Summer-born deferral - the long view seven years on

[lingle]

I posted a lot about this topic in 2009-2010 and still get PMs asking about the year-deferral issue. I just got one today asking how it went for us with our child.

I thought I should leave some feedback. Please forgive me if it sounds a little brusque/insensitive - I was once very very involved and hugely sensitive/empathetic which made my posts naturally tactful - but I am no longer in that place.

To recap our child had a severe receptive language delay from about 18 months but began to progress again at about 3. We were clear that we were going to take things year by year, that he would stay in nursery for another year whatever the consequences.

1. So, how did it go? Best thing we ever did. For this child, this was the answer. He goes off to secondary not even on the SEN register and I have absolutely no worries about him. He is flourishing. This is a child whose language delay was severe enough that Bradford Council actually urged us to apply for a statement when he was 3.

1. It was crucial that we negotiated the secondary school position at time of primary entry. He is entering secondary in his adopted year this September (just got the offer). As the political winds have blown back and forth, there have been lots of people warning us about him missing year 6 or other such stuff but we have always been able to fend them off because it was sorted in 2009/2010.

1. I think year-deferral was particularly suited to our child because his language development had paused but had restarted at about 3. So he had a serious gap between him and the average of his default year but also a real prospect of benefitting from just being with peers without a statement provided they were the right peers. Had we put him in his default year, he would have been babied (by kids the same age as him). or worse.

1. If you are thinking about year-deferral purely to get your child to the top of the class, please please please don't. Just send them to a good school. Teachers are excellent at adjusting the curriculum. That's what good teachers do, even in the current climate of poor funding. A typically developing August born can progress from bottom of the class to top as they journey through primary school. Trust the teachers on this one.

1. If your child's SN are clearly going to be permanent, then your strategy will be unique to you and you probably don't want advice from me xx

1. If your child's primary need is to be with an adjusted peer group whose level of maturity matches his/hers, that's a great argument to year-defer.

1. There has been absolutely no social downside to the year-deferral. He only really grasped it in year 4 by which time he was completely accepted as a member of his adopted year group.

8 He came off the SEN register at the end of year 3 as he had transitioned from having needs to merely being quirky. It was at this age that his needs/quirks became about average (other children have other problems.).

But to anyone making the decision, I think what I'd say is this: imagine that every dire warning possible about the consequences of year-deferral. Being teased. Leaving school too early. Feeling like there is something wrong with you. Missing year 6.
If your reaction is "gosh yes, that's a downside", I suggest you may not need to year-defer. If your child is mature enough to worry about it, s/he is probably pretty switched on...

If on the other hand your reaction is a hollow laugh because right now nobody has any idea how to get this child up to year 6 let alone GCSEs and if a child teased them for being year-deferred the child wouldn't understand anyway: you may well need to year-defer.

Best to everyone and again, please accept my apologies that, now I have left this world, I am less attuned to the nuances of what I say, and how it might hurt people, than I once was.

am envious of the Scottish system, though I appreciate that it isn't perfect.

You don't see thread after thread complaining about it do you?

oh zoe.

I'm really sorry he has to go through this.

Curtains,

I think you would also benefit from getting on to the website and facebook groups. If the need is serious enough, you may need to get lobbying.

In Bradford, the LEA's policy was continuity -ie go into year 7 in the adopted year. Our secondary had become an academy - which was scary - but had fortunately outsourced admissions back to the council so it applied the council's policy.

There is a "window" just after the point where you tear up the admission form for the "default" year where the powers that be start to believe your decision is actually serious and you aren't "just" being anxious. At that point I would at the very least get confirmation from the High School of their policy and if it is an academy be prepared to lobby the governors.

Logically, I suppose what matters is which school pays the costs of the "extra" year. The summer-born groups are totally on top of these issues (better than mumsnet because not open to people who don't understand the issues).

Just to give a sense of the need for and power of lobbying.

I found out from the local paper one morning that there was a meeting of the Bradford Exec council that afternoon during which they would discuss a proposal "to give parents of summer-borns the opportunity to start their child during the summer term" (i.e. to take the year deferral right away).

I had alread been liaising with a local councillor who had expressed support, so I fired off an email to her, jumped on the train, found the meeting, went in, sat at the back and listened to her argue against the chances. She pointed out that one mum was so anxious she had made the effort to come to the meeting and I sat and blushed. But I gave her the power to do that. She pointed out that I had already made firm plans based on current policy.

The following year, I was no longer affected, and the proposal to remove the right was tabled again. The stupid Jim Rose report had been published and the Council members were very alive to the overuse of deferral by "sharp-elbowed" parents whose voices had drowned those of the kids in real need.

