Is anyone else thinking of skipping reception, or already done it? Could use advice please.

[Flightattendant]

It's just hit me that ds2 is meant to start school next autumn! Not this year, but 2011.

Looking at him I just do not see this happening

I struggled sending ds1 and ended up abstracting him halfway through the year; he went back in yr12 when he was a bit more capable physically.

So many people say to me 'Oh they are just so little, they are too small to go to school' and I wholeheartedly agree. I do really like the reception teacher at ds1's school (he is yr2 atm) but really feel wrong about him going to school at just 4.

There's no option to defer till January here.

I'm concerned about ) how he will fit in if he joins 'late', in yr1, (ds1 already had 'tried' school so not quite the same) and b) whether he will be given a place at all if they know we are deferring.

I'd appreciate any tips on when and how to go about applying in the light of this.

Thanks so much.

Flightattendant - well check it out, google or whatever. I am 99% certain it is the case in our County, because some HTs were not happy about it.

Yup, defo the case here Page 142 of this brochure sets it out quite clearly.

I would expect this is a national policy, not a local one. Have a look on your local LEA website and see what info they've got there under schools admissions.

Flight - info re deferring entry here

At our school children (can) start part time the term after they are 4. They go two terms just mornings and then they go full time (depends when their birthday is how many terms of full time they do).

I know there are two children who are waiting until the Easter term to start reception and they will start full time then (they both have summer birthdays).

I am pretty sure I have seen a policy in our LEA like the one roisin refers to.

hi Flight, I remember your other threads about all of this
I also know that you were unsure about HE vs school anyway
and also that you've had problems with how the school your ds1 goes to operates and does lessons (something scifi in the playground, I forget exactly what it was!!)
Are you sure you aren't always going to be questioning things?
I guess some will say that's how it should be
but after all the hassle with ds1 don't you think you should at least try to do things as the school suggests and then change things if it all goes wrong?

my youngest starts reception in 2011 , I'll be lookign for a job by then anyway, needs must and all that
don't you eagerly anticipate freedom, or is that just me, lol

It's such a shame that most schools don't do staggered intakes anymore. My brother was also August born, and he didn't start reception until the following April.

Hi Noah, good to see it is operating in practise.

Roisin and bramshott - that's super, just what I needed to hear. Thankyou so much for looking it up - I would have got lost in google!

So if he is 5 in June, he would have to start basically after the Easter hols? That sounds fine really. That way he gets a term of the lovely reception class and then goes back in autumn. Perfect!

I do wonder though about the sagacity of mentioning this to the HT in advance. I think I will not. I'm afraid she might choose only those children whose parents do NOT wish them to defer. Would this be something that might affect admissions in some way...it is far oversubscribed. Or would the school just get the same funding, etc etc.

Thanks again btw.

The thing that would worry me about starting a child after Easter is that they would have missed out on ALL of the lessons before then - all the class phonics etc. It also means that he'll only have one proper term of getting used to school before he starts Y1 where the real work starts. I know that you'd be able to do things like the letter recognition of phonics with him so that he won't be missing out on the actual learning side of things - however, my ds is finding that its the getting used to doing things when asked by the teachers, lining up for assembly, sitting quietly on the carpet the really difficult things to do...

Is DS1 at a different school from the original ones - so is there a potentially different set up from the one when he started?

My DS started reception in Sept, aged 4 yrs 7 mths. If I didn't desperately need full time schooling as childcare, I would take him out of reception even now, when he is 5 yrs old.

I really think he is too young.

Right now, at this stage in his young life, I just don't think school is offering him anything more than I could offer him (or his grandmother, or even our au pair!).

The day is long and tiring for him.
He isn't ready for a big social scene yet, anyway, and I think all this forced play and forced sharing is actually detrimental in many ways.
And he certainly isn't learning anything academic that I couldn't teach him more effectively and enjoyably in an hour a day (or less!) at home.

It is a necessary evil so that I can work/study and provide a better lifestyle./future for him. But if money were no object, I would certainly happily keep him home another year.

my DS started reception in september at 4.1. He is a bright lad and has coped really well with all the academic side of school life but emotionally is was way too young to start. It's taken him a full term to settle in imo. He comes home happy enough but i think he cried regularly about little things in the initial few weeks (like when his class were being told to line up at lunch to go outside and he hadn't managed to get to his pudding). However if i had my time over i would still send him because he's making lots of frinds and learning a lots of social stuff that he just wouldn't learn at home with me and his 3 month old sister. He has adapted really well - just a tired little boy when he gets home but a 6:30pm bedtime fixes that

Mistlethrush - as I say ds1 did exactly this. He skipped reception altogether and went straight into yr1.

Socially it did take him a while to get the hang of school and get used to conforming to all the rules and so on. But academically he was absolutely flying from the word go, and continues to perform exceptionally highly.

