Summer born child and issues with delaying school start

[mammabear4]

Hello, I apologise in advance for a lot of information!

My DD is just about to turn 3 and for the next school year she will be settled in an F1 nearby. She is an August baby and I've been debating delaying her starting F2 for a while - I'm an October born and always loved school and had no problems, plus I'm a teacher and I know some summer borns can struggle, which I really don't want for my DD.

Delaying her start would have been no problem but lots of different factors have just come into play.

I'm 15 weeks pregnant with twins, which means after my maternity leave which will end roughly August next year, I won't be able to afford to return to work part time and put the twins in nursery. So being a SAHM we won't be eligible for the 30 free hours childcare any more - which means DD will be taking a step back with her education as she will be doing nursery 4 days a week 2017/18 school year and then have to go down to 2 and a half with the 15 hours. Plus entertaining a 4 year old and twin 1 year olds for two and a half days is not ideal and I don't think would do my DD any good.

Another factor is my DH is an officer in the RAF and we will be moving with him next August after my maternity leave ends, one so that we're together as a family and two so we can keep costs down - sell house, cheap RAF accomm rent, one car etc. Each posting is 3 years and he will already have done 1 year when we move so will be there 2 years, then hoping to move back near to where we currently live and will be able to keep DD settled for the rest of primary.

However this means DD will be moving through 3 different schools before she's 7 - her current F1 starting September, DHs next posting and then the primary school we hope to settle near. The MOD website states that studies show each time a child moves school it puts them back roughly 6 months in their education. On top of DD being summer born, I feel this would be really detrimental to her progress and confidence in school etc.

My question basically is - do you think I would be able to put her in F2 and Y1 during DH's first posting, and then when we move could DD start Y1 again (which would mean no worries about her taking a step back in hours)? Or would it be best to just keep her in an F1 for only 15 hours of nursery and deal with it, then F2, then when we move start Y1?

I'm sorry for all the complications, and really hope somebody can give me a little bit of insight - I know it's not going to be an issue until next year but I'm stressing and google has offered me no answers!

I think what you are asking is if she can do reception and year one in one place then move and do back and do year one again?

If so, then no, realistically. You do have the right to request deferral of admittance into reception by a year for a summer born, but your local LEA don't have to accept it. However, once she has been accepted into a year group and done 2 years of school, it would be pretty much impossible to put her back a year in state schools unless she has considerable development delay. You can ask, but it's very very unlikely I'm afraid.

Ahh thanks for the response Patricia. Yes my very long-winded post was essentially asking that question!

I was afraid that may be the case. I'm hoping she won't have any developmental problems, but I wonder if her summer birthday plus the fact she is a mobile forces child would come into consideration? The problem is I wouldn't be able to find that out until it may not be an option anyway, and then it would be too late.

I've been trying to research into it further and at the moment it seems that my only option if I want to delay her start is to cope with the 15 free hours rather than 30.