Deferring School Start

[sophielc]

So my DS will be 3 on 17th June and is due to start his nursery/pre-school year in September. I live in NI and over here the school year runs from 1st July to 30th June. So he would be the very youngest in his year group. He is currently having speech therapy as he is a little behind but he is making great progress. We have been advised that there is a new rule that if you were born between 1st April 2019 and 1st July 2019 then you can choose to defer their start for a year. I'm worried that if we do it will have an impact in future years. He would need to be potty trained and at present is reluctant to start. I also think that if we don't defer then he will benefit hugely from the education he would get by starting pre-school. Any help and advice would be great. :-)

Hello, I'm in Scotland where deferral is very common (and has recently been extended from Jan and Feb borns, end of Feb being our cut off, to September - Feb borns so autumn born DC can now start school just shy of their 6th birthdays).

Anyway, I would always recommend deferring school, but preschool is a different matter... can he go to preschool age 3 and still start school age 5? Could he go to a playgroup instead for this coming year? (Not sure if they're really a thing in NI but here they're common and a really lovely step between home and nursery.)

Hi, I'm in Northern Ireland and in the same position this year, how did you get on ?

Getting lots of mixed information, if you deferred did you get two years of preschool?

We decided to let him do 2 yeas of pre school. He goes to a Prep school and is just finishing his first pre prep year. He'll do another pre prep year starting September instead of starting P1. The way his school works, you can send your child there starting 2 y 10 m so there's other kids doing 2 pre prep years anyway. I definitely think we've made the right decision. Just giving him extra time to be ready for school and not rushing him.

That's great, from the Education Authority information I didn't think you could get two years of a funded preschool placement? Did you get apply again the second year? The nursery he is in would all be full of we deferred and I thought as he already has had a year of nursery he wouldn't be entitled to a second funded year?

We send him to a Prep school which is non government funded so it was much easier for us. We didn't have to apply at all just let the school and EA know that we were deferring.