enrol in reception - HELP

[Rui73]

Hi,
We cant enrol our daughter in 2015 Reception because she was born on 7 September 2011 and it means that we will have to pay for a nursery during one more year.
Could you please help us on finding an exceptional way to resolve this "painful" situation?
Also because she will have in theory a certain delay in her education because of just seven days.
Thank you for your attention.
Regards,
Rui

It happens to thousands of children every year. Suck it up.

Some private schools accept children in the wrong year, but state schools very rarely do.

Most objections to this system come from the parents of august-born babies who feel their child is far too young to start school when they only had their fourth birthday a few days ago. Arguing for this on grounds of avoiding nursery fees is not a good idea. Any decision about taking a child out of their birth year cohort should only be if it's strictly in the best interests of the child, not the parents wallets. If your 3yo is a genius and can already read fluently and knows all the times-tables then you can ask your LEA for special consideration. Otherwise, YABU.

My Dd is 2nd September and I'm delighted she won't be going for another 11months. It snakes me sad your main worry is financial.

There's not much you can do about the nursery fees, although she will be entitled to 15 hours a week in term time of free preschool education which will mean slightly less to pay in most nurseries.

As far as the delay in education goes, all the evidence suggests that the oldest children in the class have a big advantage over the younger ones, so your daughter is really lucky to be starting school at a time when she is likely to be physically and mentally more mature and able to cope with the demands of school than her younger classmates.

My dd2 is also a 7th September bitirthday, and has not been held back. The nursery she was at (attached to the school) took her through to the reception area to find her books to read at home as well literacy and numeracy work for her to do while in nursery.

OP wants her daughter to start before she's 4.

OP, you will be eligible for 39x15h EYFS funding from January which will help.

Do you seriously want her to start school when she is still 3?

If it makes you feel any better then depending where you live you would be amazed how much trickier childcare can become when they start school.

Going to a nursery where you drop them off before work and collect them after all year around is much easier than juggling holidays and with the 15h a week funding you can get after Christmas the price drop when they start school isn't as huge as you might think.

My ds1 has a birthday in the first week of September, and ds2 was born on the 1st!

Am very glad was able to start them both at 5 (ds1 on his actual 5th birthday).

Your dd won't have any delay in her education. She will have the same amount of schooling as all other children born from 1st September to 31st August that year. With the added bonus of an extra year's maturity behind her.

Dd on the other hand has a July birthday and in those days there were sept and January intakes. So she started school in January and therefore has had and will have one term less schooling than the winter and autumn birthdays.

Was frankly relieved at this though - she was still so little at just 4 and was only just about ready at 4 and a half.

Why is a painful situation? Your child will have the advantage of being one of the oldest in her class and the advantage of two full extra terms of funding for nursery compared to summer borns from August 2011.#

You are the lucky one. Enjoy it.

That's just how it works. I think it is costing us about £10k. While that's a lot, it will probably benefit DD, even though her nursery thought she was ready fo school this year.

As others have said it's normally the summer born parents who worry. The nursery fees are just part of life. I know people who have asked for elected C sections to be 1st sept onwards to avoid having a just 4 year old start early. The fees drop anyway. You get the 15 free hours and nursery ratios can go up - especially if you use school nursery and wrap round etc. The school years are far from free anyway - we pay for full wrap around, holiday clubs, extra curricular stuff etc Once they are in school you are not allowed holidays in term time so okay tons more for an annual holiday etc . Count your blessings

That's the point of having a cut-off date OP. Your child can only be offered a school reception place if they are born before this date.
However the Early Years education does cover children in the pre-school year so your child should be receiving pre-school education at nursery suitable for her age-group to help prepare her for school. You may also have the option of moving your child e.g. to a specialist nursery school class or pre-school, but this will be usually be school term time only. There is some help with this (15 hours a week of funding).
Child-care and education aren't the same thing as other posters have said.
The educational evidence is that older children in a school year are often ahead of their younger peers, even though they don't start school until they are (almost) 5 years old.

