Defer reception place for summer born child

[Cascada]

DS's birthday is early June. I am considering (somewhat late in the day) trying to defer his reception place (he already has a place) for September 2017 so that he starts in April 2018.

My understanding based on the information on my LEA's website is that because we're looking to do this rather than delay by a full year that this is something that we have the right to do rather than needing to request the school or LEA's permission to do. This is because the info says once you get a place you can take it:
"Immediately (from September 2017);
 On a part-time basis until the beginning of the term after their 5th birthday; or
 Defer your child’s admission until the beginning of the term after their 5th birthday but not beyond the beginning of the final term of the school year for which it was made". It then goes on to suggest you speak to the school to discuss these options.

I have not yet discussed with the school and am unsure as to their attitude towards this - they are already talking about some of the reception kids potentially going on a part time basis if more appropriate so my expectation is they view that as preferable rather than deferring the place to April. For various reasons I would prefer to hold my son back fully - he just doesn't seem to be ready to start yet. I didn't raise it when we first got the place cos I wanted to see how he progressed over the next few months.

However, I just spoke to the LEA in the first instance and they said that the school would need to agree to the deferral - i.e. it was not just a discretion of the parents. This seems at odds with the guidance pasted above.

I would be very grateful to hear about people's experience of this. I would kind of prefer to be clear about whether it's a right that I have or a discretion of the school before I approach them about it. Thanks in advance.

Which area is that, anne?

And what happens at secondary?

So if you decide to request to defer for a full year and the child goes into reception already age 5, does the school have to accept the child but hold a place open for them for the following year

No. If you defer a full year you will be starting from scratch with admission applications. The school only has to hold the place open for you if you defer by less than a year.

Thanks, prh.

Just one more question - if you defer for less than a year, won't it disadvantage the school not to have the funding for that child until they start?

Agreed, nothing is law - yet. But Gibb has stated his intention to hold the consultation and seek parliamentary approval for an amendment to the law. Authorities don't have to agree, but he's stated it's 'disappointing' when they don't and they have to prove their refusal is in the child's best interests. A lot of progress has been made on the issue so hopefully this will continue to gain momentum.
From my own experience and from what I've seen on the fb group, the tide is turning and personally I was willing to fight a decision which didn't find in our favour. It was easy for us but I accept it won't be in every part of the country.
Depends how strongly you feel about it I suppose.

We were told to apply for our daughter as normal. When we were granted deferal we were told the place is being held open for her for next year. We don't have to apply again, I've just been told to email them in September to confirm we still want the place.

I was worried about my DTDs starting in Reception - they were premature and are July birthdays. They seemed so tiny when they started and I honestly didn't think they'd cope. However, they did, and are now coming to the end of Yr 6. There is no discernible difference between them and their peers, and they have really great SATs scores. Unless there are additional concerns about development, I wouldn't do it OP.

What do the secondary schools do in your area, harrassed?!Do they also take children out of their usual year group?

What if you wanted your child to do the 11+? Would they take it at age 12 instead?

if you defer for less than a year, won't it disadvantage the school not to have the funding for that child until they start?

School funding for the financial year starting in April 2018 will be based on the numbers in the school census in October 2017. So you are right that the school won't receive funding for any pupils that have deferred. Some LAs compensate for this by providing an uplift in funding based on deferral data from the previous year.

Surburban yes the secondary schools take them out of chronological age group too. Not sure about the 11 Plus but I'd assume so?

I think you should try to understand just how much time Reception teacher spend in the first term, helping you child "learn to be at school"...... from being one of a group of 30, to carrying their tray in the dinner hall, from knowing what to do in the playground to how to sort themselves out for PE...
They won't be doing any of that at Easter, if all the other children start in September. If you don't think he will cope, you'd be better starting him, and then negotiating either a day off a week, or collecting him at lunchtime two afternoons a week or something that just not starting him and then expecting him to be able to slot right in after Easter.

I am curious, with the Nick Gibb thing, is this actually happening more often now? Are summer-borns starting Reception at age 5 in any kind of significant numbers? Does anybody know if there is any data/info on that?

In particular, I'd be interested if this 'option', where it exists, is being used mainly/exclusively for 'proper' summer-born children, i.e., say, June/July/August birthdays, or are merely 'technically' summer born children (April/May birthdays) also deferring reception entry? In places where the authorities are leaving it to parental choice?

(For background, I am pleased that my late August-born DS is in his 'correct' cohort, it's what is right for him; nevertheless I am pretty sure that my early April-born DD won't be ready for school at 4.5 and as things are now, I feel she would probably fit in her 'deferred' cohort better. However I worry she'd be five months older than the next oldest child, and 17 months older than the youngest in her class, so quite an outlier, if no other children defer...)

I thought admissions authorities were coming round to deferral?

