Did your summer born DS/DD wait until the term they started 5 to attend school? Or are you a teacher with an opinion on this?

[catchingzeds]

Hoping to hear others experiences as I'm considering doing the same with my July born DS, he is due to start school Sept '10.
It's too early to make the decision yet but I want to have done my research!
DS is very 'young' for his age and is having a tough time settling into pre-sch, in fact I still go with him!

Was your school supportive?
Did your child start school in the Spring or did you wait until the following Sept?
Did your child find it difficult to make friends?

Thank you in advance for any advice

Personally, I think there is more to schooling than the academic side of it. My DS is definitely happier in a smaller school. Agree with what others have said about friendships will already have been formed and starting later that may have an impact on your DS - especially if he is quiet. My DS is still best friends with the friend he made in reception.

Is it your only child? I think we all worry about how our children will cope and in reality they generally cope fine. As someone else has said reception is more playing than learning, although they will learn the basics and again if you start your DS later that again may have an impact. The reception and year 1/2 teachers at my DS school have been lovely and look after the children well, although I appreciate that no-one can look after your child as good as yourself.

I would wait until nearer decision time and be guided by pre-school on readiness for school.

hattyellow that's a good post and makes the points I was trying to make.

I misread OP - I thought you were talking about defering yr child's entry to reception until January - but actually you are talking about Sept of yr 1.

This would be a real mistake I feel, for the reasons hattyellow says. Social skills, boding of the class etc are vital.

If you are worried abotu a tired DS, keep it very low-key at home after school at first (even for the first year!) - no clubs etc, only have pals round at weekends, just veg and watch TV/play at the park etc.

My DD is SEN, and was in no way shape or form ready for FT school. She was a march baby, was due to start PT in September, FT in January. I took the decision that she just wasn't ready, she ended up going PT in Jan (at 4.10), FT after the easter hols (at 5.1yo). IMO That was STILL too early for her, she wasn't really ready for formal education until she was 6.4...DS1 (NT) is an April baby (mid-April, Easter hols) And was meant to start PT Jan, FT Easter. However, he has always been ahead for his age, and the school he is at were flexible enough to take him PT in Sept (at 4.5yo) and FT in Jan (at 4.9). DS2 is a November baby (with SEN) and my area no longer took staggered intakes by the time he started, so it was FT in September, or no place at all. So he started FT at 4.10. And he still isn't fully ready for FT school now he's in Y1, at 6.2yo. He still either falls asleep on his desk in the last 1/2 hr of the day, and/or has at least a 1.5hr nap every evening.

What I'm trying to say with my very long waffly post, is that every child is different, I don't think it's a case of PFB, you know what your DC can cope with. IMO, you should go with your gut instinct, and the opportunity IS there for you to defer until the start of the term AFTER he turns 5. It may however mean that your first choice of school will not hold the place for your DS and he would have to attend a different school. This is the reason I didn't defer DS2 even though he really needed it, because I HAD to have him in the same school as his brother and sister.

Oh and just to add, DS1 coped brilliantly with starting school so young, in fact his only complaint was that he couldn't stay all day and had to come home at lunchtime!! (And is still doing V V well in Y3). I just knew with DD & DS2 that they weren't properly 'ready' IYSWIM.

Thanks again for replies.

I think giving it more time and thought is good advice. Pre-school have already commented on his lack of readiness for school.

After sleeping on it I'm now leaning towards starting him in Sept, I think I've little choice seeing as he will have to enter Yr 1 if I defer. The system really leaves little choice for parents.
I could start DS in the January but this doesn't give us much more time and DS would still have to break into a group.

I'll try not to give it too much thought until after Easter. School visits start then and could give me a much better idea on how the transition could go.

dd is end of july - she started in sept. she was fine.

she is very young and is nowhere near as advanced as the older ones but keeping her off until jan or April wouldn't have helped that?

nursery and reception are both play based so she really enjoys herself and has made lots of friends.

i feel she is well placed to carry on her school career now - if she hadn't even started yet, all the other friendships would have been formed and she would have been the one new girl in the summer.

i have a summer born DS and i waited until the january to send him. He went from being not at all ready to go to school in the september, to very ready for the next challenge, by January. He went in absolutely fine and didn't find it difficult to integrate with the class or make friends. He is in yr1 now and very happy and top of his class so it didn't do him any harm!

I totally see your point about your DS and pre-school. My twins were very shy at pre-school, they would not join circle time or speak in a group. They didn't like toddlers much either and were intimidated by large groups. I spent many worried mornings talking to the staff at the nursery about how on earth they were going to cope come September.

However, I found that at school they settled in much quicker than I thought, your DS might suprise you in the same way. Whereas nursery and pre-school tend to be more "free flow" - school is much more structured. The same thing happens at the same time every day.

My DD's cope well with this as they like routine, whereas some of the more confident older children who were haring around happily at pre-school struggled - because they wanted to run around and be noisy all day at school as well!

The teachers are also very experienced with little ones. They know they are young, they know they are shy and they know it's all intimdiating even for the older ones.

I'm not at all trying to make you change your mind - just saying that it might not be as bad as you think - I spent a good year worrying about this having been in the same boat!

I can echo hattyellow's experience.

My dd1 is a cautious and quite a solitary child and young for her year. But she has loved school.

Our local schools only have a Sept intake.

In someways, the greater formality of school (although there is still a lot of play during reception) suited her.

However, I would not recommend starting any additional after school activities...children are very tired during the first term of reception.