Skipping a Year

[busyhouseof8]

Can I garner some thoughts please. I'm hoping someone out there may have been in a similar situation.

My ds is in Year 4 at our small village primary. He has always been very bright, and having completed all theYear 4 work whilst in Year 3, he is now exclusively doing Year 5 work in Year 4 and is top of the class. We have mixed age groups in each class, so he doesn't stick out - just sits on a Year 5 table and gets on with their work.

At parents evening this week, his teacher said that she and the Head had discussed whether we might want ds to skip a year and move straight to Year 6. In her opinion he has the maturity and could certainly cope with the work. Her only concern was that it would advance ds taking the 11+ by a year and if for any reason he missed out, he would have lost his opportunity to join his older brother at the local grammar.

ds is an 8 September birthday so only just missed out on being in the year ahead anyway.

dh and I want to do what's best for ds. If the teacher hadn't raised this as a possiblility we would never have thought of it, but now she has we don't know what to do!

Concerns are:

1. Would it put too much pressure on him (he already comes home sometimes and complains that everyone at school always expects him to be the best at everything)

2. How will the other children at the primary react to ds skipping a year

3. How would the children in Year 7 at secondary school react to having someone from a younger year in their class

Any opinions greatfully received!

Sounds like school are trying to make life easier for themselves!

First thing you need to do is find out for definite if you can go up to secondary school a year early. Most LEAs won't allow this.

Ring the LEA and clarify - except they'll be very busy right now.....

I think that you need to be very careful about this kind of thing. Will he have the maturity to go up to senior school? Obviously he is old in his year but if it was me I'd keep him where he is and make sure they push him. It would be much better than him struggling later on.

I'm not entirely sure but I don't think the secondary schools will take children who are ahead of their year group so you may find he just ends up repeating year 6. I suggest you find out exactly what your school were intending to do at the end of his year 5.

I also personally think there is a huge difference between a year 6 child and a year 7 child in terms of emotional maturity.

Think very carefully about this one would be my advice.

Why don't you keep your DS in his correct year and get him to take the 11+ a year early and see whether he makes it? He could then skip the final year of primary and go straight to grammar. If he doesn't pass the 11+ in Year 5, he can retake in Year 6.

You should think carefully about how this will impact on him. He is used to being the brightest and oldest in his year - which has probably helped his confidence and his maturity. Suddenly he would be the youngest in his year and presumably not the brightest. He might find that quite tough.

I had 2 friends in senior school who had skipped a year. That year made quite a big difference in terms of their maturity, most notably between years 7 and 9. After that they were OK, although one of them did start Univeristy not even legally allowed to drink!

This happened to me. I took 11+ a year early and went to grammar school aged 10. There were several others in my year at the grammar school who had done this too. I thought that if you did 11+ early but failed, you could have another opportunity to do it in your "normal" year. I'd really check up on the rules with your local grammar schools.

It was fine for me academically, but more of a problem socially and emotionally. I think it depends a lot on your ds's personality and the kind of emotional support you are able ot give him. What is your instinct on how he would cope? I'd tend to go with that. Though do make sure it isn't the school just wanting to give themselves an easier life!

Thanks everyone.

I checked with the board that runs the 11+ here in Essex and they confirmed that it is open to those in Year 6 only, so if he goes into Year 6 early and fluffs it then he won't get another chance the following year with his correct age group.

I spoke with the LEA who said that they didn't care whether he skips a year or not and it was between us and the primary school but I need to check with the secondary schools (grammar and local catchment comp) if they would be happy to accept him early.

I think my gut instinct is to let him enjoy the freedom and fun of primary school for just as long as he can rather than reduce his time there by a year.

I think your gut instinct is right. If he is such a clever boy, he will get into the grammar in Y6 and should be fine.

We faced a similar situation with my DD - the secondary school we wanted her to go to (and she's now at) made it clear they would not accept her early - they are under no obligation to, and there's plenty of time in the future when she can "speed up" her academic progress. We're glad we waited and we enriched her primary experience out of school, and her basic skills are really well established as a result of staying in primary.

I would leave him where he is and maybe do some extra work/activities with him outside school. There is a world of difference between 11 and 12 yos - especially boys. He would probably lose more socially in the long run, than he would gain.

I think that the school need to think about their provision. Why should your ds have to leave his friends and move yeargroups. It is up to the school to provide an appropriate education for the children with their peers.

The Essex 11+ is particularly tough as well as there aren't very many grammar schools. Far better imo to let him do it in his proper year.

I skipped a year when I was about nine. I was fine academically, but I really suffered socially and was really quite miserable and lonely. I'd leave him where he is.

I was at school with a girl who was 'bright' in our village school and the teachers pushed to get her into grammar a year early. Turned out that she was pretty average at grammar (if young!), came out with average O levels and A levels, didn't go to university, married young and was last known with a job on the check out at ASDA.
Not the brightest decision of the teachers at our primary school.

Saragrey, not the brightest decision perhaps, but please don't equate marrying young and having a job at asda as some kind of necessarily wasted life.

Didn't mean it like that at all. Just that there are obviously great expectations for someone who's accelerated. All of the threads about children skipping years are based on the assumption that children aren't 'reaching their potential' in their peer year group.

I was just giving anecdotal evidence that skipping a year will not always allow the child to reach his or her 'potential' (whatever that may be, and however that is measured) in academic terms.

I don't think it is such a big deal to skip a year. It isn't as if you are putting a seven year old in with ten year olds. As you say, he only narrowly missed the cutoff for the older year anyway. If he'd fallen the other side of it and were in the older year, you certainly wouldn't be campaigning to have him kept back a year. He'll be younger than the others if he gets moved up a class, but not by much. I don't think anyone at secondary will even notice.

Mind you, my opinion is coloured by having been bored to tears at school. I would gladly have done anything to have slightly more interesting work. I left school early to go to university, where no one cared how old I was.

What does your son want to do?

My brother did this - this was ages a go mind - he a september birthday as well - it was fine at primary school and in the early years of secondary - but it was quite hard the last couple of years as he was about the last to go through puberty and was picked on quite a lot - but it was that kind of school anyway - there is the gifted and talented thread on here - they might have some thoughts

I teach yr 5/6 and have a boy from year 4 come to me for maths and literacy as he is already working at level 5 for both. However the rest of his time he spends in his class with his peers, which I think is a preferable solution

Spanieleyes - what will happen to him next year? Presumably you will have to differentiate appropriately for him. If you can do it, why can't his teacher this year do it?

Some independent schools do allow dcs to start secondary school a year early if they have an Autumn birthday and are able to keep up academically.

A girl in my class at secondary school was a year younger than most of us (September birthday) and got excellent O and A level results. She then went to study Medicine at a top London teaching hospital!

Little fish, I have several children working at this level so he comes to me simply because otherwise he would be "out on his own", at least now he has 5-6 others he can argue the point with! There will still be several level 5's next year ( when he is in yr 5 and they are in 6) who will all be aiming for level 6 together. The only problems come the following year when he will be working at level 6 on his own ( and that's when the individual differentiation comes in)