Good article here about the 'false choice' about deferring school entry

[Maiakins]

Article on 'Growing up fast' here

I related a lot to the argument she makes about the choice to defer entry for a term or so for summer-born children being a false choice. The school and council wouldn't even tell us how many other children were deferring and just kept reiterating that it was up to us, but she would probably find it difficult to make friends if we didn't start her with all the others in September. We came under immense pressure to start her in September. Also (as the article says) if all the other children leave pre-school, there is little point staying on and being so much older than the others.

Some of the parents wanted to do part-time days to start their (summer-born) children off with a gradual introduction to school, but the authorities said it wasn't fair for local taxpayers who had paid for whole days! (!!!)

I replied to this but not sure where it went.

I think those who have the possibility of time in reception are the lucky ones. In our LEA those born between 1st May and 31st August miss reception altogether and go straight into year 1. Full time proper learning from the start.

Ds started in reception at an independent school at 4yrs 2 mths and has thrived. I think it depends on the child. I went with his nursery teacher's recommendation as I really didn't like the idea of keeping him at nursery for another year and then have him getting to know a new school when he was in year 1. I know I am lucky to have the choice.

Yes, I agree that your LEA's option isn't good and some time in reception is very important.

I think the point the article was making (or at least the bit I thought important) was about it being a false choice. It is all very well saying you can defer, but in reality you're pressurised by the structural systems within the education system into not deferring.

Perhaps one of the reasons your child has thrived is that your school is well set up to cater for summer-born children? For example, are there relatively small class sizes and a more caring, gentle environment?

In lots of reception classes there are 2 classes of 30 joined together (60 children) with 2 teachers, 2 teaching assistants. That is quite an overwhelming situation for younger children. In addition, there can be all sorts of toilet issues (toilets not being near the classroom and being shared with older children), a lack of awareness of how much slower younger children may develop etc. This has certainly been our experience.

I think if local authorities are going to give us this false choice, they need to be sure their reception classes are well geared towards the needs of younger children ... and sadly, this is not always the case yet.

DD wil be 4 yrs and 4 weeks when she starts reception,have never considered deferring

reception classes are large, 27 -30 childnre,but toilets are right next to the classroom, each class has a nursery nurse and there is a v v gentle intro to learnng and school as a whole. the reception and pre school are actually seperate buildings and playground on the same campus as infants and juniors. DS wnet there and he was one of the oldest in the year. teachers are very helpful and you can take your child in to class for the first few weeks if they need it. so it does depend how the school is geared up for it,aswell as the child.

DD is very confidenet,and outgoing,having seen her progress at pre school and how much she has matured, and how easily she settled and made friends, i am confident she will be fine aat school

Our LEA is changing to take rising 5s but too late for us. Hence we ended up choosing private for a number of reasons. Our local state schools seem to have between 8 and 15 in reception class, which makes sense as they are excluding 4 months worth of children. Ds's class has 15 and that will stay throughout primary. If he was at state school then the class size would vary between 20 and 35.

We had the option to defer until the term in which ds was 5 but I thought it was pointless. I was concerned about ds starting after friendship groups had been formed.