do what they want and learn through play, but they do learn a lot. My June born child went to reception barely able to write her name and with no understanding of maths.

Now she can read simple books, write sentences, write all the numbers up to 20, add and subtract. Plus she really developed her social skills.

She would never have developed or learnt so much at nursery. Now she's about to go into year 1 in September, and it's going to be a big transition. They sit at desks and are expected to do structured work. She knows most kids at the school, but they mix up the classes so she's also a little worried she'll have to make new friends. It would all be a million times harder if she hadn't been reception.

Thank you guys for your input I want him to start at reception when he turns 5 basically, but now I am panicking as everyone is saying I should have applied for that this year but I thought I could apply for him to start next year. Never the less I have contacted our local authority and schools to ask them how I go about this if I want my son to start in reception when he turns 5

Did you do an online application at all this year? Were you offered a place and deferred it, or are you saying you didn’t fill out anything? If the latter I would be making calls first thing Monday morning to your preferred school to urgently check process on this. Very worst case scenario would be that as you haven’t applied and deferred formerly you have to skip reception and go straight into year 1 so you just need to check this with only 2 weeks of the school year to go with schools contactable

I have made no applications as I was under the impression that my son can start in reception next year. I am now panicking because I don’t want him to miss reception but still want him to start school at 5 😭😭 I will be contacting the schools first thing in the morning on Monday and asking for the process, I read online that I can apply next year but ask the school if my son can start at reception and not year 1 but the decision will depend on the school.

Ah I see, definitely don’t panic, I realise this must be so stressful for you! As soon as you have explained your situation and you are armed with all the info you can make some choices about what to do next.

So many people move into and out of areas and move schools or fall outside of the normal admissions process and hopefully the school will do everything they can to help, just ask as many questions as possible to have a full understanding of the process (also if there’s a chance you don’t get your preferred school do you know the process for the second school on your list). We have to apply for x3, catchment school has to be on the list as no 2 or 3 if it’s not your first choice

Thank you! I do understand the importance of reception and don’t want him to miss that.
I have added 6 schools to the list and made a late school application to start off with and emailed all the schools for more information. Hopefully I will hear back on Monday and go from there 😅
I do have 2-3 schools so hopefully he will be able to get admission in one of them

There's some info here on the gov site: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/summer-born-children-school-admission/making-a-request-for-admission-out-of-the-normal-age-group

I don't have any experience on this but to me it sounds like there needs to be a good reason for holding a child back a year? Eg. Additional needs.

If the schools say he has to go into year 1 next year maybe you can send him to reception half way through the year? Would give him more time while also giving him some opportunity to start to learn phonics, etc. At ours there's been kids who started in the middle of the school year.

Reception is very different to Year One.
This seems to be happening a lot lately and it's a shame because reception is lovely. Lots of play and spending time outside. Will you have to pay for daycare?
Are there actual qualified teachers at the Daycare?
It's your decision but I would worry about them missing out on so much and then having to start Year 1.
Our reception is amazing and we have loads of summer born children who have thrived this year. It's been a joy to watch them.

Most local authorities prefer children to start with their chronological peer group. However I believe that they legally cannot say no to summer born children and it is parental choice. The bit LAs can say no to is whether to start reception or they stay in their chronological peer group and go straight into year 1.

There is options to defer by a term or two e.g continue day care until Jan or April and your child only have 1 or 2 terms in reception before going up to year 1. This can be arranged with the allocated school place. However it seems you haven't yet applied for a school place so you may have to do a late application to get a place first which may not be your local school now. It is a shame that nursery did not explain to you about applying for a school place before making your decision so you would have been able to talk to the school too. Some schools prefer to take the child at reception and will support the child/family to be ready for year 1.

Every LA is different. Ours do not say no to summer born starting reception a year later as we believe reception is important for all children to attend, however I know LAs who do say no to majority and only allow children with developmental delays to defer school start.

There is a Facebook group that may help you too. Search for flexible admission for summer born.

Primary school teacher here. Do not transition from nursery to year 1, the leap will be far too big and, in all honesty, I’d be very surprised if a school would let this happen as it’s not at all in the child’s best interests. Reception is a very important year.

Keep him in nursery for another year as both you and the nursery staff think he needs that, then he starts in reception the year after. We have a few children who have done this and they have really benefitted from the extra year in nursery before going into reception.

I have a May born son, who only went to School nursery 2 sessions a week. We were given the option of him going mornings only until half term, so this is what we did. There was one other parent who was going to also do this, but changed their mind. The only negative to this was he missed out on socialising with his classmates at lunchtime and by the time he was full time, most of the class had already formed their friendship groups. There wasn’t an option for him to go into reception a year later, they said he was a bright child who was academically ready, so they wouldn’t defer it.

It's not something I would do. Reception is an important part of the transition to school. He may have an easier year at 4, but you're setting him up for more difficult time at 5, with an already established class who have had a year to learn the expectations of being at school rather than nursery.

