Holding child back a year at age 5

[Mumtoprem]

Our daughter is currently in Year 1 and has a statement of SEN and has done since starting school. She was born extremely premature and has been behind her peer group all her life. She is statemented for speech and language delay, hearing impaired (only diagnosed at age 5 and now wears hearing aids), and delay in fine motor skills. She is currently assessed on the P scales (4-6) at present as she is behind the national curriculum.

She was born in May instead of September and we tried to hold her back when she started school but Local Authority were not keen. I understand new guidance has recently issued by the Education department that consideration should be given to holding a child back a year if they are premature.

We are now considering whether we should hold our daughter back a year - if she was in Reception now (which she would have been if she was born at term) she would be doing well instead she is lagging behind and this is depsite having daily 1-1, regular speech therapy and support from a teacher of the deaf.

Has anyone got any experience in similar circumstances of holding a child back a year? Was it a success? Is there anything we need to consider?

In your CD's circumstances, I think holding her back sounds a great idea. Your challenge, I suspect, will be in persuading the school and LEA that this is a goer. It may be hard for her to join an established class.

CD? Sorry. DD.

Yes in your case I would try to get her back a year. It will be a fight though so you should read up in those guidelines.

Perhaps someone like Prh47bridge is more knowledgeable here?

Sounds like a great idea, and is much more common in other countries. In the US, children are often a year ahead or behind; it is no big deal, and doesn't seem to cause issues (I was not in the right year, and neither was my brother).

I agree, holding her back a year sounds like an excellent idea. If she's behind at this point, I imagine pushing her forward before she's ready would make things very tough for her. She sounds as if she could do with some more time consolidate what she has learnt so far and get up to speed before moving up a year.

There is a child in DD1's class who did year 1 twice. They were also premature. As another child was leaving the school after the Reception year the school there was a space in DD1 class.

While obviously I don't have any knowledge about any discussions that went on between the parents and the school, the child seems to fit in very well with the class, has made lots of friends and according to DD1 is working at the same level as the rest of the class.

If it makes a difference this is in a London Borough, and happened in the last couple of years.

There is a child in DD1's class who did year 1 twice. They were also premature. As another child was leaving the school after the Reception year the school there was a space in DD1 class.

While obviously I don't have any knowledge about any discussions that went on between the parents and the school, the child seems to fit in very well with the class, has made lots of friends and according to DD1 is working at the same level as the rest of the class.

If it makes a difference this is in a London Borough, and happened in the last couple of years.

In our area (NE) school's will only agree to holding a child back in very extreme circumstances. They also expect the child to join their cohort by the next Key Stage.

I look after a child with severe learning difficulties. She is currently doing her second year of reception but is expected to join her cohort in September (year 2). This is not the best situation and she'll be moving to a special school in September instead.
So even if your DD is held back now she may be expected to jump a year group later on. I would check and see if this is the case before making any decisions.

I talked to a mum a few years' back in similar circs who had gone to court to try to get her DD into the year group she should have been born into, after being very premature. LA were unyielding. Always seemed totally crazy to me. If a parent feels that strongly that it would be best for the child, and but for a problem with the pregnancy this would have been her year group, what on earth is the problem with making the change. Glad to hear things may be changing in this area!

My concern would be that later on she'd be expected to go back in with her "proper" year and then that would be a huge disadvantage to her. I'd be tempted to move to Scotland!

From your post it sounds like a very good idea. I don't know why there is such reluctance to do this in the UK, surely all kids develop at different rates anyhow and date of birth is such an arbitrary thing anyway. There can be a huge range of developmental ages in an early primary class.

It's not impossible. I know two children who are in the year below their birth cohort, in different schools in different counties in England. One had school support, so it was straightforward and he is doing much better academically and socially as a result. The other child's move was not school supported and in the end the child moved school at the point of the year change to a more supportive school with a statement and LEA backing. The mother of the second child now says that changing to a different school was helpful, because it made the drop in year less discernable to her DD and new classmates.

I hope it works out for your DD.

My dd repeated y1 she was prem and is profoundly deaf, it has helped, I would say do it now, don't wait.

My ds was born prematurely in August, and would have benefitted hugely from being in the year below. I wrote it off as impossible at the time but I kind of wish I'd had the courage to have a go at keeping him back a year, even though he is doing fine now. Go for it.

Get your ed psych to back your application to hold her back.

If you want to do this, you need to get everything you possibly can documented at this stage.

In particular, you need to have it decided, documented, and agreed by all schools what should happen on transfer between schools - as without this, your DD would end up having to transfer to secondary at the correct age according to her birth year [so from Y5 to Y7].

I taught a child who had been held back a year (much more significant learning delay than your DD, though - functioning as a c. 18-24 month old at 9, mostly pre-verbal, partial sight, significant physical disability) and before doing that we agreed with all the schools that the child might progress to that they would 'honour' the new year group.

If your DD is likely to 'catch up' at any stage - ie make accelerated progress such that you would be happy to return her to her birth year - you would also want to document and have agreed when and how that process could happen, and the decision points and decision makers involved.

Well school have said no we can't do it.