Moving out of year

[Goldfishshoalsnibblingatmytoes]

I am undecided whether to move my ds out of year, and after other people's experiences.

Unlike most threads/info I've read the social side is not the issue. He's always been "old" for his age, and spends his playtimes with the children in the year above, if not higher. He is in the year above for all sport.

Academically, he's very able and is very bright, not prodigy exceptional, but certainly near the top if not the top of his class.

A number of people have raised it with me about moving him up a year, and I can't decide whether this is the best thing.

Therefore I'm interested in others experiences where the social concern of being out of year group is a non-issue.

what are your reasons for wanting to move him out of year

'near the top of the class' is not a reason to teach out of year

DD was taught out of year as she was working 3-4 years above her age in all subjects

High school won't take her early, so she is repeating year 6 and if I had realised this when the decision was made to skip yr 1, I would have kept her in year

social wasn't an issue until all her friends moved up to high school without her

It's due to him being "seen" as the year above that the school think (and others in RL have commented along same lines) that he should be in the year above.

Academically he would hold his own in the year above, as in he would be within the top sets.

He would not have to repeat a year at senior level, and would be able to go through his school career older.

Seems a bit strange to me.
My DS is taught for some subjects in the year above - he needs it academically . Consequently he has made lots of friends in the year above. Emotionally I would say he is of his age though!
I do wonder what they will do in year 6, but I trust that they will differentiate the work accordingly as I'm sure the school would like good results as much as I do think they would want him to be stretched personally.
Most children play sports outside school within an age group as well. Although in Y5 - my DS plays football and other sports with children that are several years older - and has friends amongst them too.
So really, I can't see what benefits you would achieve in moving out of year. His friends can continue to be his friends, just out of school/year.

If he's a September birthday then I might consider it, if not then no way.

Both my sister and I went through school a year ahead and it did us no favours. It was fine at primary level, but later on there were huge social and emotional issues. Both of us ultimately ended up having a year out during university (not a gap year).

In year is best unless there are MAJOR reasons not to.

My DS moved up a year at age 7 , at the schools suggestion, and I think it was the best thing for him. He was the top of his year by a long way and by moving up a year he is still top but now has to work harder to keep it that way. I think he was in danger of coasting along if he had stayed with his peers and now I feel he is being challenged constantly. His previous teachers did differentiate for Maths and literacy but when it came to subjects such as sciences and the humanities it was far to simple for him and therefore became boring!
We are in the US now where it is very common for children to move out of their year group and into the most appropriate grade, the children are all accepting of whoever is in their class and he certainly hasn't struggled to make friends with children of any age.

So it's an all-through school (I presume from your comment about transition to secondary not being an issue)?

Therefore presumably private?

I skipped Year 7, and went through secondary a year young in a very academic girls' school. Academically, it was great - I remained top of the year, but like NotMoreFootball's son, I actually had to do some work to achieve it.

Socially - well, I was a socially awkward geeky type anyway, and from a very different type of family / income background from the majority of the other girls anyway, so might well have found the social side tricky whatever. It became worse as I got older - taking O levels at 14 /15 and A-levels at 17 meant that a lot of the 'social celebrations' around these events were inaccessible to me and my peers were a lot more 'grown up' than me.

I voluntarily took a year off between school and university, explicitly to return to my proper age group. It is interesting that I retain no contact whatever with anyone from school, but my uni friends and I are still in regular contact 25 years on....