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?

I was moved up a year (equivalent of yr4 to yr5) and it worked fine for me. January birthday, but tall for my age, so was still in the taller half of the new class, stayed with the new year group all the way through secondary, no social issues, didn't feel I'd missed anything academically.

It may have helped that I was moved when I'd only been at that school for half a term, so hadn't really had time to be fixed in my classmates' minds as one of the younger class.

Just to add -what I'd be most worried about in your DD's case would be the idea that she'd have to stay in the same school and repeat yr6 with the boy-heavy class she'd been moved to avoid. It seems a bit of a pointless exercise if you're just postponing the only-girl-in-a-class-full-of-boys thing until later in school, when half of them are hitting puberty, and it will probably be more difficult for her. Unless they are anticipating an influx of girls at some stage?

Also repeating all the year 6 work would be a nightmare or boredom for a bright child. Would she have to do SATs twice?

I'd only agree to it if there's some way she could move up to secondary with her new class.

Tolliver - I only really worked out the sports thing while mulling over this thread. I absolutely hate team sports and have zero confidence at them and I do think it is due to being moved up. It makes sense statistically - the older kids in a class will usually be better at sport than the younger ones. I don't think I gained anything from the move - I wasn't bored when they moved me but I was really bored when I had to repeat years. And I lost on non-academics and social elements.

I would be very reluctant to allow it for my children and only if there was a clear plan for what would happen to deal with such issues and for moving onto secondary early - which very few secondary schools will allow, even private ones.

I skipped a year in primary. No idea what the logic behind it was. All I know is, as Twinkly says, I went from a class where I knew everyone and everyone was my friend, to a class where I was the new girl, and younger, and ended up just having to do the same stuff twice in the final year.

As others have said, it was all pointless in the end and not terribly nice either. (because of course the kids both in the older class and the younger one, just referred to me as Miss Clever Socks)

Both my dcs are working one academic year ahead. Some year 6's are doing year 8 maths.Both are in classes with children their own age and 1year older. I think allowing children to repeat year 6 shows a phenomenal lack of imagination.

Thanks everyone.

It seems that there are a lot of horror stories, but what reassures me is that none of them are a similar situation to my dd's - people have talked about being taken out of a class where they are happy and moved for academic reasons, whereas if she stayed with the classful of boys she would be unhappy and she has more chance of making friends with the older girls. I don't think she's likely to stand out as a Miss Clever Socks in the older class - she'll cope fine with the work but she won't be at the top of the class.

Re the sport problem, I think she'll be ok - she is already the worst at any sport involving a ball or running fast, but is pretty good at coming last with a big smile on her face. Making her play football with the boys would seem to me to be less kind than making her do it with a mixed group of boys and girls. She's very good at dance, gymnastics and swimming (and we take her rock climbing) so she won't be the worst at everything.

I'm thinking I will have to relax a bit about letting her do things that don't seem age appropriate to me (wearing make up to school disco, staying up to watch some tv) and let her be a fashion victim if she wants, if it will help her fit in.

The Year 6 issue remains unresolved.