My stepson is an August born and my son late July. Both were ready for school at 4 and thrived. Reception is a nice transition, though it depends what their day is like in nursery/daycare. For my son it was all day so reception (8.30-4) was actually shorter.
He is 20 now and says he likes being younger than most.

Wait, have you not applied for him to start at reception when he goes at 5?

you don’t normally just send them straight into y1, you have to ask the school to agree a reception start. Most will as it’s not in a child’s best interests to miss a year of school and reception teaches how to read and write. You’d have to be confident your son could start at 5 already fluent at reading (the requirement by end reception) and I’m not sure nursery will teach this?

surely the issue isn’t just being too young to start at 4. It’s also being the very youngest in year. If he goes in to y1 and skips reception he will have missed a year to learn and make friends but also now be the youngest again.

you need to join the ‘flexible admissions for summer borns’ group on facebook urgently and get the school to agree the reception start before it breaks up for summer hols. You don’t have much time so get on it on Monday!!!

It sounds like OP would like/need a delayed reception start.

I did this for one of my DC in June of the year they were due to start reception (since I discovered our LA had approved all requests that year whereas before they had always refused). All I had to do was send an email and it was done. They stayed an extra year in nursery and started in reception a few days older than the oldest September born.

Hopefully it will be straightforward for you. As others have said do join the FB group ‘Flexible School admissions for summer borns’

Good luck OP!

(And for anyone else reading for whom this is news, this should be a possibility for any child born April-August. You don’t have to have additional needs. You don’t have to skip Y1. Children who delay a school start should stay with their adopted cohort at secondary transition as is in their best interest.

I don’t know why it causes so much confusion and often negativity. Scotland have had a similar system of choice for years).

No. He won't have known all his classmates for a year, or been on their transition visits. By the end of reception children have been working towards the early learning goals. Nursery should still try and get him there as much as possible, but as he'd likely be the only one, it would take very skilled staff to difference activities well enough without singling him out.

If you really didn't think reception was that different to nursery, what would be the benefit of delaying his start?

I'd delay if he could still start in reception, but I wouldn't go straight into year 1 from nursery.

Don’t panic, you have the legal right not to start him until 5. So now it’s just about getting the schools to say they’ll admit him into reception when you do apply. They have to argue it’s in his best interests to go straight into y1 which is impossible and now you’ve got no other option as he definitely won’t be starting in September it may force their hand !

I don’t have an issue with you deferring his place by a year but just not to apply or have the discussion because you ‘thought’ all would be ok is not ideal. In our LA you apply in the correct year but for a deferred place. Hood luck, many school (and essentially LA due to holidays) finish on 19th.

Hi, no there wasn't as much difference from daycare and reception. But there were differences. Reception was more structured than nursery, although again not really in a way because daycare still has a consistent routine. But the main difference imo is the routine is communicated in a different way to the children. So they are expected to be sitting on the carpet at carpet time and not be wondering off, but as pp said, they then have a lot of freedom learning through play. Toys and activities laid out (eg building blocks) and teacher would be going round groups asking questions (eg how many blocks did it take for you to build this tower). In our school (state) they also had a special of playground for reception which had a slide and toys that were age appropriate (eg dolls/animal figures etc). Main hurdle was expectation to be able to go to the toilet independently. We managed, happy to go over this experience for you separately if that helps 🤣 Year 1, they sat at tables in groups. There are no toys, but maybe would be activities such as science related or art related. But the biggest difference- they learned to write. I don't know how, these teachers taught my just turned 5 year old in year 1 to write. But they are amazing and they did! By end of year 1 he could read to me age appropriate books. Again, all children have different strengths and learn at different rates. Some sat still easily but took longer to write others opposite. Those differences are expected, but that hopefully explains the difference a bit. Reception was a really important stepping stone to bridge the gap between the two. I communicate regularly with teachers especially at start of new year about DS being almost a year younger than some. But it's becoming less and less of an issue you wouldn't even know now. He's just finishing year 2. Hope all this helps, sorry it's long. I was anxious about it too so wanted to share those experiences.

Just to add - if you can arrange for him to start reception age 5 then it's worth it maybe. But straight into year 1 I think he would struggle much more than going into reception at 4.

The jump from daycare to year one will be enormous. At our school the reception children don't go to assembly for the first term as it would be quite overwhelming. They also don't do proper PE until the summer term.

The reception playground is separate and then in the last half term the reception children start to have their break in the main playground in preparation for year one.

Academically absolutely loads happens in reception and the step up between reception and year one is the biggest there is. Before Covid we didn't have any free play or provision at all in year one although we have had in the last few years this is now being pared back. He will be going from playing with trains and painting all day to full structured lessons.

Not apllied but got the school’s agreement for him to start reception in reception in September 2025 when he is complusory school age.