Reception worries

[Neet90]

Our request for education outside normal age group was refused so it looks like we can either move to a different local authority who have agreed this (love our house but have considered moving as dont like our neighbour and our garden is small) or send our daughter this year when she has just turned 4. The school she has a place at this year wasn't our first choice and they seem against her attending part time even though it is our choice.

Our daughter had a speech and language delay but this has resolved, she has only just gotten into the lower levels of the 30-50 month bracket for everything else on the eyfs assessments at preschool. I worry as she is so young, can be shy, struggles to make relationships, cannot draw anything resembling something, cannot write her name, doesn't recognise many letters, doesn't have any interest in reading either, she has continence issues also but these are managed with medication.

I'm worried that we will regret sending her aged 4 but I'm worried that we could regret moving out of area too.

I'd be interested to know what choices others have made and how those with summerborns who started at 4 managed to get on.

She's not quite summer born (I think it's like a matter of a week and a half and she'd be over into that official bracket) but DD2 started reception with about 25% intelligible speech to family members (so much less to any other person), continence issues (she's a movicol kid from chronic constipation), very poor motor skills and coordination.

Had a parents evening near the start of the year where they were very much steeling me for her not meeting end of year expectations - and then she absolutely bloody flew! Left reception with fully intelligible speech (some sound substitutions still happening and some grammatical issues we're working on), reading above expected level, and hit every one of expectations bar ones relating to motor skills - and with a dyspraxia diagnosis which explained so bloody much! The routine of school also really helped with the continence issues to be honest too - we got into the routine of a morning and post-dinner poo so there weren't that many soiling incidents at school and the times she did come home in a change of clothes it was usually because she'd managed to end up wearing a paint pot or something similar.

She's still a dippy little thing and emotionally fairly young for her age - but she's just coming to the end of year 1, still academically more than holding her own (she types a lot of work these days) and socially it took a bit of gentle direction to find her a little group of friends but it's working OK for her. Her reception teacher was fab though (year 1's been a bit crap if I'm honest but that's down to the teacher) - I'm seriously jealous of how good she was!

Is your LEA known to be against educating outside of the normal age group? Are you on the Facebook page ‘Flexible School Admissions for Summer Borns’? if not it may be worth joining and doing a search for your LEA. There are lots of people on there who have won the right to start their children at Compulsory School Age even if they were refused at first.

They can not have a blanket policy. The choice to start at CSA is yours not theirs, if you state you are starting your child at CSA they need to let them start in Reception or explain why it is in your Child’s best interests to miss the crucial Reception year.

My Son is August born and will be 6 this year. He started in Reception at just-turned 5 and I have never regretted my decision. With the work he is bringing home to prepare for Y1 I am even more convinced that he is where he should be. I am very glad he will be 6 when he goes in to Y1 and has had that extra time to mature.

A bit of a positive experience: end of August boy, started not writing/drawing, struggling to hold a pen, did not know letters, etc. Finished reception reading above expected level, writing, math- as expected, generally happy at school, learned a lot. Obviously, if he had started latee, writing would have been easier, but he would have been absolutely bored at pre-school.

I would be concerned in your shoes too so I can’t really advise but I just wanted to add that my dd is summer born and when she started reception last year she couldn’t write any letters at all or draw anything recognisable etc, but the end of the first term she was making good attempts and by February half term she was clearly writing her name, starting to read a few words and drawing clear pictures. It really is amazing how much they come on once they start school and they all develop at their own pace, so don’t worry too much that she needs to already be doing things like this before she starts. Some kids were already reading / writing when they started but many weren’t.

It's a hard job being a parent and making decisions.
My ds is end of August, if he's been born 2 days later he'd have been in the younger year. Anyway he started school unable to be understood speech wise, shy, showed no interest in books or writing.
By year 1 he was thriving, his speech was so much better being around children. His own age, he was learning and his concentration improving. He was even put on the higher level table for maths and writing.

I was worried too when he started, but he thrived and I am glad I didn't hold him back a year. Children surprise us, maybe yours will too X

I’m a now retired teacher, having spent over thirty years teaching infants and finishing my career as a headteacher of an infant school. I spent most of this time reassuring parents that their summer born child would be o.k. at school. I do admit that some settings might be better than others at teaching individuals according to their needs, but my last job had an extremely high level of special needs children, particularly those with speech and language delays and difficulties. I don’t want to sound patronising or dismissive, but a third of the children entering the school will be summer born, and the staff will be well used to catering for them. They will also have access to any specialist help that might be needed, and as long as they are good early years practitioners, who deliver a play-based curriculum, then the vast majority of children will flourish. Ask questions of the staff about their routines and expectations. The last thing you want is your child to be put off education for life by expecting him/her to be tied to a desk before they are ready. They need to play!
I am now the grandmother of Summer born children who will be starting in Reception next year and although I can’t believe it I keep telling myself that they will be fine.

Thank you for your comments. I'm glad many of your little ones have managed to do so well despite being so young.
We have been to a settling in session at the school where she has a place this September, she didn't socialise with any other children and only really played with cars, she seemed afraid to wander about and explore at all. Also the school dont seem keen on part time, I appreciate by going part time she could miss out on some things but I think it could help ease her in and keep the pressure off for a bit until year 1 hits.

@DarkDarkNight I am a member of that group and it's so helpful. We have just done a complaint to the LGO but apparently that can take 26 weeks by which time we would have had to have decided whether or not to send her this year and whether or not to move house. I dont know if its worth one last begging letter direct to them to see if by some miracle they have a change of heart. My council is notoriously difficult, they also seem inconsistent which is so unfair and frustrating.

So was her ability to communicate holding back on what they were marking on eyfs?
As you say i assume that even summer borns should be getting into the 40-60.
Ive deferred and the nursery said ds is getting into 40-60 now at nearly 4yo.
Imo behaviour/immaturity is the biggest reason to defer.
Because it seems that kids struggling with social/behavioural etc dont suddenly necessarily make a big leap. The ones who were not sitting still etc at 4.0yo got better but not as well behaved as those who could when starting school.
So the challenging ones in reception still are several years later. (Not necessarily just age but only 1 is sept-dec born).
Whereas all the kids can speak clearly and have all made huge academic progress. And anyway this can be supported at home.

Unfortunately with deciding now (on 3yos) it is truly impossible to know which way things will go.
Even if they do ok academically they may have no friends.
Imo personality, hard work/attitude, behaviour etc will matter more than being summer born.
However i would definitely spend a lot of time over the summer reading books etc to ensure vocabulary is extensive so they can hit the ground with reading.

I would only be concerned about the learning phonic sounds and writing if you have already spent a lot of time on it and you are getting nowhere.
I would also spend time doing oral blending as it can take time for them to manage this and it can hold back the reading.

Neet90 the postcode lottery is so unfair isn’t it? I’m very lucky that my LEA automatically grants all requests, it’s even mentioned as an option in the starting school leaflets.