Reception Class, January admission, not happy

[spiderslegs]

My son was four in April, we live in the English/Welsh borders & have applied & been accepted at our first choice school in England. I went last week for a welcome tea party & was flabbergasted to be told that this year they would be implementing a two stage admission & my son would not be eligible to start until January (he falls outside the Sept admissions by four days).

Nobody had thought to tell me this previously. I (foolishly) assumed there was only a September admission as there is with all other local schools. I brought this up with the teacher afterwards & enquired if there was any flexibility but was told no, 'as everyone would want to do it & then there would only be one child left going up in Jan', she followed this up with 'these are very precious years, make the most of them'..........

At this point I started twitching.

DS is very confident, happy child who is dying to start school, pre-school & I are already teaching him how to read/write, he can do simple addition etc.

It's time for him to go.

I explained this to the head who smiled & nodded but I could see in her eyes I was on to a loser.

WTF am I to do?? Most of his friend have already started as they're all going to school in Wales where you start the term you turn four ( a little early in some cases I think), I can't send him to his old pre-school as they are already saying to me they can't do any more for him & he's ready to go (all his buddies have gone anyway so he'll be stuck with the two & three year olds).

I don't want to start a war with the school before DH even gets there.....

Also, the entire reception intake consists of 12 children so hardly a deluge....

May be hitting the independent sector sooner than anticipated.

Advice??

she is very insecure imo and hates anyone to suggest anything or challenge anything, it all has to come from her dictat.

It's just how she is
it's a good school in many ways and we are happy with it but yes she has some problems with accepting parental opinion and doesn't like people who try and tell her what's going to happen.

we've had a few issues...SN provision...sexual harrassment...every time I've had to confront her and it isn't pleasant. Sometimes things get resolved though.

I asked the school to defer until January today. The deputy head teacher was completely open to it. She said I was the only one to ask so far, but she could see why I was asking - particularly as I want to travel. she asked how i felt it would be starting late with established groups, and i said we were already setting up play time with children that i know will be starting in september so all the other kids won't be completely new. i was suprised at how accomodating and flexible she was. i've been scared to ask for months. other schools round here are horrid about it. it has made me feel incredibly positive about the school, to know it is not run by someone rigid and inflexible.

Spiderslegs - Betsy is spot on. As the school is in England they cannot force you to defer until January.

IngridBergman - Your H/T is talking rubbish about funding. The funding the school gets depends on the number of children on the roll on a specific date in January. They will therefore get exactly the same funding regardless of when your child starts full time education and regardless of whether your child has 3 weeks part time or an entire term.

Oh gosh - if you're sure then I'll talk to her about that, thanks ever so much PRH. I wasn't certain if it might vary between LAs.

I am absolutely 100% certain about that. It is compulsory for all LAs in England.

Thankyou that's brilliant

Thank you all.

Really, you have done me a huge service.

I will storm (gently) in & wave my papers.

Thanks.