Experiences of child being moved up a year at primary

[TunipTheVegedude]

I won't go into all the background as it's complicated (to do with dd being the only girl in her year group at a smallish village school) but this is being mooted for 7yo dd, so she'll be taught with the y4s rather than the y3s.

Does anyone have any experiences? How has it worked out? What happens when they get to the top class and the rest of their class has moved to secondary?

My dd is currently in yr 4 and,along with 5 others, have been taught with yrs 5&6 this current academic year.
Her school is a small rural school,and this needed to happen as her 'real' year group (combined with yr3) was too large.

I had my misgivings as I felt it would,well,rob her of some of her childhood.
She does know about things that she may not have come across until later (violent Xbox games,sexual orientation for example) but she took it in her stride,we talked about it and it's fine.

The other thing is friendships within the 'real' yr4 class have dwindled, but this has been compensated by friendships with yr5&6 girls.

Her confidence levels have also improved hugely.

Afaik,your dd,OP, would have to wait until she was 11 until she would get to secondary school. You would have to talk to your head about how this would work.

Not really much help I'm afraid,and a different situation,but just to say it has worked out ok for us.

Good Luck

I think you are right to be concerned what happens in the final year when all the older children have gone to secondary school. You need to discuss with the school what there plans are for this. If you are in mixed year classes anyway it might not be so bad as she will have been with her actual year for their yr5, but then again if there a no girls in her real year she will be back in the same situation

I was moved up 2 years at primary and hated it. OK, 2 is probably worse than one year but it has the same problem of having to repeat years while your own age group catch up with you. Unless you're in a position to move them on to secondary a year early, I wouldn't do it. I hated my last 2 years at primary, I was bored and developing a bad attitude, due entirely to having to repeat the year. Looking back, I couldn't believe the staff hadn't foreseen that problem. Presumably, she'd do Year 6 twice, same work, same projects, total boredom. Sorry to be so negative.

I was moved up a year at school. I never did move back to my original year but carried on through secondary, then took a year out before going to uni. The negatives were:
-I missed a year of schooling (obviously). That was fine wrt reading and writing but not good at all for maths, which later caused problems with the sciences I chose to study).
-I went from being the eldest to the youngest. As I was quite young for my age anyway, and very shy, this caused problems with friendships throughout my school life.

I enjoyed school and did well academically but it's not an option I would choose for a child unless they were exceptionally emotionally and socially mature for their age and they were taught in a way that no gaps in understanding were created.

I was moved up a year at primary school but just continued on to secondary school a year early. What would be the point of moving people up if they then had to re-do the last year at primary school?

It wasn't great for me I'd been fine socially, and then no one spoke to me for a year but I got through it. Academically I continued to do well, but would have done in any context as that's just the way I'm made. It's not something I would have subjected my own DCs to (not that their school ever does it).

I was moved up nominally one year but in practice two years at primary school (so e.g. I was the right age for Y2, was put into a mixed Y3/Y4 class, but was doing the Y4 work) and went up to secondary school one year early. My experience was similar to FriendlyLadybird's -- it really disrupted me socially/emotionally. But then I was fairly shy/quiet anyway and was also young for my chronological year group (July birthday) so I wound up with some classmates who were (in primary) nearly 3 years older than me. If a child is outgoing and/or has an autumn birthday then I think it's more likely to be successful - but in general I wouldn't want it done to any child of mine unless it was completely impossible to support them alongside their peers.

When is your DD's birthday? I'd be less concerned if she's older in her actual year.

Thank you everyone.

DD has a June birthday, so is young anyway, and is not particularly mature though people get the impression she is because she's so articulate.

It's far from an ideal situation, but the thing is, the situation wasn't ideal already because of the lack of girls in her year. So it's a choice between teaching her with boys her age or boys and girls who are older.
If they were doing it just for academic reasons I wouldn't support it - I see primary school as important for social reasons as much as academic. But it was the social that was the main factor, I think. She has plenty of boy friends but it's not the same, and her two best boy friends tended to pair up so she got left out a lot. I'm hoping she'll be better off with more girls, even though they will be older.

The worse experiences on this thread, like Kindlemum's and FriendlyLadybird's, are similar to things I've heard in the past; I've known a few people who were a year young and they were often outsiders (and had a boyfriend who was moved up several years because he was gifted and was totally messed up by it).

I think I'll have a word with the head about what they propose to do when she's 10 and her classmates have left.

