Can I move my struggling year 1 back into reception?

[musicmumhelp]

She's the youngest in the class and yr1 has gone from bad to worse, she's now school refusing.

What can I do?

I really feel for you - my youngest isn't at my eldests old primary because I feared this would happen. I would look very seriously into in-year transfer to another school and all options for transport for all your children. It's so hard. Your daughter will be with this cohort the whole time and I can't see that they will move her down a year. Wishing you luck sorting it all out

I think you’re focusing on the wrong problem. I doubt very much her problems are anything to do with wanting to play/enjoying reception more. It is the utterly awful behaviour she’s been subject to. I’d have absolutely lost my shit with the school and raised a complaint with ofsted. Something has gone very badly wrong if she’s coming home with black eyes.

@Bunnycat101 yes, me too. I would have totally lost my shit over the failures on the part of the school. Black eyes?! No.

I know someone who's DC did move back to reception after starting year 1, but it wasn't so late in the year and they were moving schools anyway due to a house move. In his case the new school supported it as the combination of being very young in the year and being the Covid reception year meant he really did just slot into where the year below were ( and it helped they had space).
In your case it sounds like there's bigger issues with the school. The SEND system is seriously broken but there are options for dealing with violent children ( that don't include expulsion).

My child regularly comes home with bruises and black eyes and the teacher has admitted she's been injured "non accidentally". She's miserable

Jeez! - and she is still there! - time to get very angry I think! The school has safeguarding duties. It sounds as though her age and class have little to do with things - she is being bullied and abused - of course she does not want to go to school!

It is hard though for a school to say no …. They have to demonstrate that it’s in a child’s best interest to start in Y1 and miss R. It’s a fairly high bar

You need to change school , your child is being injured and you seem to be sitting on your hands because it’s the most convenient option .

Omg what did I just read?!

move her. Move older siblings if needed.
Take whatever measures needed to get this sorted and do not send her back in to that school!

never mind going back into reception, more the poor little thing to another school she does not need this type of education (getting thumped) and send an email /letter explaining exactly why to the head, governor's

Lots of DC want to play but y1 is ks1 curriculum. I would move her to another school because she’s asking for something she cannot have.

It’s very rare for a 5 year old to be excluded (permanently?) and the SEN ratio is too high. To be offered a special school, and not take it, suggests to me that parents see this school as a SEN haven. Are these all catchment DC? The school must have its work cut out but it’s not keeping your DD safe. So get her to another school. Moving down isn’t really the issue. It’s the issues the school cannot cope with. If DC are like this in y1, how many more years do
you expect DD to tolerate this?

Can you move her to a different school and find a childminder for wraparound? I'd suggest moving her now, not in the summer as it sounds awful

I’ve had two children at my school move year groups, one at the beginning of year 1 back to reception and one part way through the year back to reception. It wasn’t a school decision however, it was made by admissions. We submitted evidence to support the parents but it wasn’t in our control. Not sure if every LA is the same.
moving to reception at this point in the year would not allow her much time for playing. Although it is still a child led curriculum in summer, they will be getting them year one ready.
All that being said, I’d move her in a heartbeat. No way should any child be coming home with that level of injuries.

Thank you everyone for the comments, I've been racing around after DC and just getting a chance to look. DH and I are about to have a massive falling out over this. He thinks things are not bad enough to move her he doesn't have to have to drag her into school on the daily DH thinks we should just persevere, doesn't want to move to reception or another school. I'm about to loose my shit with him.

He thinks if we move her it'll be the same issues somewhere else. If I can convince him on the move then the childminder is a good shout.

The problem is we are rural and another school involves a significant drive and childminders are scarce. I don't think it's impossible just needs a lot of planning.

Thank you this is useful info, was this due to SEN though?

The same cohort until year 6 I just can't bear the thought

I too recommend a school move. It sounds like the class has a lot of unmet needs paired with boisterous personalities that dominate the class. IME (I used to teach) it's likely the quieter kids will move schools and the class is likely to become more boisterous as the years go on. You do get boisterous year groups where a few personalities just change the dynamic of the whole class and they often rarely fully calm down.

