Deferred entry into reception- can someone explain this to me?

[BriAndLottie]

DD is 3, and will be 4 at the beginning of July, meaning she should be starting school in September this year, I've applied for her to go into reception then. I understand from lurking on here that there is an option to keep your child in preschool until they turn 5- if I did this with DD, given she's an end of term summer birthday would she start reception in September 2014 with children a year younger than her? And would I have needed to decide I was going to do that earlier and not applied for a place this year and waited until next year to apply, or could I arrange to do this with the school when she gets allocated a place next month?

No, I agree totally that it would be exceptional to be allowed to defer reception year. Absolutely. And in almost all cases it is absolutely not necessary (we thought about deferring entry/keeping him in pre-school but decided to give reception a go - and in the end we and school treated it like a 'pre-school' year - he just did mornings).

I like the point made upthread (teacherwith2kids?) about the fact that the research on summer born babies and attainment is probably out of date. My sister is only 28 and she (as a summer born) only had one term of reception as a rising 5, as compared to her autumn born peers. I believe in other parts of the country, the trend towards starting all four year olds in September came along even later.

Am just saying that the argument for senior schools refusing children out of year group seems to be now slightly mitigated by the change in law of school leaving age (I know of a friend of a friend in one part of the country with a dc just starting secondary a year early and another starting a year late).

I agree with Tiggytape. AmyLR is completely wrong to say that you have the legal right to defer 12 months and still put your child into Reception. You do not.

Your daughter can start school in the September following her fourth birthday. You have the right to defer entry until the start of term following her fifth birthday but that does not mean you have any right to insist on her going into Reception. If you defer for less than 12 months she will still go into Reception. If you defer for a full year (i.e. until the September following her fifth birthday) she will almost certainly go into Y1. This, of course, means you will have a very limited choice of schools as most will already be full.

AmyLR I suggest you look it up as you are mistaken.
My LEA rarely educates children out of year and then it is only children with profound SEN not immaturity due to age.

September entrants to reception perform better across the Early Years Foundation Stage Profile than those who enter in January, who in turn do better than summer-term entrants; this is the case regardless of month of birth. The strongest association with term of entry is for the Communication, Language and Literacy scales. This effect is likely to include a component of selection with less able children more likely to enter in the spring or summer terms.

www.education.gov.uk/publications/eOrderingDownload/DFE-RR017.pdf