repeating reception, is it a good or bad idea ??

[mummyloveslucy]

Hi, my daughter is nearly 5 years old and is in reception at a small private school. She has some special needs and is basically delayed in all areas of development by about 14 months. Her main problems are with her speech and understanding of language. She's also not fully toilet trained.
She loves her school and has lots of friends. There are only 9 in her class at the moment. She also has friends in the year below.
The teacher has mentioned that it would be posible for her to repeat reception if needs be. I'm not sure how I feel about this really. I know that she'd be working at her own level, and be with friends of her own mental age. (the girls in her class tend to baby her a bit)I also feel that she shouldn't move on to more advanced things until she's learnt the basics.
Although there are only very small clases, there are no classrom assistants, and there wouldn't be any extra support availabe.
She is one of the tallest in her class at the moment, so she would stand out in the younger class. I also wouldn't know what to say to her to explain why she's repeating reception?
She loves her teacher, so she'd be very happy to stay with her.
I'm not sure what would be for the best to be honest.
Also, I'm wondering we are doing the best thing for her by keeping her in the private school, or would she be better off/ have more help in a state school?
Please let me know what you think.

if you moved her to state at any point, they are pretty likely to put her with her chronological age group - so force her back to the right year anyway. which would be a pretty big reason against. check with your LEA what their policy is and if special needs would make any difference.

As a teacher I often think we are too keen to push our children on when repeating a year at an early stage can make a HUGE difference in the long run. In a state school classes will be bigger and there's no guarantee that she'd get additional support there either. Have you spoken to her teacher/school about your concerns - not only about repeating the year but also that you think she would benefit from some extra support in class, sometimes schools are just waiting for parents to give them a nudge as they are so frightened of offending anyone.
At the end of the day though you know your DD best and know how she'd cope with repeating or moving on. the school can only advise you.
Let us know what happens and hope your daughter has a happy year, whatever you eventually decide

I think it would be good for her. At the moment, all the children in her class seem so much more advanced. I think she'd probubly either struggle to keep up, or give up. I don't think it'll help her confidence either if she can't understand the lessons.

Doesn't she have SENCO support? Ds is at pre-prep and there is lots of extra support available, some that costs extra and some that doesn't. Have you discussed her needs with the SENCO and what their views are on her repeating a year?

I agree that we send our kids to school too young a lot of the time.

I am lucky to be in Scotland where my dd1 and ds were able to start school in P1 at the age of 5 and a half. Dd2 went at 4y9m which seemed really young to me!

When we (briefly) looked into moving south earlier this year, I was told in no uncertain terms that they would have to join their chronological year group, thus effectively jumping a whole year of school - so you would have to consider this.

I would repeat. It sounds like she would benefit and if the class is small and the teacher sensitive, then problems should be minimal I would think.

my youngest repeated yr1 and has continued with that group and will not go back to his 'proper' year group. It was the right thing for him, he is at the right level for him now and doing well. He's in state school and we were told they "don't do that", but we wrote a big long letter, detailing exactly why he needed it, and they agreed.

Do what's right for her.

Thanks everyone. I don't think the school have a SENCO, at least, I've never met one. I know that the school don't take children with statements of SEN's.
It has also been advised that she sees and educational psychologyst in school, but because it's not a state school, they won't see her, unless we go private.
I think she'll still be entitled to her speech therapy.

A lot of private schools won't take statemented children but will take children with more mild issues like speech delay, dyslexia etc. I'm no expert but I thought every school had to have a SENCO.

Who advised you to see an EP? We had similar issue. LEA EP not interested because not state school. I didn't pursue it as GP suggested alternative route of community paediatrician, child psychologist (and I think you can see an EP that way too). The issues suggested by ds's teacher turned out to be non-existent. His school has two SENCOs for 200 pupils.

