Too much too young?

[lilithxx]

Hi,
My little boy is starting school in September a week after his 4th birthday. I am also expecting my second child at around this time.
The school have asked parents to ensure that the children can wipe their bottoms, put their coats on and get themselves changed after swimming and PE before they start school.
It is against my instinct to push him towards independence at the moment. He needs to feel happy and secure when his baby brother arrives, not that he is being pushed out of the nest.
I really feel that 4 is too young for school, but his school do not have a January or Easter intake, so it would be a case of waiting till he's 5.
What do you think?

They would miss reception in my authority unless they have a statement of SEN.

I am pretty sure they would miss reception and go straight into Y1 in my LEA also.

Have googled and this would seem to be the case in many LEAs in England from what I can gather. They schools also have no obligation to hold a place open for the children wehn going in Y1.

Definitely worth checking with the LEA and the school concerned to find out.

www.dfes.gov.uk/sacode/ if you check the admission code

"Deferred entry to primary schools
2.64 Where admission authorities for primary schools offer places in reception classes to parents before their children are of compulsory school age, they should offer the parents the option of deferring their child?s entry until later in the same school year. The effect is that the place is held for that child and is not available to be offered to another child. The parent would not however be able to defer entry beyond the beginning of the term after the child?s fifth birthday, nor beyond the academic year for which the original application was accepted. If they want to defer their child?s admission to a later academic year, they will have to reapply during the appropriate admissions round. This must be made clear in the admission arrangements for the school."

"Deferred entry to school
On rare occasions parents/carers may wish to defer the entry of their child into a school
reception class until they reach compulsory school age. This is the start of the term after their fifth birthday.
If a child is successful in being allocated a place, the school must save that place if the
parent/carer wishes to defer entry. However, the school only has to save the place for the
rest of the academic year.

This means:-
The parents/carers of a pupil whose fifth birthday falls between 1 September 2003 and 31 December 2003 could defer admission until January 2009.
The parents/carers of a pupil whose fifth birthday falls between 1 January 2004 and 31 March 2004 could defer admission until Easter 2009.

The parents/carers of a pupil whose fifth birthday falls between 1 April 2004 and 31 August 2004 can also defer admission until Easter 2009 but the child may lose its place if admission is deferred until September 2009, because that is a new academic year. Hence, if they wait until September the child will completely miss the reception year in school, and will start in year 1."