Any advice on deferring entry to primary

[daiseydreamer]

My son is due to start school in August, he will turn 4 the day before the term starts. I'm starting to worry about how tiny he will be.

He's quite a confident and sociable boy. He's been in preschool for the last year, walked straight in on day 1 and didn't look back, I've had no issues and he gets good reports from them. He only goes 2 days a week, I'm lucky enough to have my mum who has him the rest of the week.

I have 2 older children who are both born in November so were almost 5 starting school. They changed so much between turning 4 and starting school and I just feel like my youngest will be too young.

I wonder if this is more about my reluctance to 'let go' of my last baby and squeeze another year out of him, although I work full time so in reality, it's just another year of childcare costs and commitment from my mum!

So any pros or cons on starting so young or deferring a year to help me decide?

It does seem young (mine started at just five and the other 4 and ten months)

It's important to remember that we won't be the only summer born, he won't be in a class where everyone is a year older. Reception class will be used to dealing with the younger ones.

I would defer. I did with one child and that's going great, the extra year of play based learning did them so much good. The one I could have deferred but didn't is now struggling in secondary and I wish I had done things differently.

Don't forget that you have the "right to request a deferral", rather than a "right to defer".
There are a few very vocal enthusiasts on here, and there are campaigning FB groups too, but the LA (or Academy) don't have to agree to the request.

You can of course, just not send him to school, but he would then have to go straight into Yr 1 without an official deferral, which I wouldn't recommend.

The fact you say He's quite a confident and sociable boy. He's been in preschool for the last year, walked straight in on day 1 and didn't look back, I've had no issues and he gets good reports from them. leads me to agreeing with most of the posts so far. Keep him with his age group if he doesn't have any SEN.
I think it must be horrible to not be allowed to play in football / rugby / sport of choice teams with your peers etc because you are in the wrong age band.

As has been said, schools know that the children's birthdays will be spread throughout the 12 months of the year, and are well used to working with that.

I deferred my August born and it was right for us. @UsingChangeofName is correct, you only have the right to request; se Local Authorities grant all requests, some fight tooth and nail not to.

Check out the Flexible Admission for Sunmerborns group on Facebook. They are lobby group, so they have a strong pro approach to delaying but they have excellent resources if you decide that's what you want to do.

I have a summer born DC2 (not august) and an autumn born DC1. There was a huge difference in how emotionally ready they were for school, though their personalities were part of that.

I think DC2 wasn’t mature enough until 4.5 (he cried going in every day for example). But he had a wonderful teacher and learning was no issue, their sub-groups in the class were based on age, and in fact his friends were the other summer babies. As he had an older sibling he had better fine motor skills and had heard phonics being used around the house, so learnt very quickly. He was the smallest child in the school though! They also get tired more easily when they’re only 4, so if you have a grandma to collect him rather than after school club that’s even better.

Meanwhile all DC1s autumn born friends were bored with pre school for much of the last year, and were overly ready for school.

In the absence of any indicators of delayed social or learning development, personally I’d not delay. Even between now and Sept they grow so much. I do wish English schools started at 4.5 minimum though.

Is he bright?

I’m a teacher and there is a significant difference between autumn and summer borns. Personally I would defer an August child if I had one.

I was summer born and my child will be too (July). I did extremely well at school and beyond. Very studious. Until KS2, the autumn born children were more emotionally ‘mature’ than me, but there wasn’t much of a difference between me and the Spring born children. Remember that it won’t just be autumn born and summer born babies.

Your dc should be absolutely fine in Reception, especially if he is well socialised.

My son is a late august baby, well he's 20
now and I felt exactly the same. I looked into deferring but as soon as I realised he would go straight into year 1 I decided against it. He was so ready for school, it's me that wasn't.

He was absolutely fine although I do think I there is a big difference between the September babies bs the august babies and it seemed we were forever playing catch up but honestly, if your son is ready, and it sounds like he is, I would just go for it.

You can defer for a term? Rather than the whole year?

I'd it's for this September, I think you've missed the deadline for asking for a delay.

We've succeeded in getting a delay for my youngest, but it was done at the same time as the school application in January.

I deferred my August born. No regrets. It’s not about reception which is play based, it’s about the later years. That said my DD wasn’t confident so I’m not sure what I’d have done if she was.

It’s not too late at all (you need to get them a school place for next year if you do it, not this year!) and they don’t usually have to play in different sports teams to their peers. But how easy it is to do depends on the area you’re in. Everyone has a right to start their child at school at 5, what you have to get permission for is to start them in reception at 5 rather than in year 1.
I’m assuming from you OP you’re in England.

If he's due to start in August then definitely not England.

I have one DC with a birthday at the very end of August and one at the very start of September so have experience of being both the youngest and oldest in the year.

The August one was very ready for school. Sociable, confident, interested in learning. It would have been a mistake to defer her as she absolutely thrived from day one. She did struggle with skipping (they all did a gymnastics badge thing but got there in the end), and pencil grip but nothing that would worry me. She is now at secondary school, having passed the grammar 11+ with no formal tuition, and in top sets.

