Delayed/deferred school entry

[2CatsAndABoy]

We're still waiting to hear if our application to delay our son to start Reception till next September has been accepted. Apparently the application is "with a panel" at the council. It's taking ages and when I chase them to ask what's happening they say they don't have a deadline by which they need to respond by and we just have to wait to hear from them but that seems ridiculous as we don't know whether we should be preparing for him to start this September or not. Has anyone got any experience with this, in particular with Lambeth Council?

If you don't mind me asking, why would you?

Lambeth are notoriously difficult with these requests. Have you joined the Flexible Admissions for Summerborn Children group on Facebook? There is a lot of experience there, and there will be people who have dealt with Lambeth who may be able to advise.

@crosbystillsandmash A growing number of people are delaying entry for their summer born kids until the September after their 5th birthday. Children don’t legally need to be in education until then, and a change in the admissions code means that delayed children can be given a place in reception rather than year 1. However it’s a bit of a postcode lottery at the moment as to which areas agree to it.

There are many reasons to delay. My son was born at the end of August and would have massively struggled with school had we sent him at just turned 4.

Interesting.
I'm an early years teacher and in my experience the biggest advantage/disadvantage for any child starting school is their background and life experiences.

The two youngest children in my current class are streams ahead in all areas of development, in comparison to some of their older classmates.

There are more and more studies coming out that show that being the youngest in the class is usually a disadvantage. If our son had been born only 13 days later he would naturally be going to school next year so as we want to give him the best chance to do well that is why we want to delay him starting next year instead.

Thank you!

But there are many many more studies that show that having an educated, active, caring and engaged parent is way more advantageous.

For context, I've had children start in my class, autumn born, who barely know their own name. Do you know that some children are barely spoken to by their parents?
I'm guessing your summer born dc is having a far more engaging, loving and fulfilling start to life?

I will be doing the same. It’s not about they do in Yr R but about the rest of their school career.

It took ages for only of our schools to agree
Im glad my 7yo is csa otherwise they would have missed 50% of reception and 8w of y1.

My 10yo was academically far far ahead ---they are now being assessed for asd they seemed ok socially but couldnt deal with groups
despite being very bright dc1 still ended up not met in y1 as it moves very quickly

My guess is that parents who delay want to combine the above advantages (which are likely in situations where parents have the privilege to delay) with the advantages of being the eldest in a class.

I am nitpicking but I’m guessing it’s unlikely studies have compared the environment you describe vs delayed school start? Is it fair to say such environments are ‘way more’ advantageous, or is that they’re are beneficial?

When I was teaching the small bottom sets were almost exclusively children from a particular deprived cluster of streets.

Yes he is but I was youngest in my class and ended up having to repeat the last year of primary school as they said I wasn't ready for secondary school. This was despite having a loving and wonderful childhood. I struggled with school and do not want my son to have to go through the same thing as I did.

@Overthinker19
Ah yes, of course and how unbelievably depressing.
The gap widens even further between our children, thanks to those already at an advantage further enhancing their chances in life.

@Flopisfatteningbingforchristmas
Yep, all of the children in my low ability intervention groups are from deprived backgrounds.
Depressingly they are also all autumn term born, so the oldest in my class.

I am like you, the very end of August and didn’t really hit my stride until Secondary. But from then on I did well academically.

A Psychology lecturer told us that the younger children struggle more in primary but then over taking their older class mates.

Personally I enjoyed being the youngest and an glad my parents were unable to hold me back.

Summer born DS joined in Jan of reception due to a s&l delay, it worked out well for him - I'm sure there always used to be 2/3 intakes into reception, would that be an option OP?

At class level 1/30 being csa will make no difference.
my csa start just won the sports day race and in fact it was almost exactly first to last by age. But its still low ks1 and it wasnt the case in the boys race. Longer term it will.be ones doing clubs. Ke2 was won by the shorter kids.

Can we stop calling it ability! Its clearly not ability in class groups.

1 csa start wont make a difference to deprived kids. Plus many being held back have undiagnosed sen.

We deferred ds last year and didn't get confirmation until the first week in September.

This has been a thing in Scotland for a while. People are now deferring their August born children (baring in mind our dates run from March-Feb) which is resulting in age gaps up to 18 months within the same classroom. I’m of the mindset SOMEONE has to be the youngest..