DS1 (premature August born) is currently coming to the end of Reception in a private school, chronologically he should be Y1. Cutting a long story short, a representative from the LEA told me recently that if we were to switch to state education, there'd be no problem keeping him in the year group he's currently in until he leaves school, as parents are now allowed to defer. May be worth noting that there's a SEN involved here as well, don't know how much difference that makes when LEAs decide whether to allow deferrals.

But on the original point, I'd have concerns about starting Reception mid-year. DS1's school started teaching phonics, writing and basic maths pretty much immediately, so a child starting mid-year could have a bit of catching up to do. And that's on top of all the stuff around getting used to the structures, routines and being part of a group of children in school. Does your DS go to nursery now?

op not sure of legalities but having a sept born child I would def agree to postpone, give them more time to get where they need to be, ie if your child is ready earlier go normal but if they are taking time,...holdback

Just to counter the many people concerned about starting mid year:
A child started after Feb half term in DS reception class. He was ahead of everyone who had started in September in some things, e.g. reading.

There are five points I'd like to mention:

1. The amount of actual teaching that happens in reception can easily be done at home. It doesn't take much time, nor do you need to be a trained teacher, to teach one child the basics of phonics and numeracy. A good nursery can do this too. If you do that, there is no reason your child should be behind in these areas when they start mid-year.
2. If they are not ready for school, i.e. not ready to learn in a class of 30 with all the noise and distractions, then actually sending them to school too soon may cause them to be 'behind' whereas if they had been able to learn the basics in a one-to-one situation at home, 20 minutes per day, they would have easily been able to learn.
3. Schools are used to late joiners (be they deferred children or children moving to England from somewhere where school starts at a later age); they don't just leave them to flounder ('well all our settling in stuff happened back in September') but support them as needed. In fact, late joiners may get MORE attention than the 29 who all started at the same time and whose individual needs can be a bit overlooked in the chaos of everyone learning the ropes.
4. Friendships are usually still very fluid at this age. DS didn't start forming any significant friendships until Y1. Within a couple of weeks you couldn't tell who the late joiner had been.
5. Sometimes there is a lot of social hierarchy jostling going on when the class newly forms. This can be quite painful. A deferred child can neatly avoid/skip all that trouble.

We considered deferring July born ds for a full year until we realised that he would probably go straight into year 1 which we didn't want. Then looked into an April start in reception but have settled on September start but only half day's to start with as he isn't ready for five full days.
We decided against the April start as we didn't think it would be fair on ds to go into a class that would already have formed friendship groups (I know I wouldn't like it) and have got used to the routine's etc of school

Brilliotic in my daughter's nursery there are five August borns - two are deferring. The others are twins, whose mum didn't know about deferral but she wants them to start school anyway, and another girl whose mum is s single parent and works, but she thinks her daughter is very bright and needs to start.
When I spoke to the lea they said they've had about 30 deferrals this year but they anticipate more next year and they expect it to rise each year as more people become aware they can.
However I think it will likely remain the minority for a while yet.

What if you wanted your child to do the 11+? Would they take it at age 12 instead?

I would think that a child has to be born within a particular year to sit that year's 11+, e.g. for entry in 2018 the children sitting in Autumn 2017 will need to have been born between 1st September 2006 and 31st August 2007.
There is age standardisation to level the playing field across that age range, but the benefits of being a whole year older could be massive and unfair on younger children.

However, I'm not sure how many children who are delayed enough developmentally at four to warrant starting reception a year later would be grammar school material unless they are delayed by pushy parents trying to gain an advantage.

Thanks prh

But are people actually talking about children who are delayed developmentally or just young for their school year group?

And if the former, would the child have to have been assessed by a paediatrician?

It isn't always about pushy parents trying to gain advantage - it certainly isn't in our case. For me it's several things - my daughter is very shy for her age, and only in the last couple of months has started to come out of her shell. I'm a teacher and I'm really concerned about the impact of the revised curriculum on mental health. And, there's so much research showing the disadvantages of being summer born - it might not be apparent at this young age but could be later on.
Parents should be able to make a choice about when their child starts school. Very few countries start formal schooling so young.

My daughter isn't Sen and neither are the other children deferring in her Year. Gibb's amendment to the code states that Sen is no longer the only reason a child can be deferred.

In my grammar school area, you couldn't take the 11+ a year late, even if you are out of age group in your primary school. You could sit the 12+ but would then have to go into Year 8 to start and would only be filling in any vacancies that had arisen ( if any). So if you deferred by a year age 5, your child would then have to sit the 11+ at the beginning of year 5 and would miss year 6.

But presumably a child who needs to drop down a year would be an unlikely candidate for the 11+ ?

But presumably a child who needs to drop down a year would be an unlikely candidate for the 11+ ?

Not necessarily. My (August born) nephew will start Reception a year late, and he's very bright. His mother is just very anxious and wouldn't entertain the idea of him starting school at just turned four.