Repeat Year 1?

[KJF555]

My daughter missed doing reception as we were living overseas (in the US where they start school later) and is doing year 1 in a very mediocre international school. We are moving back to the UK and the independent school I've applied for is suggesting she repeat year 1 based on examples of her work. Would really appreciate your thoughts on holding children back a year. Thanks :)

What is her birthday month? I'm just thinking about social maturity gaps.

It's an extra year of paying fees in long run for you. Can you afford that?

She's a June baby so young for her year but seems a lot more mature than the children currently in the year below.

A state school may be a lot better at differentiation within the year - have you looked to see if there are any good ones in the area?

We can't consider state school at the moment as we don't yet have an address. We're looking for something to buy/rent but nothing on the market.

Would you be able to consider getting her some tuition to fill in the gaps? At that age I expect she could catch up relatively quickly, you could even start now if you could buy some workbooks and get them sent over to you.

I would strong consider letting her repeat Year 1 if I were you, especially with her being a June birthday. I believe it would be better for her confidence and self-esteem to be in the middle of Y1 ability wise, than the bottom of Y2 and it's great that in independent schools parents have the option to do this. I'm surprised more parents don't to be honest.

I would try to find out from the school how many pupils will be in both the year 1 and year 2 class next year respectively and the boy/girl ratio in each class. I would also visit both classrooms and meet with both teachers as well. Ask to see examples of top, middle and bottom work in both literacy and numeracy from the current class (if they are prepared to show you anonymised examples of the children's work) from the summer term, so that you can compare them with your daughter's current attainment.

Could you ask if your daughter could do a 'desk day' in both year groups in turn to see which class she'd prefer to be in (friendship and teacher and classroom wise) and factor that into your decision.

If you are not planning to go independent all the way through, I think it may cause problems when you come to apply for senior schools for her to be older than the cohort, but someone more knowledgeable than me about this will hopefully be along to advise.

Thank you NCFTTB for the positive spin, good to hear!

Really? Are you planning for her to be in the 'wrong' year throughout her schooling. How is she going to feel when she realises that she's up to 14 months older than the others. I really can't see how she could be that far 'behind' in y1 because they don't know much that you can't consolidate at home anyway.
Sounds like a private school which cares more about teaching to a generalised middle rather than catering to the needs of individual pupils.

If you plan on keeping her in independent school then I think repeating Y1 sounds a good idea, but if she's out of year group and you might want to switch to state a some point that can cause probs as they'd simply put her in the right year for her birth date.

I think (assuming there are no SN or other issues) that she'd pretty soon catch up to the expected level, either by herself or with a bit of extra input, and that the independent school just don't fancy putting in the work to help get her there. To be honest, that would be ringing alarm bells about the school for me.

One thing to think about now is your longer term plans.

If you stay in the UK, and are considering using the state sector, she will be placed in her age cohort. And a gap later on might be much harder to bridge (eg if she had to miss year 6). There is greater flexibility in the private sector, but no guarantee that any particular school will agree.

Did you apply only to the one school? For others may not see the gap as unbridgeable. And a small amount of targeted 1-to-1 can bring rapid results in KS1 (you might need a tutor, but in these circumstances it should be done in close consultation with the school to cover specific gaps).

We were in a similar position - moving back to the UK from overseas, DS was aged 8 and had been in a bilingual but US-curriculum-based international school, so started at age 5. Also young in year (August birthday).

But when we arrived in the UK he started in a state school in his 'correct' year (year 4), with children who had had a whole year's school more than him - and it was absolutely no problem, apart from handwriting, as he had not yet learned joined-up handwriting and the rest of the class had. It didn't help that he is dyspraxic/has problems with fine motor skills, so his handwriting was always going to be behind anyway.

But academically he soon found his feet, and he is now 15, in year 11, still among the youngest in the year, and already has two GCSEs under his belt (taken aged 14). He would have been bored stiff if he had been held down a year, and would also have stood out a mile as he is tall for his age - he was among the tallest in his correct year at age 8, and would have towered over everyone in the year below.

If you think your daughter is bright (are you generally an academically able family?) and reasonably socially mature, I would resist attempts to hold her down a year as at that age, as I am sure she will catch up very fast.

Better than the tutor idea, you might have the option of paying for additional support from a visiting SEN teacher or to top up a part time TAs existing hours at the school in order for them to support your daughter 1:1 for part of the week, if your funds allow.