She had a six day acessment at the child development centre at the hospital. It was recomended by a paed. We had a meeting at the end of it, with everyone envolved with her acessment, which I found to be very cold and negative to be honest. They seemed to highlight everything that she couldn't do, and didn't mention anything about what she's good at. They said where they'd usually go from there but said that she wasn't entitled to an EP because of her school.

Gosh that seems odd. I would have thought you would have access to a CP or EP through the CDC. I can understand the difficulty if the school had suggested seeing a EP. Have you asked what the alternative is? Surely they can't just leave you hanging?

I've just looked at a small private school near us (average 6 in the class) and they have a SENCO. Have you discussed the CDC assessment with your dd's teacher?

mll I am sorry you felt bad about the assessment but really that's what such a thing is about - the issues and problems that there may be. If you were looking to get a statement then what DD can do is not really of as much interest as what she cannot (IYSWIM).

I too would be surprised if the school had no SENCO. They obviously do take children with SEN (your DD) even if not statemented. There must be someone who co-ordinates this.

I agree with others that you need to consider how repeating a year would benefit your child; but also if you are thinking of moving back to state (you have spoken of this before I think) what it would mean there.

Repeating a year in state system is not unheard of but less common maybe.

She has been at this school/nursery, since she was two. We didn't know then that she'd have difficulties.
Her school teacher came to the meeting with us. She has said about drawing up an action plan for her, with small targets, and how she can achieve these. I'm going to be looking at it when she goes back to school next week.

well that sounds really positive mll.

Why not see how she progresses this term? She may make progress to stay with her peer group.

It sounds as if you are getting support. Was the option of redoing the year discussed at the CDC meeting?

You need a school that can support SEN.

I am not saying that her school can't for sure, but you do need to find out. For a start, IIWY, I would challenge the statement of not being able to access the EP because of the school she is in - these are largely NHS services and therefore independent of whether the child is part of the LEA 'system' - maybe there is another route? A friend who had been forced into paying £60 a week extra for a private OT to see her DS at school has found, after lots of battles, that actually the NHS funded OT can and will go into the school and see him outside school as well.

As for repeating reception - well yes, it would seem to be a sensible option, but only if you are confident that she will be then in the right place and not just struggling again with a different group of children. There is a little boy in DS's (private, FWIW) school repeating reception now and his mother is 100% confident that it is the right decision for him. One of the advantages of the private system is being able to put DC in the right year group for them, rather than being tied to their chronological year group.

I think that keeping her back a year, would mean, she wouldn't need extra help in the class room. ( I hope) Most of the girls in her class are advanced for their ages, which widens the gap further.
I'd be happy to keep her back, if needs be. If she makes huge progress in the next 8 months or so, then she won't need too.

As it is such a small school with small classes would she be able to work with both groups of children for different things? This would enable her to get a firm grasp of the basics without the social side of repeating a year as she'd still have both groups of friends. Not sure if it is practical but I think if I were you I'd be speaking to the school a bit more about how they can better accommodate your daughter's needs.
My daughter is the same age as yours in a state primary with 30 in her class, and to be honest I'm very envious of your class size. My dd does not have any additional needs and is quite quiet and I feel is a bit anonymous at school. From my experience I don't think you'd get more help in a state primary. Parents seem to have to fight tooth and nail to get statements to help children with quite profound needs, and I'd be scared in your case that she'd end up with less help, less attention and left to muddle along. I hope this wouldn't be the case, but I would have that concern....

And there are, should you so choose, private schools that will accept and deal with SEN appropriately - DS's school doesn't strictly follow the system as far as I can gather, but they have a SENCO equivalent and SEN trained staff (teachers and TAs) - they will deal with as much as they can themselves but the system does break down somewhat when more help is needed as they appear to assume that parents can pay for private specialist help which is clearly not the case for those who can only just afford the fees.

