Primary specialists - child in wrong year. When to move her?

[switzswiss]

Hello everyone,

Would appreciate advice from any primary specialists.

My daughter started reception at 3 years 10 months. She is November born, and we moved abroad last year. Childcare is extremely expensive in this country, so we decided to put her in the mixed reception and year 1 class at the school we are teaching at. She gets on fine, the teacher says she's fine, there's aren't noticeable differences between her and the other reception kids.

When is a good time to move her to her correct year group? Or should she just stay where she is, a year ahead, seeing as she gets on ok? I was always glad she was November born as she'd be one of the oldest in her class, but because of this situation, she's the youngest.

Thanks!

From a social perspective, I'd have thought as early as possible. It can be very difficult for children out of year group socially, because they're just more immature. And as they get older, they can't join their peers to go the pub etc. (Obviously that's a way off!) Would you move back to the UK at any point? Generally speaking, they will have to go into the correct year for their age, and so they may end up repeating things they already know if they're used to being a year ahead. If that's a consideration.

If you’re going to put her in state education in the UK she will more than likely have to rejoin her year then.

I would do it at the end of FS so she does year 1 with her same age peers.

Is there a mixed y1/2 class too? If so I’d be tempted to keep her in the R/1 class next year and then do two years in the 1/2 class too, so it’s a sort of gradual catch up. If she is returning to the English state education system at any point then she will go into the ‘correct’ year group.

I would do Y1 twice rather than reception twice.

Which country/education system are you in and are you going to return to the uk?
you need to compare systems and base the decision on this

eg Singapore teach maths content up to two years in advance of the uk, so I’d move her down a year now to ease her boredom when you transition to uk.

some countries it’s fairly normal for kids in secondary school to have a year out to learn English, eg Germany, and in Germany kids can be kept back a year if they underperform, so as teenagers it’s much more common for kids to be different ages.

Are you likely to return to UK? Agree retaking Reception would be least problematic especially in a combined class.

Thanks for the replies.

We're in Switzerland.

No plans to move back to U.K., and this current school follows U.K. phonics and primary IB curriculum.

My other consideration is that I want her to learn more French, and am considering putting her into the local system from September when she will also be the correct school age for her. Also not sure if this would be a temporary or more long term move. But a year to learn French would be great, I think.

If you keep her in the current class, will she be able to move up to high school a year earlier than she should, and then graduate from high school a year early ?

I know that it is miles down the line, but it might be useful to avoid any situations where she will be left behind as her friends move on.

Yes I think I worry about her being left behind if her friends move up and she can't. I think she can stay in thr class that she's in, unless she struggles majorly with something, but she does also need to move into the correct year group between now and 18. Is the consensus the earlier the better? I know of another case like this, and their daughter is repeating year 12, so she is aged 16, as she wanted to change the subjects she originally chose, so this was a good opportunity for her to do this.

Personally, I would move her whilst she is young.
As they get older it becomes harder to leave behind friendship groups and to form new friendships in classes that have been together for years,
particularly from ages 11/12.