I have also seen very timid children move from a boisterous class in a previous school to a calmer class in another school and thrive. This happened to one of my friends children, their previous school was very boisterous according to the parents and their shy timid child just got left and became a shadow of themselves. They changed schools and went to look round lots of schools. They chose the school with the most docile class and their child absolutely shone once they settled in.

Also some year 1 classes are more play based than others. I taught year 1 for years and it takes real experience to transition children from reception to year 1 well. Was year 1 more play based in sept-christmas and slowly built up to more academic levels or was it straight down to work with little opportunities for play? Often a boisterous class with lots of needs requires a much slower transition than others. Recognising this and feeling able to justify a slower transition to management takes really confidence and experience. I've taught classes where lessons were carrousel and half the class played and small group work happened all the way to June. That class still required a play based curriculum for half of year 2. Other classes were ready to be more academic by Christmas. This does usually depend on the head teacher too. I've worked for head teachers who are very results and academic driven and it never bodes well for transition in year 1, especially for very young classes or classes with lots of needs.

I would explore a school move. Look for a more docile class and play based year 1 experience.

If you really don't want to move school, ask the school about possibly doing a slower transition so DD spends some time back in reception. I've done this before where some students would do either a couple of afternoons back in reception or after 40 mins in class they went down to reception for 20 mins play. Helped that we had a merged playground with eyfs so they could pop outside to play with reception during the free flow part of reception.

Good luck OP.

To some degree yes. One had an ehcp but the other didn’t. We were already seeing lots of elements of sen with them though. I assumed a child with an ehcp would have to go through the local authority but was quite surprised the other one did as well as I assumed it would be at the discretion of the Head

The reason I don't feel I can go bat shit is that there is a definite culture that the children with SEN do whatever and nothing can be said or done about it. I don't see how this benefits anyone at all let alone the SEN children themselves.

When I've raised things before it's been <shrugs shoulders> "y'know" "SEN" basically lump it.

The children also seem to think they have to put up with this behaviour for this reason.

I know of a little girl who started school in Scotland and when they moved down to England she went into the year below her 'official' year (summer born). Her parents had to go to the local authority to fight for it though.

Move school for the love of God! They clearly can't cope with their current challenges.

You can try to pull her back a year when you move her. I've only seen it done once in DS's school, and that was a pair of twins who repeated reception after missing most of it due to the pandemic - I don't know the full circumstances.

RTFT and WTF? Tell your partner that school is NOT SAFE for your poor DD and she needs moving ASAP.

I'd lose my shit with him too.

She won't learn if she doesn't feel safe & happy.

"It’s very rare for a 5 year old to be excluded (permanently?) and the SEN ratio is too high. To be offered a special school, and not take it, suggests to me that parents see this school as a SEN haven. Are these all catchment DC? The school must have its work cut out but it’s not keeping your DD safe. So get her to another school. Moving down isn’t really the issue. It’s the issues the school cannot cope with. If DC are like this in y1, how many more years do
you expect DD to tolerate this?"

Permanently excluded, I understand that child now has a place in a specialist setting. These are all catchment children as far as I know. The school has a reputation for being no pressure, non academic, more nurturing/pastoral, talk a lot about mental health.
I don't want DD to have to tolerate it at all. I'm at my wits end. DH says he's "trying to be positive" he may end up under the patio

Talk to the head. Our head did this for an SEN child, but it was relevant they were moved out of a boisterous class with lotsa SEN into a quiet class with low SEN.

If the other school is full or something then you need to escalate this problem. You speak to the teacher then take it up the chain step by step, Deputy Head, Head, Governors, to the LA, local MP whatever's necessary. The response every single time they bring up SEN is to tell them you're not asking about the children with SEN, you are asking what they are going to do to keep your daughter safe that it's completely unacceptable that she's coming home with a black eye and non accidental bruises, even once, let alone on more occasions. You make it clear that you're not going to put up with your daughter getting hurt and that you will take it up the chain as far as necessary to keep her safe.

Is there an option to move her to the other year 1 class ?