Did anyone skip UK reception year?

[Cactus12345]

Hi, I have read that UK reception year is not mandatory. Due to various travel and work reasons we may just skip the reception year and start in Year One. Has anyone done this? Was the child at a significant disadvantage? Did the school make a big deal of it? Our toddler is bright, knows alphabet and phonics, numbers etc already so we have no concerns about them in general. Thank you!

As well as missing reception, you'll have to take a place where you find it which will be in a school that no one else wants.

I agree with others, it might be very difficult to get a place in year 1 and your child may end up miles away from where you want them to go to school just because they have a place available.

Schools in many areas are fighting each other for pupils. Far more schools will have places than would have done even three or four years ago because of falling birth rates

It sounds like your Dc is on track for pre-school year, knowing letter sounds and counting. However I was shocked at just how much my Dc learned in reception year. She went from letter sounds when she went in to being able to read books with multiple sentences on each page, phase 5 phonics, simple maths like adding and subtracting and number bonds up to 10, science topics etc. before she went into year 1. Now in year 1 she has topic lessons everyday and they’re expected to be able to write answers to questions, short stories, fill in worksheets. If you can teach DC the reception year work whilst travelling then it’ll probably be fine but they do a lot in reception and it’s also about getting used to school whilst a lot of play still.

In my experience it’s not necessary for them to be able to read fluently at the end of Reception. However, most children will know all the phonic sounds and be able to read simple books using those sounds. At my DCs’ school many Y2 children are still on the Read Write Inc phonetically decodable books, certainly at the start of the year.

The issues for OP here will be (1) is there an in year place in her preferred school for Y1 - depending on the area, there may be very little movement meaning she has to take a place in whichever school has one, which is likely to be one of the less desirable schools; and (2) her child will have missed out on the gentle transition to school life in Reception, where learning is still quite play based but they are getting used to school life, following rules, being in a bigger group, being more independent and so on. My summer born DC2 found Reception to Y1 a big jump, so for a child to go straight from nursery to Y1 could be quite hard.

Reception to year one is a big jump moving from play based learning to more sit - down structured learning. It's not just about the education but also developing socially -making friends etc. I'm sure your DC would catch up and it would be ok in the longer run but I would avoid if possible.

We didn’t skip the whole of Reception; Dd was a summer birthday and started after Easter in Reception - we did it because we were relocating for work.

Worked out fine for us. I had spent a bit of time myself teaching to read and write, but not much - I think the teachers put her in a group with some others for literacy catch up work until half term, but Dd actually caught up very quickly, so it wasn’t needed after that.

Socially it was fine too, she made friends quickly, everyone was interested in a new girl.

It was very positive for us, I would do it again.