Could a child with SEN's do reception twice?

[mummyloveslucy]

Hi, my daughter has a severe speech disorder. She is also one and a half years behind developmentaly.
She has gone in to reception and she loves her new teacher. She is very good with her and gets the best out of her. I'd like her to do reception twice really, as then she'd be with children of her own age accademically. I also feel she'd benefit from more play based learning, as it starts to get a lot more formal in yr 1.
I'm not sure if they'd alow this or not. I just wondered if it could be an option?

Almost certainly not, I think. There's a huge amount of emphasis placed on keeping children with their age peer group and then giving them the support they need to (in the jargon) access the curriculum. Does your daughter have a statement of SEN? What support is she getting at the school through a TA in the classroom or one-to-one sessions out of the classroom? Have you spoken to the teacher or the SEN coordinator about your concerns?

I can understand why you are concerned but think you'll find that the school's approach will be about helping your daughter to keep up with her peers.

I wasn't sure, but I had a feeling they wouldn't want that.
She has just finnished a series of asessments at the child development centre. They are going to have a meeting in november with everyone to discuss what's been found and what help she'll need.
At the moment she's in a class of 12 with one teacher and sometimes an assistant.
The school say she's making steddy progress and she's gaining confidence and has lots of friends, which is good.

Another drawback of repeating a year might be that she would lose contact with her friends and have to start again making new friends.

Have you posted on the SEN board? There will be people there who've faced similar issues, I'm sure.

Good luck with the assessments.

Our nephew is 18 months behind with literacy particularly, poss asd and that was only borderline for intervention as it was within the normal tolerance, so I doubt you would be able to argue to repeat a year on that basis. In private schools it may be possible short term but even so you run the risk of her having to skip a year later on which would be far harder on her to catch up, socially and academically.

A child in my dd's year did.

She is now in year 3 and he remains in a class of year 2s (once he did Reception with them, he stayed in that group).

I am afraid that i echo what everyone else has said, my DS is now in yr2 has 25 hrs 1-1 a week, speech delay, GDD 2 yrs behind and we tried to get him held back without any joy. We are now looking at special schools for learning disabilities as he will not cope in yr3 or above with the work. She might actually catch up quite a bit by the end of reception anyway as some children do.

I would wait and see what happens at the meeting in November, best of luck as i know how upsetting it can be.

We have a mixed age R/1 class for the children who are still working at Reception levels although technically in Year 1,this seems to work well. We then have a mixed age 1/2 class ( so some children do go into this class straight after Reception year) You might find that a smaller school with mixed age classes would have the flexibility you need-although this wouldn't solve the dilemma you have with your current class

There is a child in our school who was suggested to repeat FS2 actually.

In the end tho he isn't - he has a learning delay ut no dx I don't think - they have put him in yr 1 and he does some hours each day in an FS2 class.

I think schools are less than keen as it means the child gets out of sync with his year. You can't really go from FS2 to yr2. Can yr DD do a mix maybe MLL?

I know a child who stayed in reception for two years for that reason. Obviously depends where you are.

A child in dd2's class has stayed in reception another year,so it must be possible.I'd ask the headteacher.
good luck

I asked about this for dd - I thought it might be better for her to repeat yr 1, as she's a fair way behind. The response was an emphatic no, they like to keep them with their peer group unless they have pretty severe SN.

Ought to add that this is a small state primary school in England.

I spoke to my sister about this today,she is a SEN TA in a Primary school and they are quite happy for children to stop in a class for an extra year.She helps a little boy with special needs who has stayed in Year 4 for another year.This is also a small rural school,so perhaps it is easier to arrange in smaller schools.
HTH

You can request to accelerate a child's learning, on the advice of a child psych, so I don't see why you shouldn't ask to keep a child in the same class for two years.
Wait until at least after Easter, though, because she might 'come one' incredibly, and be ready to move up!
Try asking the school, though, as it's probably more on a school by school basis!