Surrey policy for spring born children- any advice?

[Dophus]

DS1 starts school in a couple fo week's time. He turns 5 in January however, according to the school, it is Surrey policy that he will not be offered a full time place until Jan 2010.

The half day childcare arrangements that I have to put into place for the coming term are ridulously complicated and without a doubt far more stressfull/tiring for my son than a full day at school would be. He has been in fulltime daycare since he was 6 months old.

I have heard that some schools in the area allow Spring-born children to start full time from half term - however the school secretary told me that his school don't allow that.

Can any one sdvise on what is the Surrey policy? Can I/ Should I appeal? How would I go about this?

Thanks!

I know! Thankfully I have located a local childminder who has vacancies and is willing to have her for a few sessions in Sept.

Hope you get some satisfaction - or at least answers - from the Head.

May not be adding anything new but at DD1's Surrey infant school all children born after 11th April were part time in the first term. No debates, no exceptions etc etc. DD1 is August born so practically the youngest in the year.

I did debate it (at length) for similar work-related reasons with the headteacher who stated that it was the policy at the school & that was it.

TBH, she was knackered by 1pm that first term, never mind 3pm, so maybe (through gritted teeth) they had a point. 'Twas an extraordinary pain to manage from a work perspective though.

Update - sent email to head. She said it was a Surrey decision and there was nothing she could do

There are several studies around that show that kids that start school part way through a year do not do as well academically all the way through to A levels - not surprising really as they miss out on a chunk that the others are getting.

Sorry, in a hurry so can't find actual references now but sure others will know them better than me - one was done looking at Oxfordshire schoolkids, following through from infants to Alevels and found a significant difference in points .

but might be worth turning around on the head mistress and asking her what she is going to do about the fact that your son is missing two thirds of his education compared with others that get to start earlier in the year (it's not like they get to take ALevels a couple of terms later!) and what the school does to ensure that the younger ones catch up.

Sorry if this sounds a bit of a rant - I guess it is as I feel pretty strongly that if a country has a single academic year policy then it needs to ensure that all students get a good start and not just those that are born in the autumn term in those areas that have a staggered intake.

It's one thing to say if the parent doesn't think that the child is ready they don't have to go in full time, it is completely a different matter to refuse a child education especially when the parent thinks they are ready and would benefit (and that there are plenty of schools where the younger kids are doing just fine so they can't argue that as a getout clause).

hmmm. maybe I should contact MNHQ and see if it could be one of their surveys and points of interest to raise in the press. sorry, will stop hijacking thread now - hope that all goes well and you manage to sort everything out!

zipzap - is it not the case that later born children in a year do less well acaedmically anyway?
Is the effect of a partial year of education really stronger than the age effect (genuine question )

ddw - must admit is a while since I read the study so the finer points of it escape me

However, I do seem to remember that it was a fairly robust study and did find that starting point in the year did have an effect on overall results. I think they did compare against a control group that had all started at the same time regardless of age.

It may have been that age was a factor in reducing exam results. However, starting in the summer term for the younger age group was definitely a factor and those that had started in the summer did significantly worse on average (by about 3 or 4 ucca points as it was in those days) than those that had started in the autumn. Those that started in the spring term fell in the middle.

And I guess to some extent, the two factors may well be entangled, given the way the system works at the moment - late summer birthday kids are always going to be nearly a year younger than the oldest kids in the class. May well be that people have been attributing lower results to age when in fact that was as a result of starting school later.

I just figure that it is unfair to expect those kids that are the youngest to have the least education overall. At least if they all start together they are not missing out on two thirds of their first year and then having to play catch up from then on. For some kids it won't matter - but for a lot it will.

If you asked a school to move a reception kid from reception into year 1 after the first term (ie jumping the second and third terms of reception) I am guessing that in the vast majority of cases they would think you are mad and say no way. And yet this is very similar to what they are expecting the younger kids to do.

I don't know how much funding can come into it - if they have the classroom space around for the kids to do a half day and a full day later on in the year they can't use it for something else can they - and they can't need that many more teachers as in many cases it is the class sizes that will increase during they year, they are not going to have new teachers just for a term or two.

I guess it all just seems so unfair!

zip zap - I agree entirely and familiar with the research. I do't think it should be compulsory - but it many circumstances, for many children it is less disruptive. I agree that it is putting them a back footing in their very first year.

In the heads last response she did imply (backing down from her earlier email) that it was the schools policy and she had no plans to change it this year ' it takes too long'.

I responded requesting to meet in person before half term to discuss further. I will dig out the research before then.