If her language and understanding are that far bhind then she should be statemented so that she gets the support that she needs. The school I work in has a unit for KS1 children with language difficulties. All the children have statements and there are only 9 children with lots of TA and teacher support. They also spend some lessons in mainstram lessons but with a TA to help them.

mummyloveslucy, I've been following your threads about your dds school for ages and I know that you have been agonising about keeping her where she is or going to state. Have you investigated what help she would get in the state system. Several children in my dcs state school have a TA with them all the time or have substantial additional help. Your dd might benefit from having extra 1-2-1 time rather than being in a group of 9.

You have said in the past that the school is quite academic. I would be concerned that the other parents would be resentful that the extra support that your dd needs means teaching time is being directly removed from the other dcs in the class as there is no TA. What happens if the other parents complain that their dcs aren't getting their moneys worth? Is the school going to be as surportive of Lucy's needs if giving that support becomes bad for business?

You need to be sure that keeping her in reception is the best thing for Lucy rather than the schools way of getting out of providing additional support. They are saying that by keeping her back then she shouldn't need additional support. Do you think this is true? There is a difference between a Y1 child with additional needs and an average reception child. What are they going to do if she stays in reception and it becomes apparent that she does need more support?

atm she is in a mixed ability group of 9 at all times. Even if she didn't get 1-2-1 help in state system she would at least be in a small group with similar ability dcs with either the teacher or the TA. In my dcs school in is normal for children who are out of range to join a group with children in other years for certain things. One girl who has some brain damage from epilepsy spends a lot of time with her TA in small groups with younger children but she still joins in with her proper class too.

If she does repeat reception do you think that she could move back up to her chronological age class later? If so it would be good if she could spend some time in that class to try to maintain her friendships. If not it may be difficult to move to state later so you should find out what her chances of being offered a senior school place are. Some private schools are reluctant to have any children with additional needs at senior as it impacts on the exam results.

I think you should speak to someone about what level she is at and what help she would get at state and if she is entitled to anything additional in private. Maybe you could ask the pead who did her assessment or try the LEA. Her school, no matter how lovely they are, are a business. It is not in their interests to tell you that she needs help which they are not providing.

I find it really hard to believe that the school doesn't accept children with statements...this would contravene equalitites laws.
Your DD's teacher should be able to differentiate for each child's needs, especially in a class of 9! I do this in a class of 30!
I really don't think the school sounds very good to be honest!

The support the school are offering seems inappropriate.
If your DD has difficulties with speech and understanding of language then she needs additional support and the school needs to follow the recommendations of experts who have fully assessed her.
Repeating YR may help with difficulties that come from immaturity, but may not be useful in helping her access her education any more effectively with regard to the speech and language issues.

It is always difficult and emotional for a parent to see their child going through these assessments, as by their nature they have to be objective and state facts we may not want to hear or admit to.

But it is a step down the road to providing appropriate support, and I'm not convinced the current school setting is doing nearly enough to help.

It's 9 months until the start of the next school year which for a child that age is a long long time in development terms.I don't see how you can make any decisions yet.

Even a private school should have a designated SENCO and usually develops an IEP(Individual Education Plan) which may be what the teacher indicated. However since the best part of 2 months must have already elapsed since the meeting and yet you have yet to have any meeting with any SENCO or the teacher I would feel dubious about the school's longer term sincerity in helping your dd. If ntohing is forthcoming at teh beginnign fo thsi term I think you should ask to meet the head and have a serious discussion abotu whether the school is right for her. I know you and she love the atmosphere and idea of the school, and have a teacher more in tune with her for now, but that doesn't mean it is the best available option for her development. She may grasp moving school easier than moving "down" a group.

Even in a small class some one-to-one should be available to help her understanding of the teaching where she otherwise has difficulties, this is more likely in the state system and ironically with larger classes of varied ability. If she repeats Reception then moves school later you may face a battle for her not to skip to her chronological year group and there is always the chance that she may make up ground in the meantime and become frustrated at being held back academically. 14 months delay seems huge now, physically and mentally, but by the time she is 7 or 8 may well become less significant.