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

[Pruners]

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wow i didnt know you could defer children with nov birthdays
dd1 is not 5 yet (end of oct) and i would say she was more than ready. but she does look rather small. some of the children tower above her

bobsyouruncle - is your nursery supporting her deferral? I think there is a degree of discretion. The thing I quoted from is the Education Act, which just says that the Education Authority is not under a duty to provide scholl education (ie the 12.5 hours a week nursery school) for the deferred year.

DD2 is only 20 months but I'm already thinking about deferring her the big factor for me is that DD2 will be in P2 when she starts in P1, DD2 is big of her age and you can already see that she is a lot more advanced than DD1 was at that age, that may change though but I think having an older sibling close in age pulls the younger one along IYSWIM.

Also a friend's daughter has just started school and she is 4.7 years, her Mum was worried about her going the full day from this week as she is exhausted after the half day. The teacher has said that some of the younger ones do still need an afternoon nap at this age and if they fall asleep they put a cushion under them.

I have a long time to think about it though. I am a bit miffed DD2 only gets 1 1/3 years in nursery whereas DD1 gets 2 years.

I have two friends who have gone down this route. Child 1 had a January birthday and as far as I am aware if you have a Jan or Feb birthday then you have a 'right' to defer for a year. Child 2 had a December birthday and whilst they did defer the process was slightly more complicated and 'approval' was needed from the school and the local Council.

A huge success in both cases from the parents/childs point of view. I really believe that in the vast majority of cases children will do better the older they are when they start school.

A slightly longer term view is also that the older they start they older the are at the other end (doh!) so they are in theory better equipped to deal with the big bad world! For example I think an 18.5 year old will get on far better moving away from home to Uni than a 17.5 year old.

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I was 17.5 going to Uni and had "MINOR" stamped accross my Mtriculation card for the irst term and couldn't get served in teh Union at all. This was a hindrance to me in Fresher's Week, I can tell you!

There are apparently some courses that you need to be 18 to start, so it may mean an enforced gap year if you finish school at 17.5. Not that I am against gap years, but it is nice to have a choice ! I was 18.5 when I went to University and think I would have found it a lot harder to settle in at 17.5.

If you do decide to defer your child, there are some "negative" points. You have to be prepared to explain over and over again why you are keeping him/her at Nursery, with people looking at your child suspiciously. It is also hard for the child if their contemporaries are all about to go to school and they are not. It is difficult for them to understand your point of view, when they want to be "grown-up".

prettybird - yes, nursery supported my decision, but tbh I think they would have supported me whatever I decided and never said they thought I should defer. With demand for spaces at the nursery too I'm surprised the issue of paying didn't come up!

purplefrog - lol about looking at your child suspiciously, I can definitely relate to that! Also had tears on the first day back to nursery after the summer because she wants to go to big school with her friends. Even though most of her friends were going back to nursery!?

Pruners, I haven't read all the responses but my DS1 has a January birthday and we delayed his School entry by a year. This was partly on the advice of an education professional (sorry I can't remember what the woman's proper title was it was a while ago but something to do with assessing his ability for playgroup/nursery to determine whether he needed extra support etc), DS1 had a speech delay and this woman advised keeping him back and year and said that if we needed a letter she would happily provide one, even although DS1 suddenly came on leaps and bounds and was no longer considered speech delayed by the time he took up his pre-school nursery place.

However DH and I would probably have tried to defer him anyway and had deliberately no put him into a 'funded' preschool place until he was 3 1/2 so as to avoid any issues with him receiving more 'funded' preschool education than he was entitled to.

To cut a long story short-ish DS1 attends a large Primary School with two intakes every year, they tend to divide the classes with the older ones in one class and the younger ones in the other, DS1 ended up being one of 6 who had been deferred.

I personally think it has been a good thing for DS1. I have a January birthday too and went to School at 4 1/2 (don't think deferring was so much the done thing back then) and sometimes think I would have benefitted from being a little older when starting School.

My ds has an April birthday, so could start at 4.4 or 5.4 he will def be atarting at 5.4

and talking about Gap years ... if (and I know its far away) your dc want to doseomthing interesting abroad etc, a lot of places wont take them if they're not 18.

It sounds as though things have changed- when ds was that age you could defer any child who wasn't already 5 by the time school started, so anything after August. Ds has a November birthday, and had a friend in his class with a birthday a few weeks later but who was almost a full year older. It worked fine for both of them in fact- I did occasionally wish I had kept ds back but am happy generally that I did the right thing (for him). His friend who stayed back is super-bright and had to do some of his lessons with older classes but he was very tearful throughout his first year as it was, he certainly wouldn't have coped with starting at 4. So, completely child-dependent I would say, but I can't see any harm would come from keeping back, so I would do that if there's any doubt.

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Tamum - things haven't changed - that is effectively how things still run. Perhaps the only difference is now that the government (via the education authority) now fund 12.5 hours week pre-school (nursery) education - that's the bit that is not necessarily funded if you defer an late August to December child.

to op, deferring is very common for people I know in the Lothians. Parental right, so ultimately it's up to you, although you should get advice from nursery teacher a little nearer the time.

I know of a Nov deferral and Oct .

Research has shown boys in particular can benefit from deferral and that advantage lasts throughout their school life.

Is he at nursery? Speak to his teacher

It is fairly common in Ireland to defer children born from Easter onwards - ask the school what usually happens locally?

I knew about the nursery funding thing prettybird, it was just that gomez was saying that December birthdays needed special permission and the process was more complicated, that's what I thought must have changed, but maybe it's all part of the same thing!

I am not remotely bored of discussing Pruni's ds's school options, can I just say

this is never boring! I often feel soryfor people in England who are saying 'my dc is 4y1d and if I dont send them now they'll have to go into y1'

Way to Go the Scottish Education System!

That's maybe why you need permission - it's not so much permission to defer, but checking that you can continue to get a place a nursey school

Pruners - I beleive that deferral is more common in Ediburgh than Glasgow - see this article in the Scotsman, although it is few years old.

I don't get why an oct/nov deferral is shocking? My dd will still only be 5 when she starts school. Maybe I'm a bit sensitive about it because of other people's negative reactions to deferring in RL.

Ime it's the people who send their dc's at 4 who react the most negatively. Perhaps they feel parents who choose to defer think they are wrong not to defer. I'm sure parents who choose to defer base their decision on their own child and with a different child would perhaps make a different decision.

Harrisey - I agree with you. I couldn't beleieve it when I found out about the English way of doing it. I had to ask about three times on Mumsnet.... "Now, let me get this right: your child is not yet ready for school, so you are allowed to keep him/her back, and then you doubly disadvantage them by putting into the same class of older kids, who by now have made friends and had more expsoure to formal leanring"

I'm not negative. I was surprised in these two cases. It's nothing to do with me, I accept it's up to the parent but I can express an emotion on here.

bobsyouruncle - I don't see why an Oct/Nov deferral is shocking. Ds' birthday is 10 September - and I was prepared to consider it for him if I'd had to. As it was, he was more than ready.

I know a number of deferred entry children and afaik, they still received funding for another year at nursery. From what I've seen, boys especially seem to benefit. Aberdeenshire seems quite relaxed about the issue and the nursery teacher will recommend a child staying back a year if they think it necessary.

pointy, I was just interested to know why people are shocked/negative about it, noone in RL ever tells you why!? The second part of my post wasn't directed at you, it was simply me expressing my thoughts/feelings.

prettybird, our ds's share a birthday!