Has anyone requested their child repeat a school year( England Juniors)

[Notasproutbutagiantpea]

My DS is summer born and I originally applied to hold back him to start reception due to some developmental delays. Here he would have started a year later still in reception. In the end I sent him with his correct aged cohort, just due to pressure from everyone and lack of support from preschool and family on holding him back.

Encouragingly DS found reception was no problem ( ignoring the term of covid) and he did really well, but since the more formal teaching of year 1 he has really struggled :(

DS is now in year 3, working very far behind his peers and has a short attention span. Officially he was discharged from being delayed so has no formal diagnosis of SN or SEND. I suspect he has ADD aspect of ADHD, possibly ASD also, we await the assessments but he seems generally intelligent, but cannot apply it. He is very aware of his lack of ability and compares himself. He works very slowly and gets anxious, but school do not have the resources to take him out of the general class, so he’s stuck.

Should I ask the school for him to repeat a year? Is this even possible?

Would DS repeating in the same school lead to boredom and bullying? Would they allow this?

There’s the question on whether the daily anxiety DS is experiencing now finding the work too challenging is comparable to the anxiety of him changing schools, I’ve no guarantee Ds wouldn’t still struggle and he wouldn’t have any friends.

Other schools would require driving as further but that’s just an aside.

I think if you list more about why you think ADD/ADHD/ASD then lots of us can help from our experience.

It’s mainly the daydreaming and zoning out. He had speech therapist assessment ( passed for age) and they said we should look into ADHD, but school felt more likely to be ASD. He is very well behaved in class and not hyper. He just doesn’t get any work done due to anxiety about not having enough time. Struggles getting started and works slowly when he does. So I spoke to doctor and they suggested to start the process to access for both ADD and ASD, but it could be a very long wait. I believe ADD is now covered under ADHD.

But even so I can’t see what the school can do with such limited resources, he is a smallish class due to some movement of pupils ( normal for area, not a school issue, school has recent ofsted and all
is good) However less pupils means less funding, so budgets are stretched already. They try but they can’t do much more when he’s so far behind the others.

We’ve tested hearing and eyes too, so not sure what else I can do?Previously tried in person and online tutoring, but it was over whelming and he is very tried after school. He is otherwise healthy!

I don't think asking for him to repeat a school year or moving schools is the best way to tackle what's going on here. Whatever is going on with your DS, it's unlikely that just repeating more of the same is going to address the barriers to learning he seems to be facing.

My DS has an ASD diagnosis and I recognise some of the traits you're describing. (I'm not saying your DS has autism.) My DS struggles with putting pen to paper as he's worried about 'getting it wrong'. He also finds too many instructions at once overwhelming and he can't cope with any kind of 'imaginative work' (eg 'write a diary entry as a Viking boy'). I could go on!

My DS has an EHCP and as part of the assessment process he saw an educational psychologist. She assessed him in class and spoke to me and his class teacher. She also spoke to my DS and did some tests on him to measure things like information processing speed and short term memory. It turns out he was something like on the 93rd percentile for non verbal reasoning but something like 8% for short term memory! Having big disparities between ability and what a DC with autism can produce in class is quite common.

Have you spoken to the school Senco about your concerns?

If you haven't already, I would recommend reading some of this info from Ipsea (they're a charity that help parents with DC who have additional learning needs):

https://www.ipsea.org.uk/Pages/Category/get-support

If I were you, I would be thinking about applying for an EHCP needs assessment now. You don't need a diagnosis and the legal threshold for an assessment is actually quite low (despite what some local authorities may have people believe). You may well have to appeal and the whole process could take at least a year. If he does have an EHCP needs assessment, he will be seen by an EP, speech and language, an occupational therapist among others who can suggest practical things to help your DS.

My concern for your DS is that he may fall further 'behind' and that is going to impact on his outcomes and also his mental health.