You might find a private school willing to advance her a year if she were to test well above the average for the cohort she would join. A friend did this with her dd but it substantiated by a paediatrician's assessment. However you would then be committing to private schooling all the way through as the state system and even possibly other private schools wouldn't recognise her a year "ahead". Depends how academic a private school is as well . A girl joined dd's school a year "ahead" having transferred as such from another private one and within a term had reverted to her peer group within which she seemed distinctly average.

In state school, there will be no leeway on this.

Private school, a very very slim chance of getting her in a year early, but she would have to be really exceptional; and I get the impression that at least part of your issue is cost, so it's probably not relevant anyway.

It's just the way the system works in England. Most parents would be happy their child was going to be the eldest in the year rather than the youngest, statistically that is the better end to be in terms of progress.

She won't have a delay in her education
She will benefit hugely from another year at nursery

I can understand the frustration - ds is one of the oldest and he could easily have started a year earlier, however in that year he has learnt to read and has stopped hitting people so he has matured over the past year.

Unfortunately the cut off has to be somewhere! There are always going to be parents who think their child is too young or too old.

I'm quite glad my two are autumn babies so will be older. I was born in August the was the youngest child in my school year, and although I had no problems keeping up academically I definitely wasn't ready socially. Even 30 years later I can remember how scary and confusing I found school at first.

I'm facing the opposite problem. My daughter turned 4 on 31st August this year, just after starting nursery school (we're in Scotland). As we're being posted next year, she will have to go to school in England and we've been told that she'll effectively skip a year and start in Y1 instead of receptio and thst they will take no account of the fact that her only educational experience will be of nursery for four afternoons a week. Our middle child (born late July) will also skip a year, while our eldest should be with his peer group as he was born in early September.

In Scotland the cut off date is February 28/29 with parents of those born in January and February having the right to defer their child for an academic year (which most do).

Suck it up!!!!

That's life. School is not there to make life cheaper for you

Children who are born in September and start school age 5 will, on average, do hugely better over their entire schooling than children who start age 4 having been born in August.

The September children have increased maturity and concentration abilities and are better placed to start learning. They are physically larger and stronger and are more likely to be selected for sports teams than their younger classmates - which gives them the edge in self-confidence and leadership skills that can benefit their future careers. Likewise they are more likely to be selected for parts in school plays because they are just that much more capable.

If you look at a selection of successful high achievers - for example, perhaps oxbridge students - you generally find that there is a much higher proportion of Autumn-born (September-November) than Summer-born (June-August).

and all this advantage is worth throwing away for the sake of a few hundred pounds in nursery fees ????

Fish - a few thousand pounds, not hundred. Which isn't necessarily affordable to all families.

I would love to have your problem.

DS1 is an August baby, and a 34 seeker, so should have been a September / October baby. He's going to have to start reception when just past his 4th birthday.

I'm concerned that this is going to disadvantage him, because he's less likely to be mentally ready and emotionally mature enough to cope well with the more formal demands of school as compared to nursery. So from my point of view, your child having a 7th September birthday isn't going to "delay her education". It's going to give her a head start and an advantage over the rest of her peers when she does start school. You're lucky.

And also - is the nursery she goes to attached to a school? I went to a primary school open evening the other day. One of the other parents there said that her September born DD was going to a particular nursery that's attached to a primary school, and that her DD has been joining the reception class and has been starting to learn phonics. So this September born child will likely be even further ahead of her summer born schoolmates when they all start reception together.

Maybe you need to think of it as your child is starting school at 5 which is the ideal time to start rather than most of their classmates who won't be at that ideal age yet. Certainly more positive than being convinced your child is missing out when actually they will have a huge advantage just because of their birthday.

And I presume you're getting the 15 hours free funding so the nursery bill should have dropped from when they were younger?