What are your thoughts (people in Scotland especially) on deferring primary school entry for a year?

[Pruners]

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hi I will have the same problem with DD2 her birthday is at the end of January so she will be one of the youngest in her class (4.7), she will be in a class with children nearly a year older than her. I do worry about it but she's only 20 months just now so I will see how it goes. Her personality now I think she will be fine she thinks she is the same age as her sister anyway, theres 18 months between them. DD1 will go one year she will go the next so I think seeing her sister go etc will make it better for her.

I do think it depends on the child TBH maybe talk to the head teacher see what her feelings are on it.

We thought about it with ds - he's a january birthday - and in fact the head teacher said she always wished she'd deferred her ds! But in the end he went at 4.7. - reasons : in the May of the year he was to start the head teacher visited him at nursery and reckoned he was ready - so did nursery.
You can register him for next year - usually you register around January for starting that August - and if you decide to defer you just need to let the educcation authority know.

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I did. Twice! Both dd1 and ds started into primary 1 at age 5y6m, and it has been a rip-roaring sucess for both of them. Personally I just don't understand the need to get them into school so young - they're going to be there for 13 years, why start so young? My 2 would have coped, but the extra year in nursery was good for them, especially ds, and has given them extra confidence and social skills to cope etc.

There were a lot of considerations - they will now be 18 rather than 17 on leaving school, they will go to secondary at age 12 rather than 11 (and as a secondary teacher, again I think that is a great thing, the kids who struggle with the transition are often the 11 year old boys), they had an extra year in nursery which was far more play based, I had an extra year with them, which was lovely, and I think they have settled in well. THey'r ealso in bilingual education (english/gaelic) and the extra year of gaelic nursery built their vocab more before they had to go into a more structured setting.

I would always say defer. I can't do it with dd2 as she has a nov birthday and so will be 4y9m, but then I think she will be ready, and I think it is more of an issue with boys.

In Scotland you register for primary school in January, so you have a bit longer than you think to think it over. You also can register and then withdraw if you ds isn't ready.

I know quite a lot of people who did this - its kind of the norm where we live, and I dont know anyone who regreted it, but I do know some people who wished they had deferred. The last term before school starts with an energetic 5yo can be pretty boisterous though!

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One of ds' friends has a December birthday andhis parents deferred (so he will turn 8 in December, whereas ds has only recently turned 7). It was the right decision for him, as he would have been very immature if he had started a year earlier.

Harrisey - you do still have option of keeing your dd back, but the Education Dept has the right then to charge you for the nursery for the "extra" year ("For those children whose fifth birthday falls in September to December an education authority is not under a duty to provide school education for the deferred year. (Those whose fifth birthday falls in January or February are eligible for school education during the deferred year"). But from the sound if it, you think she will ready.

Pruners - Edinburgh does seem to start the porcess in November - it is done differently in Glasgow, where we do it as part of the enrolment process in January.

I found this www.edinburgh.gov.uk/internet/learning/schools/cec_school_catchment_arrangements

so ds would be going to school august 2008? id contact the school now, even just to chat to the school secretary.
i ahve heard its better for boys if they stay back a year, there are about 4 children (boys and girls) in dds class who are 5.5 or thereabouts
but they are all different arent they
the school secretary would tell you about putting ds' name down (you could enrol him then change your mind, particularly if school isnot catchment school)
you could even speak to the head about deferring, then you might have a better chance of a place
(speaking as someone who was told there was no room for dd at her catchment school, then after much pestering and sweet smiling there magically appeared to be a place after all)

you do some worried about thsi pruners, do some thing proactive and you might feel slightly better

i have this decision with dd but i am fairly certain i am keeping her back for all the reasons stated by other posters. although, i do worry that she will get bored at nursery half way through teh year and will be a giant her year. almost wish we didn't have the choise tbh.

dd2 turned 4 at the beginning of august and has only just started nursery. she will be 5 when she goes into p1 next september. if i had had the choice i would have had her into p1 this year. she is more than ready for it imo. she has already had a year of nursery last year.

ds2 has september birthday and will also be 5 by the time he starts p1

I used to be totally against starting late, but then again I am in Germany where some year 1 dc are nearly 7. I put dd in school aged 5 which was early for Germany and although she was ready in most ways and is top of the class now in year 3, despite being the youngest, if I could go back in time I would have left her a year longer. The strain does show and there are some things like residentials that they do from year 2 onwards over here that she isn't quite ready for. The worst thing is she hates being the youngest, I had forgotten how important it is to small children and it has reminded me of being envied by class mates as I was one of the oldest in my class (September birthday).

and i find it fecking annoying that you can't just look at a map of catchments on council webpage.

you used to be able to see a map of catchments
i must have looked at it about a hundrd times when dd was starting school
now i cant find it

Problem is though that the "catchments" change year on year depending on birthrate. Some years it is only a few streets from the school, others the whole area...just depends on siblings attending here. This year was a tough one, catchment did not even come into it. 50 of the 60 reception places went to siblings.

here
i had it bookmarked but it looks like its been removed

I don't think catchment areas vary from year to year in Scotland the way they do in England.

Our school was able to tell us the catchment was "from No. x in our street".

In fact, everyone has two catchment schools - the Roman Catholic school and the non-demoniational school.

Nailpolish - I wonder if it was removed because of the hoohah that erupted when Edinburgh council proposed closing a load of schools?

We are deferring DD1. She doesn't turn 5 until June and already has diagnosed delays.

oh yes thats a good point prettybird

I know I could defer dd2, but we would be charged for nursery for the year and that isn't really an option for us.
If is had been ds, I think we would have done it, but (i suspect with her being the youngest of 3 and trying to keep up all the time) she will be more than ready. Plus her bl**dy minded personality and sheer determination should help.

Didn't realise the process started so early in Edinburgh! Here we do enrollment and placing requests at the same time. I wish we could just enrol at the school we want - our kids are in the gaelic school and dd2 will certainly get a place there as she is in the preschool and has 2 siblings there. But I will have to go round to the local primary and once more endure the disdain of the most bored receptionists on the face of the earth as they tut and cluck and say 'well you're not guaranteed a place there you know' and 'lots of people dont get in!' etc etc. I know there has to be a procedure, but they always seem personally affronted that we're not choosing their school.

DD's birthday is in late January and we deferred her entry into P1. She would have coped academically at 4.7 but I don't think she would have coped well emotionally or socially. She is also small for her age so I think she would have felt overwhelmed in the playground. She is now in P5 and I think we did the right thing. Like harrisey we were also looking ahead to secondary. I would much rather DD was more mature when sitting exams etc..

Here, enrollment happens in January. I did fill out the forms the previous year, but put in a note to say that we were considering deferring, and asking when we had to let them know for definite. We got a letter back from the Assistant Head who deals with the P1-P3 classes, saying that it would be helpful if we could let them know by June, when they are making up the classes for the next academic year.

DD was at a private day-care nursery so we did have to pay out for another year, but luckily we still got the Pre-school funding which helped a bit.

I'm deferring dd, who'll be 5 in November. I do think she may get bored towards the end of this year of nursery but imo it's the lesser of 2 evils. I had no idea about the charging for an extra year of nursery thing though!?