Have the rules around staying back a year changed?

[Elisheva]

I was talking to a friend who's DS is just finishing reception. He has had some difficulties with speech and language and they feel it would be better for him to repeat Year R to which the school have agreed. I thought that he would have to rejoin his year group at some point but apparently he will now stay with this cohort for the rest of his schooling. Is this right? I was under the impression that children who repeat a year have to skip a year at a later point.

I've never heard of a child who repeated a year skipping a later year - would that not cause more issues later?

In all cases that I know about, the child completed their schooling with the new year once they'd been moved.

I thought that he would have to rejoin his year group at some point

How would he do that, having missed the curriculum taught in the missed year?

The Government has recently published advice which, although it relaties to summer-born children it contains useful information about the law generally on educating children out of year.
The advice makes it clear that:
There is no statutory barrier to children being admitted outside their normal year group

It is unlawful for a school admissions authority to have a blanket policy saying that children must be admitted to a particular year group. (Many will only consider this for children with significant difficulties/developmental delay )

If a child is educated out of their normal year group, they will still take SATS at the end of the relevant key stage, not when they reach a particular age

If a child has been educated out of their normal year group at primary school, it is for the secondary school admissions authority to decide which year to admit the child into, and that decision must be made on the basis of the circumstances in each case ( so may find child misses Y7 and jumps straight to Y8)

Schools will continue to receive funding for children educated out of their year group once those children have reached the age at which they would normally have left the school.

It has always been possible to 'offset' children with SEN and some LAs have been more open to it than others. My last school had 16 offset children. The Secondary schools accepted them into Y7 with their cohort.

The new guidance has opened things up a bit with regards to Summer borns, not much though, old habits die hard.

Would you then forfeit any chance at a grammar school place? Are those ever allowed to be had for a held back child?

*I thought that he would have to rejoin his year group at some point

How would he do that, having missed the curriculum taught in the missed year?*

I agree, but in the schools I have worked in children who repeat year R then went into year 2, or I know one boy who repeated year 5 then went straight to year 7.

Our worry around this is when it comes to.senior school.
Ds is August born having arrived 6 weeks early he's just coming to the end of reception. No real difficulties it's just he's way behind emotionally than his class. He would be so much better suited to the class below.

I'm just not sure how it works for 11+ etc if they're in the wrong year.

ImperialLeather, we are in a fairly similar situation to you. DS isn't summer born, but was born sixteen weeks prematurely. As a result he's about 18 months delayed academically, socially and emotionally. We moved him down a year after Year 2, so he repeated that year (but in an independent school with much smaller classes, where they welcomed him being out of year group; his previous village state school was unsupportive of our situation and would not have encouraged him moving down). Would I have moved him down if he was only emotionally behind? I'm not sure. It's a hard decision to make, but for us it has definitely been the right one. The key winning factor for us has been to get him into a small and very nurturing school where he has incredibly supportive teachers and friends and also good SEN support (he is Statemented).

As for the 11+, I don't think DS is eligible to take it whilst he remains out of year group (which we intend will be for the rest of his education, and currently at least our LEA is in agreement with this). But a grammar education wouldn't be right for him anyway.