Repeating Year 5 and change school

[Laura0706]

My son is a summer baby and his birthday is the end of August. He has been diagnosed Autism when he was 5 years old and enrolled in EHPC system. He has a lot of improvement in the last couple years. However, we have always been aware that he is young for his current group year and feeling the next group year would be suitable for him as his teacher always mention he is leak of focus, and we also found that he is the shortest in his class and it make him loss of confident. Whilst he is very good at Non-Verb reasoning and verb reasoning, coding etc. But her struggles with other aspects such as writing and maths. Wehave always wondered if he would be better off in the year below and give him abit more time to explore and catch up. We reached the school social worker andrequested repeating year 4 last year, the social worker mentioned someone willcontact us and discuss it, but never happened. We requested it again this year,but the school agreed to set up a meeting and always finds an excuse to cancelthe meeting at last minute. Right now, I am wondering if it is acceptable toapply repeating year 5 when we change to a new school? Does anyone else has anexperience of repeating a year at year 5? Can I have some advice please?

I am assuming you are in the UK.

I really don’t see how moving him down a year, which is essentially what you are suggesting (though “repeating “ a year sounds better) is going to help his self confidence, especially since even if he moved school his actual age would become apparent. You would be better off finding other ways to develop self confidence, maybe by looking for interests outside school where he could thrive and getting him additional help for his writing and maths skills.

In regard to his height many Y5 boys are quite short, and often continue to look quite short in Y6 and even into the start of Y7 especially since girls have an early growth spurt compared to most boys which makes some boys look small in comparison. But when puberty hits, then boys growth is fast and they catch up with peers.

In addition, most mainstream UK schools stick quite rigidly to age related year groups once a child has started school, I have only ever known one child who was allowed to repeat a year that late in a Primary and this was only after some skullduggery by his parents involving very obviously false documentation from abroad which they suddenly produced despite this meaning that the child would have been well under three when he started nursery ( I think we would have noticed!). It might also impact on Secondary transfer if the school decided they wanted to put him back with his age cohort.

I think your discussion with the school would be more usefully directed at getting him support for his confidence and basic skills within his current year group.

It's very very unusual in the U.K. system to drop down a year.

There are children who are not in the correct year group for their age but this is usually children who deferred entry (so came into school late) or moved internationally from a different school system.

If you want to move schools and tell them you want him in a different year group then you can do that. They don't have to listen to you.

Why are you thinking of moving schools?

If you move to another school and he isn’t allowed to repeat year 5, he will go into year 6 and then have to transfer to secondary a year later. If he is allowed to repeat a year, it will still be only two years in a new school before another change.

If he has an EHCP there should be annual reviews and the year 5 review should be a transition review at which plans are made for secondary provision. Have there been reviews and what are the outcomes?

If DS needs to be educated outside of his chronological year group it can and should be include in F of the EHCP. You can discuss this at the annual review. Although the LA may not agree to the amendment and you may have to appeal. You can also discuss a change of placement via the AR process.

Whilst the secondary transition may be discussed in the Y5 AR, the LA should hold a phase transfer review in the autumn term of Y6. You can see the phase transfer process here on IPSEA’s website.

I have a DGS who is the end of August and is also ND. DD made the decision from the beginning to keep him down a year and it was the best thing for him, he wouldn't have coped in the year above. If your child is having a fresh start in a new school, the children in that class will except him as being that age group, chances are that he will only be a few days older than the September birthdays in the class. I know that parents have the right to keep their summer born child down a year, DGS isn't the only child we have at our school who is, nobody knows any different, I'm only aware as I work there. I'm not sure however, by what age you have to make that decision. I would ring your county council and talk to admissions, to see if this is do able.