Just heard our school is scrapping Jan start. DD not 4 till late July!!

[DisasterZone]

Having agonised over which school, and been reasonably happy with our allocation of a place at our no.2 choice, we now hear from the school that they aren't offering the Jan 10 start that the LEA told us was going to be our DDs offer.

She only is 4 on July 29th so will be 4yrs, 6wks old when she starts. She is big and pretty confident and enjoys nursery but I'm having second thoughts about what to do. I don't even know if we can gamble on getting an offer for January elsewhere.

Has anyone held their child back a year, and if so, why?? What is the situation with this, as all I know is that they have to start school by the time they are 5. Does this mean the next term after their 5th birthday? As she's 5 in the holidays??

Help!! Thanks!

I agree with you Sunnydelight, that children should start school later than they do in this country but given that you can't take a child out of the year group - except under extreme circumstances, then you are better to have them schooled from Reception rather than Year 1 like their peers.
I seem to remember abolishing the split intake/January start situation was a Rose report recommendation.

I actually don't think the age at which children start school matters as much as the fact that all children in a given society need to be given similar opportunities at the same age. Do whatever is standard in the country you are living in, unless your child has very special educational requirements.

All children are different and will be 'ready' for school at different times anyway. My dd is a late june birthday but was very ready for school in September when she started. I have a friend who has a ds who is going to start school this September who is only 4 months younger than my dd (early nov) but is still probably not ready to go emotionally.

Our school now tries to take all children in September as they found that all children generally settled better wheh all starting together than when some start in January or even Easter.

Give it a go. You may find that it goes better than you think

I think so much of it depends on the individual child.
Dd1 was only 4 and 2 weeks at the start of reception. All in all I have been very pleased with her progress, even thought there have been distractions for her. She is naturally a confident child after a short settling in period. For her it has been the right thing.
However, I am in an interesting situation as Dd2 is a 1st Sept baby and TBH I think I will be more concerned about her being bored in the run up to starting school as she is just as big a minx as her big sister! Go with your gut feeling if you can as you know your child best. Good luck.

In Scotland there is only one intake. My son was a March birthday so was five and a half. We have no option but on the other end of the scale the February birthdays often wait till the following year.

In most areas if you hold your child back until they are 5, they will go straight into Year 1 and miss reception completely. I think this would be even harder for younger children to cope with.

I considered holding my ds(summer born) back and also looked around alternative schools that had Jan intake. In the end he started at 4, and after a period of settling in, he was fine.

My dd1 is a May baby and started reception in september. She coped really well although she is quite shy. She has now been classed as one of the more able children who are going into a year 1/2 class. I am sure this would not have happened if her start was delayed.

I agree though that you could perhaps see if she can go part-time to start with if you feel that would be of benefit. I know my dd1's school allows this.

My son has a late July birthday and he started in september in 'joint provision' - went into the attached pre-school for a couple of hours and then after break joined the reception class and came home after lunch. He was then full-time in reception from January.
TBH almost all of the parents and children of the summner-borns wanted them to just joing the reception children after a couple of weeks. I'm sure I would have been worried if this was the case right from the start but it became obvious pretty quickly that it would have been best for my child.

ds is starting in january, he'll be 4.10 then and i am perfectly happy about it, lots of them are going in on that intake so it isn't as though he is being shoved into an existing class.

i would probably reluctantly send him for a september intake but he is not at all ready for it yet.

We have just made a u-turn on our decision to defer DS until January (he'll be 4 on August 25th)

Like the OP , our school has just scrapped the Jan intake but were happy for us to defer DS until then if we wanted to. It's actually DS1's experience that has made us change our minds - he did Reception at another school then we moved him in Year 1 to his current school and he has had real issues with friendships. The fact that he is a complex little boy (epilepsy, prob dyspraxia, speech probs) hasn't helped matters, but I just couldn't put DS2 through being the only new starter.

I also realise that what i was saying didn't make much sense! "Oh he's just not ready, we'll keep him at nursery and playschool a term until he comes on" to which i imagine lots of people wanted to say to me" And how will mixing with children so much younger than him help there then"

Just wish he had a part time start - then again would be a logistical nightmare for us and work.

I have 9 summer birthdays in my current class 3 won't be 5 when they complete their first full year in school next week. None of these children have had any real problems this year (none that required more than a quick cuddle and a little bit of extra adult attention) but the eldest child in my class (will be 6 on the 2nd of Sept ) is probably at the point where they are ready to begin school.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that it's more to do with individual children's personality/nature than when their birthday falls

My DD - 27th August - 4 yrs 2 wks - coped fine
Her cousin (boy) - 2nd Sept - started full time Jan so 5 yrs 4m - no way he could have coped a year earlier

so...it depends on the child