If she has a June birthday could she go down a year?

Socially it would make more sense Barry but then the gap becomes quite large academically.

It's so hard. I have just been through it myself, splitting up my twins mid-year so have some idea of the knots you can tie yourself in. Have you talked to your dd about it? What does she want to do? Not that it should be her choice of course, just that it might be useful to see how she feels.

I think in your shoes I would do it. If she is desperately unhappy in the new class she could always come back, school should be flexible about this. Good luck!

She's very keen and excited.
The boy thing has been an issue for a long time and she's recently realised she likes work more when it's hard.

Do you have reason to think that the older girls will give your dd the sort of friendship that she needs and wants? Is she friendly with them already?

I hope so but it's not a given. Her closest friend (they were best friends in Class 1 when dd was Year R and her friend was Y1) is in that class but it's a tight-knit group that does things together so, for instance, some of them have come to dd's parties but not invited her back to theirs.

Being in the same class may help with that, of course. Maybe try it but with Plan B in case things don't work out.

Thank you.

Are there any alternative schools? Could she move down rather than up?

Yes, we considered various options re other schools - moving dd to a state school in another village but leaving ds where he is, moving both dd and ds, moving dd to the local private.... None of the options were perfect and her current school is pretty good and has a very effective new head.

I've been thinking about this since posting earlier - I was moved up the 2 years because I was bright but even so I feel I missed out on things that were taught in the skipped years - I had no problems with Maths and English etc , but I missed 2 years when teaching handwriting would have been a big part of the week and for many years I felt I had poorer handwriting because of the skipped years.

I also feel it had a negative impact on my attitude to sport - if you're a year or two younger than the rest of the class then usually you will be noticeably worse at most sports than the rest of your class - that results in being picked last and being the one who lets the team down by not being as good and being moaned at by classmates. I hate team sports and lack sports confidence generally and I think being moved forward 2 years at primary has a lot to do with that.

Socially, when the rest of my class caught up with me, I was the outsider.

The more I think about this, the more I realise that I hated many aspects of it, not just the repetition of the years. The only positive I have to say is that I didn't suffer academically - I got a full scholarship to a selective private secondary and loved it there, 7 very happy years. It was a huge relief after being miserable in the last 2 years of primary.

Presumably if she does this, you will need to work out what she misses in the skipped year and fill the gaps. As well as working out what happens if she does Year 6 twice.

I think the problem is bigger than your DD and the school needs to plan properly. What if another girl moves into your village the same year as your DD? Do they put her up too even if not so 'bright' or your DD back down so there are two of them?

Having been through a botched split (& skewed gender) year arrangement with DS, if I was in the same position again I would put a strong case forward for taking all of the yr3's & yr4's and splitting the numbers evenly by gender (whether that is by DOB, surname, attainment is another thread).

The thing that would concern me is that the older year will hit pre pubity quicker and the children may be more mature in some ways. This will be highlighted in Y5/6 more.

Theres also the social aspect - friends. My DC don't really need same sex friends but yours might.

Also for confidence, it's better to be very in a class.

Can she spend time with both classes?

KindleMum, me too on the sport thing. Although I was into my thirties before it occurred to me that my age had a bearing on how badly I did at school sport.

I think iseenodust's suggestion would be the best one for the school to adopt - to have two mixed Y3/Y4 classes with girls split evenly between the two.

My DD is a June baby & at the end of year two I was told she was going to be put in a combined yr3/yr4 class the following year. The yr4 pupils were the ones who were struggling academically (14 pupils in total) and these were combined with the most academic yr 3 pupils. (10 pupils with DD being the 2nd youngest). DD flourished academically but socially it was a disaster. After two terms DD was moved back to the yr 3 class at her & my request. This was fully supported by her class teacher. I was told that she would be bored in the yr3 class, but to be honest she was so happy to be with those of the same year group that academics were irrelevant.

You know your child OP. You know if she'll be able to cope with the demands placed on her. Wish I listened to my gut instincts instead of teachers. Do find out about what happens when your DD reaches senior age because that is a very important aspect for you to base any decision on.

I was skipped a year in primary school. It was terrible. I went from being popular in my class to being a complete pariah and my class never accepted me. Academically I caught up in no time so was bored to tears again by the end of the term. In secondary I was the youngest in the year and shy and found the social side very difficult until I was lucky enough to make some good friends.

It may be different for your DD. I wish you the very best of luck, but I wouldn't dream of skipping up a child.of mine.