My September one actually struggled far more in reception. Totally bored. Could do everything. Was given extra work for depth of learning etc. Her year was very oddly skewed towards a lot of summer borns. Socially she was a year ahead of her peers and that’s what was tough. I would never have considered trying to get her moved up a year though. The gap has closed over the years but her reception and Y1 weren’t all that great.

So please take a look at your son. Can he wipe his own bum, change his clothes, do up his coat zip, sit still for short periods when asked, is interested in learning and sociable?

There are numerous reasons to hold a summer born child back a year and I am 100% supportive of parental choice here. But do please look at whether your son is ready for school now. Deferring him just because you can doesn’t necessarily mean it’s the right decision.

My son is a late august baby, well he's 20now and I felt exactly the same. I looked into deferring but as soon as I realised he would go straight into year 1 I decided against it.

That's not the case anymore though: summerborn children can start reception the September after they turn 5 instead of 4.

OP I deferred. It was 100% the right decision.

It's too late as in, if her application to defer isn't accepted, then he'll be starting in year 1, rather than joining reception this year.

Either:

• mum has already applied for his reception place for sept 2023, then she'll hear in mid April whether he's got a place at her chosen school. This has to be accepted or rejected by 1st May. That gives just over a month to go through the process of delaying, discussing with schools etc. Ours was about as clear cut a case as you could get, and the school were on board informally for 6 months. It still took 2 months to go through the process. You have a month.

• mum hasn't applied yet but wants son to start in reception. Child can still start in reception in September, but only where there's space somewhere, so may not be at a convenient school. If you manage to find a yes to delayed entry before September then this year's application could be pulled.

• you want him to start in sept 2024, but are flexible about whether he starts in reception or year 1. This gives you more give, but obviously joining in year 1 would require there to be a space, which would narrow down your choices of schools.

so technically it's not too late, but it kind of is if you want much choice over which year your son will join and which school.

We looked into this quite a lot because we'd hoped to delay having to make the decision until nearer September (we are delaying for medical reasons), but we had to hedge our bets in January and decide then.

Good luck.

I have an august baby who is due to start school on Sept too. We are still mulling deferring him but we've spoken extensively to his nursery and they think he'll be bored for another year because he's quite bright and already doing reception year maths/literacy. He's not very confident though and quite shy but I don't think another year will change that, it's just his personality. I don't want him to go to school particularly because I want him to stay a baby forever but I think he'll get so much more from being in that school environment than another year of pre-school.

I am assuming Scottish education system you are referring to with an August start. Look into deferral, there's no harm.

@Somuchgoo it depends on the Local Authority and how up to speed they are with the requirements. Most are a lot better than they used to be as it's so much more common these days to defer. In some LAs you literally just tick a box to inform them you are deferring, there is no protracted process to go through.

Even with LAs who have historically tried to make it difficult, most have now accepted that they have to follow the statutory requirements and that the effect of that guidance is that if a parent requests to defer it would be extremely difficult for the LA or school to refuse and not lose when challenged at tribunal because the statutory guidance states they would have to demonstrate that deferring was not in the individual child's best interests, which is essentially impossible given they do not know said child at all and the parent does and has judged it is in the child's interests (otherwise they'd not have requested it!) plus the volume of evidence that shows that generally outcomes from starting education later are better. They'd have to have evidence of a specific reason why for that particular child the opposite would apply. So in practice, it is the parents' choice. Ridiculous and convoluted way of setting it up though, I agree.

OP if you want to defer I suggest you contact the admissions officer at your LA asap to discuss with them and also join the facebook group where there is a lot of information on the legalities and procedures, and will be people in your area who have gone through the process.

My comment refers to England. In Scotland I believe it's been a simple choice that parents can make for a lot longer, and is even more common to defer.

Following. My DD is a late August birthday and although she's social and confident, I'm really worried about sending her to school a couple of days after she turns four. I'm particularly worried about the comparisons and her always feeling 'behind' her class mates.

I think that's the thing @Serp . Reception is play-based so probably not an issue. Going into year one at just-turned 5 is not really developmentally appropriate and then as social relationships become more complex etc through into secondary school, being a whole year less mature than lots of classmates can make a big difference. Academically I had no concerns whatsoever. DD has already learned most of the reception curriculum from her brother. 🤣 My worries were her coping socially and emotionally not just now but later in school too.

Academically it's their job to stretch her just as they would for a bright Sept born in her class born a couple of weeks later, nobody suggests they move to the year above if they're finding the work easy! Socially she's in exactly the right class and the extra year of being a child and playing has done her so much good. If she'd gone at 4 I really do not think she'd have coped actually. My son with a winter birthday so starting at 4.5 found school totally exhausting despite having been doing longer days than that at nursery since he was a baby.

A question. If you defer, don't they struggle going into year one straight away?

They don't go straight into year 1. The whole point of deferring is that they start reception, just a year later, so just after 5th birthday, at compulsory school age. They don't miss any school, just wait another year before starting then stay in that cohort all the way through.

Basically they will be a few days older than the September born children in their year. Rather than being the very youngest and starting formal schooling at 4 which developmentally has negative outcomes: the most successful education systems around the world mostly start at 6/7.