Can children be kept back a year in Primary school??

[Eve]

My son is a late July birthday, and whilst enjoying school, has significant issues with his reading.

He gets lots of help from the school and has made great improvements in his reading... improved by 1 yr 8 mths since September. He also does Kumon literacy which is helping.

However, he has always been above average with maths, science etc.. but this has now dropped to slightly below average, probably caused by reading issues.

I really feel that when he gets to year 6, he would benefit from staying a year in primary school...is this possible

I think it probably depends on the area and/or the school. Sorry not to be more helpful but I know this kind of thing did happen when I was at school in the 70s/80s. That was also the case in secondary school where it was having to repeat a year before the school thought you were ready to take the O'levels.

A friend of mine questioned this with her son, but he would still have had to start secondary with everyone else anyway.

Sounds like you have a good support structure with your school, that makes a nice change to read on here. Perhaps they could keep him a year behind but he would then need to catch up at secondary school anyways. Difficult one isn't it ?

It is possible (but highly unusual). We have a child leaving this year who should have left last year. The child has a statement of SEN and even then it had to go to appeal. The drawback is that they have to go straight into Y8 in September rather than Y7.

My friend's daughter was kept back in Reception.
She was summer born, and did seem to have some problems, htink frind said it was some knid of development delay.
She was happy to be kept back, and it really helped her.
She is still in that year group and is doing better.
At our school they all repeat a year as it is a small school.

much easier to do within a school

I've only ever known of a child being kept back a year in two cases. One was a child with a statement, the other was a child who arrived at school in year 4, but had never been at school before (had come from Norway I think).

In each case, they repeated an extra year at primary, but had to then miss out a year when they went up to secondary. This meant that they were then separated from all the friends they had made at primary school.

To be honest, I would think it would be almost impossible for your ds to stay at primary for an extra year - it really is very rare. Even if he did stay for an extra year, he would almost certainly have to return to his chronological yeargroup when he went to secondary school. What year is he in now?

It sounds like the school are supporting him well. Have you talked to them about your concerns, and about the the support that will be available for him at secondary level?

Sorry - forgot to say as well. I think you would need to think really carefully about how he would feel seeing all his friends leaving without him, if you could get the schools to agree to him staying an extra year at Primary.

Littlerach - do you mean that it's mixed age classes? This isn't the same as repeating a year. It just means that children from two (or more) different year groups are taught by the same teacher. They still go through each year only once.

I've known children being a year behind their age group in Primary (always with a statement of SEN), but they've always had to transfer to Secondary at the correct age, so either missed Y6, or were moved up to complete Y6 at the correct time. Most schools should now cater properly for a wide range of abilities within a year group, and give small group support to those that need it, meaning it hopefully isn't necessary. Staying with their peer group is now almost universally encouraged.

Some years ago a few LEAs did let children stay below their year group during Secondary education, but it caused problems as it meant that many of them, who were legally allowed to leave education at 16, did so with no formal qualifications at all, because they hadn't reached the GCSE year, IYSWIM, so they tightened it up. I know this as my father tried to get an extra year in Primary for my younger sister (30th August birthday, quite immature academically and socially, my mum died a few months before her supposed transfer). Dad strongly felt she would benefit from another year in a smaller, more family-like environment, while adjusting to everything and lobbied very hard, but the LEA wouldn't do it as the policy had just been changed.

We've decided to retain our daughter at age (she's just turned 5 and should be starting P1 in Scotland in August) for a year for this precise reason.

From what I've read here, however, the English system works differently.

There was one case at my school where this happened, and as described above he then had to be reinstated to his actual year group when old enough for senior school. This was very disruptive and I can't say that any of the teachers at our school thought it was a good idea (he was moved down in his infant school)

Hope this helps

doesn't look like I can have this to happen in England.

which is a shame, as I think it would do him so much good and in the end give better results in the long run in terms of GSCes etc.

The school are helping him a lot, but the school has a very waek head at the moment, who is affecting morale overall. I am happy with suport he is getting but needs the teachers to be more positive and drive a bit harder.

I don't know wether moving him to a different school now in yr 5 would help.

Just see if you can get in to discuss this with the schools SENCo and class teacher and get their opinion.

Also you need to request that your child has a reader for his Maths and Science tests if this has caused a lower than expected score for his actual ability.

We have a child who is staying with us for an extra year in Primary. He will transfer to secondary school next year and will remain in the lower year group that he is with at that time. The big problem with this is that when he reaches 16 he will be able to leave school without taking any exams, however, this will not be a problem in the future because they won't be able to leave until 18 anyway! Talk it over with the school and see what they say.

Hi Eve, I think you would find that by year 6 your DS would probably hate to have to stay at his primary school whilst all of his friends go off to secondary school, most are ready to leave by the time they get to the end of year 6.
That aside, I have a DS who moved back at the end of reception and did reception again, since then he has remained in that year through out the school. I would say he is in the correct year now, however his school will no longer move children back, as it can cause problems when you come to move up to secondary.
We are due to apply to secondary in October and I am hoping that it will not be a problem, but I have not been able to get anyone form the local authority to say that it will all be ok. The head of the school we apply to will have a say on it, so I am hoping that it will be fine.
There is more flexibility about this in some private schools, or even better in Scotland where you can have a say on your child being ready to start school at 5 or holding them back if you want to.

Probably not an option, but is more common in private sector, especially where schools do not participate in league tables (which in part drives the strict age adherence ime). Though this would seem a bit late in primary for a repeat year - again ime children either repeat reception or Year 2.

our elder daughter is being 'retained at age' and not starting primary school (P1) until she is 6.

after reading this thread, i became paranoid that she'd then be forced to enter secondary school with her age group and bumped up a year.

but, i double checked with our ed psych and fortunately in scotland this is not the case!

dd1 has dyspraxia and her resultant motor skills delays are causing some problems with her independent self-care and learning, hence, the reason why she is being retained now.