I remained committed enough to propose a formal amendment (I'm a lawyer so was comfortable drafting something that made sense) saying that if the appropriate professional eg paed.SALT or head teacher supported a request it ought to be granted. My proposal was accepted. However, I suspect the only people clued up to take advantage of that were other lawyers/professionals/council workers :(

Thank you! Can you recommend any specific groups?

Policy for primary in this area is to apply for a place in the actual year, once it's been awarded, apply to defer (so if allowed there will be a spare place) - deferral seems to be quite long winded- but then you have to apply all over again the following year (so may not even get a place at the same school).

Secondary admissions are done by council, but they still state it's up to individual school policies.

They don't make it easy.

www.facebook.com/groups/121613774658942/permalink/205000586320260/

this one is, I believe, very serious/responsible/organised/has its shit together/knows where its towel is :)

Mumsnet is great for discussion of the principles but folk who aren't familiar with the issues tend to distract everyone with knee-jerk responses (as is their right on this forum). I think a closed forum is therefore probably better.

I think the 'sharp elbowed' element is vastly overstated in all these discussions. Where I live having a summer born go straight into reception is far more likely to give be a new area of smugness...'oh no he didn't neeeeeed to be held back'.

I agree its the formal curriculum that's the real concern for a lot of parents. My DC started in reception in 2008 at the same school as DD who is YR now. The pace of learning is unrecognisable.

My chief concern (per op by the looks of things) is that hidden costs make this a choice available only to those from advantaged backgrounds - those who have the knowledge and resources to go through official channels, and can afford another year of nursery/childminder/preschool fees etc.

Is the opportunity genuinely available to disadvantaged children with the same language delay etc? It's hard to assert that it's a level playing field and I think that's where the "sharp elbows" accusations originate.

paddling/MrsHathaway

I think you are both right.

I certainly remember being looked on mainly with pity. A few annoying people would fire off questions clearly aimed at calculating their competitive advantage/working out if there was something they were missing... I suppose those people do that to everyone.... it was pretty crazy at the time as you can imagine , having a child with pretty serious needs and these people just wholly not getting it and wrongly ascribing their sharp elbows to me.

I do see the point about the curriculum - very much so - but feel that we need to fight that by changing the curriculum IYSWIM.

MrsH, our Senco tells me they have a child like my DS2 right now in nursery.... she can't tell me any more obviously.... school will support but to be honest I think it takes a lot of guts to step outside the norm.

Some people clearly felt I was labelling my child and ought to relax, others that I was in denial about his needs.

It's a long lonely road sometimes.

Oh yes I hadn't grasped that...so disadvantaged children left to struggle on regardless. What a minefield.

I think if its an advantage to defer and be oldest then clearly being youngest is a disadvantage.
My dd's experience is similar to zoe. She was ahead to start, already blending at 3.5yo. But starting school has knocked her confidence and she has often not wanted to go in. Has frequently been carried in. She also has ear problems and although it didnt affect language development, does seem to affect her behaviour and this is behind expectly levels. As is writing. She is likely to miss that eyfs target.
More crucial almost is she is not getting on which her peers (probably behaviour immature etc). But is also being judged by the parents and has had not one party invite for her class.
It does noone good for her to struggle, she is distracting other kids and may end up (possibly incorrectly diagnosed with adhd).
I think a range of 12m is too much at 4. And that it is setting kids up to fail.

lingle the ability to defer is good in Scotland but as far as being envious of the Scottish system and not reading threads complaining about it... You are just looking in the wrong place . The SNP have made a pigs-ear out of there management of education in Scotland and the 'Curriculum for Excellence' is a nightmare. Standards in literacy and numeracy have dropped over the last ten years. There are record levels of teacher vacancies in our area. As for SEN provision - well best not go there!

*their

oh dear!

Lingle, "I do see the point about the curriculum - very much so - but feel that we need to fight that by changing the curriculum"

I agree It should be changed, but how? It's just been implemented so aren't changes going to be years away and too late?

I think some people will begrudgingly delay the start purely because of the difficult and inappropriate new primary curriculum.

thanks lingle! I'll pass that on to the site admins

I agree that not all families are currently able to take advantage of being deferred - because of not being able financially to keep a child out of school, or because some Local Authorities make the application system for a deferral ridiculously over-complicated.

I am hopeful however that the new 30 hours childcare for 3 and 4 year olds will help in this - all children can currently keep their 15 hours a week funding until they start school at 5 (DD will have had 6 terms of school based nursery when she starts reception.) and who knows maybe some councils will simplify their application procedures.