So skipping reception and not doing class phonics, certainly did him no harm whatsoever.

And I believe that not being forced to start to hold a pencil/write until he was ready to (after he was 5), meant he was more enthusiastic for writing. Many 4 yr-old boys are just not ready for writing, and their physical struggles and 'failures' can then put them off the whole school/learning experience.

Roisin - its the social stuff that I think that my boy would have problems with if he had started in Yr1 - didn't think that the accademic side would be a problem - I'm sure that there are lots of us that could get them reading and doing basic number work etc during their reception year. Its trying to learn to control his physicality and sometimes to sit still that he is struggling on!

Hiya,

some more interesting replies, thankyou...sorry, we went to bed early!

Mistle, yes, this school is much smaller (what's 30x7?!) 210! There we go. 210 pupils and very intimate. The recep teacher is a sweetheart. I do think it will be nicer, plus big brother already there...and I also feel a term of reception will be plenty, seeing as it's the longest term as well I think. Judging by the way he counts already (20+) and asks me what words say he might be better equipped in that way than ds1 was.

Carrie, it sounds as though you have pretty much the same perspective as I do (and many other parents I've spoken to). I do sense that it can be desperately counterproductive to them - and I have been pointed towards evidence to back this up, particularly with boys and their brain development just not allowing for super literacy skills until they are around 6 or 7.

I also feel that the 'being told what to do' side of things is being foisted on them too soon. It's a bit like with playgroups...children don't need to be 'taught' or forced to share, to play together etc - it comes, but for a long time they simply play alone, or alongside without interacting with the other kids...that's neural and social development entwined and is a beautiful thing.

It's like trying to open up a flower bud and make it bloom. Not in every case, but certainly in some.

I think I will see how ds gets on. He's not been to nursery or playgroup yet, and seems fairly happy though I will start to take him soon because he's starting to want me to play with him more and I find that hard work!

If he seems ready for school when he is 4.3, maybe I'll think again but for the time being I'll try and establish the place, and defer him till after the Easter hols.

If they have a problem with it, well...tough, I suppose

Thanks again for all the help. I would have been a bit lost without the thoughts of all of you plus the information in the links.

My DD started reception 2 weeks after she turned 4, fulltime,no half days or any of that. She loves it and is doing great. Reading and writing, communuication skills are coming on so well - she tells me all she does is play all day . Its a great school and she has a lovely teacher, had made good friends....

I really wonder how behind she would be if she skipped reception and just started Yr 1 in September. Not that kids can;t catch up but it has made me think....

But I think the argument against formal schooling at 4 mistlethrush is that many children, especially summer birthdays and especially boys, are simply not ready to sit still!

Despite the FS curriculum, if you have a reception class of around 30 children, one teacher and one TA, then there has to be a large degree of formality: lining up, sitting in silence, everyone doing the same thing at the same time. I don't think this is the best thing for children at this age.

If they have another year to mature under more flexible surroundings, more of them are more ready to conform to the rules and boundaries without it being a huge struggle for them.

ds1 had a bumpy first month in Yr1 - having skipped reception and I would say it took him until Christmas before he was fully immersed in the (fairly strict) school ethos. But that was all.

FA: I deferred entry into Reception for May-born DS. He started in Reception after the Easter just before his fifth b'day. It was one hundred percent the right decision for him. He was (is) extremely bright, but I didn't feel he was emotionally ready for full-time school at 4.4.

It took him a while to catch up socially (the other children had all been in the school nursery), but he did get there in Y1!

What was funny was that one mum said just after he started that he'd catch up academically within a year or so. I did not say to her that he was reading the Times when he was three. In a way, it was good that he'd already 'got' reading and maths etc as it meant that I could ask his teacher to concentrate solely on the social side of it (which she did).

I intended to do the same with June-born DD. After the October half-term, though, she was begging to go to school. I sent her just for mornings until Christmas, then full-time after Christmas. This was the right decision for her.

We were lucky enough to have the most marvellous head, whose opinion was that no child should start school until they are ready, and that the parents are the best judges of when that might be.

However, it might also be relevant that it's an independent school - which, I think, offers more flexibility re. starting school.

From the DCSF website...

Deferred entry to primary schools

2.69 Admission authorities must allow parents of children who are offered a place at the school before they are of compulsory school age to defer their child?s entry until later in the school year. Where entry is deferred, admission authorities must hold the place for that child and not offer it to another child. The parent would not however be able to defer entry beyond the beginning of the term after the child?s fifth birthday, nor beyond the academic year for which the original application was accepted. This must be made clear in the admission arrangements for the school.

I just really wish that they would allow parents to delay entry into Reception, rather than just defer. My ds (end of august brithday) would be much better off starting reception in September 2011 rather than Sept 2010.