Does anyone have experience of sending their child straight into Y1 (ie missing out reception year)?

[satlitegirl]

Hello

I was wondering if anyone had any experience of sending their child straight into Year 1 (so missing out the Reception Year by keeping child at home or in a nursery-pre-school environment until the child is at the age where they must start education)?

Our son (turns 4 late July) is eligible to start this September, but we have almost certainly decided to send him to a nursery school for that year instead, which would mean that he goes straight into Y1 the following Sep. I have read a lot of comments on this issue, and although a lot of people seem unhappy with the idea of 4 yr olds starting school, I am struggling to find anyone who has made the decision to keep their child out of primary school until they turned 5. So if there is anyone out there who has done this, please let me know how you and your child got on!

Thank you

As a reception teacher I do have experience of a child attending part time while the rest of the class attended full time (at my suggestion) I would suggest if you intend to do this you need to carefully monitor the "social" situation with the class teacher.

My ds went to a private day nursery from 6 mths old, he started full time school when he was 4 and there were a few younger children in his reception class.
His reception class was learning thru play. I was worried as my ds was very shy. However, he over came this quickly and adjusted well to school.
The enviroment in Nursery is very different to Reception and I feel he would not have adjusted very well if he had missed reception and gone straight to year 1.
I would seriously reconsider this and perhaps have a meeting with the school to discuss your concerns.
My nephew was 4 on 30/08 and he started school 5 days after his birthday, my sister was worried as he seemed so young, (he also had speech problems) but he has also thrived.

When ds2 was in reception I told ds1's year2 teacher how utterly exhausted he was getting, as he was still used to an afternoon nap.

She told me that when her dd was that age, she used to come and collect her for lunch and bring her home. After lunch she had a nap. Then she brought her back at 2.30 for afternoon playtime. Then she'd do the last half an hour of the day in school!

Tinuveil I agree- many ways to ensure a child is an active member of both peer group and community whilst delaying a start to school.

Home school groups for a start.

With ds1 we moved school at Whitsun of reception year to an entirely different culture- England to Wales so even language classes in operation, register etc in Welsh. Itw asn't an issue at all, and had we kept ds1 in Montessori for the cross over time rather than schools I think he would be just as fine.

Isolation is a bad idea full stop, but easy to prevent.

Haven't read all the thread, but my DS is an August birthday, who is now 14. When he started primary there was no entry at 4, so he had no choice but to go straight into yr1.

He coped fine, but was emotionally young and did get easily upset over silly things, but academically he was ahead (had been at a good nursery).

He didn't know anyone else in the class, so had to make new friends, but having been at a nursety helped him with that too.

Sadly I also strongly disagree with Bonsoir - I think there is far too much pressure on children to be the same as their peers. Which simply reflects adult society. Far more important that your child does what suits him than that he does the same as all other four-year olds for the sake of it. I think it is your role to help him to feel OK about doing things his way and that that is a very important lesson in life. And how can you learn about diversity by all doing the same?

I believe that all children have individual needs and what suits one may not necessarily suit another. Even in my own children some have started full time as expected , one started at easter full time instead of the Sepember previous and dd never did full time in reception.
I acted according to their needs, none struggled or missed out by not being in full time school before they were ready and all have managed to be academically able with plenty of friends.
One size does not fit all IMO and children shouldn't be put under unnecessary pressure at 4 years old to conform.

satlitegirl my DS is 2.5 and Autumn born so it's not an issue for me but I am interested in this topic and I recall seeing new guidance on this for schools.

I have had a search around the DCSF website and found this press release.

In particular:

For admission to the 2011-12 school year, and subsequent years:

d) parents can request that the date their child is admitted to the school is deferred until later in the school year or until the child reaches compulsory school age in that school year, and

e) parents can request that their child attends part-time until the child reaches compulsory school age.

Deferred entry to primary schools

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 think this means that you can apply for reception, guarantee the place and then defer until later in the year. I'm not sure whether they mean you can hold the place into y1. I suppose it depends what exactly "nor beyond the academic year for which the original application was accepted".

Presumably you've missed the recent admission round so it may be different if you are applying outside the normal round.

You might also be interested in the concept of flexi-schooling see here or try a google search.

Also have a look at the home schooling forum as you will find people who have home schooled for several years and then had DCs move into formal education.

I understand that the EYFS is meant to be play based but it is up to you to decide that you can fulfil his needs at home next year.

There are many who think that the EYFS is too much pressure for children - you may be interested in this campaign and this blog.

Maybe someone could give you some real life experience of having a DC in reception but then just not sending them some days/afternoons and saying "sorry it is too much too soon for them" - presumably there is no come back for truenting etc if you are before the legal school age?

(I am actually v.pleased that due to his b'day I will have DS at home with me Thurs & Fri (he is at nursery M,T,W) until he is nearly 5!)

OP the one piece of advice I would give however is to avoid the way we ended up doing it

Delay start until Christmas- fab, he stayed with excellent CM worked a treat

Part time Christmas - Easter- also to be recommended, very good

Giving birth a few weeks overdue on the morning they start FT school- oh bugger, typical! (I did manage pick up but drop off was too much for me)

I thought that state schools had to let children under 5 attend part-time - I mean they don't legally have to attend at all.

A lot depends on the school - at my DC's school reception is a half-way house between nursery and school, lots of learning through play, no writing at all, just learning letters and numbers.

I know in my DD's class 2 kids came from abroad straight into year 1 (2 kids left at end reception) - DD comments that these two children are the slow ones.... (ie in bottom groups for everything) - this is NOT the case with the summer born children who seem pretty evenly dispersed throughout the clas.

I'm sure you have had masses of really good replies, I have read some. My son is an end of june baby who is now in year 3. When he started school I only sent him part time for the first term even when the other children were going full time, I continued to take him out on fridays when he was tired.
I would definately accept the school place as now schools have the eyfs in place the advantage of a gentle play based intro into school is great, but your child will miss out on the letter and sounds programme that the reception children are doing in most schools now.
I've got another son in reception this year and he would have really missed out by staying at nursery, personally I would send your child to school and see how it goes. He does not have to take up the full time place untill he's 5 but if you refuse the place you will lose it.

I was worried about my summer born dd starting school (reception) at 4. However, there is so much play and she loved it. It's also a lot calmer than many nurseries.

Now, I am relieved she went because year 1 would be a shock if you missed out on reception. (although, children would adjust).

Thanks everyone for your input and ideas. It's been really interesting reading everyone's experiences. I have never posted on MN before, but I have used it for many years and I can usually find the help I'm after just by reading through existing forum posts, but this time I trawled for ages and couldn't find anyone who had posted about what we were thinking of doing (I'm sure it's on here somewhere though).
We have found a nursery that follows the Early Years Curriculum, has a good staff-to-child ratio and our son can go there part time (we will probably send him 18-20 hours per week). As he's not yet 5, I think he is still eligible for the Early Years Grant for 15 of those hours (although I need to double check that). One of the schools in our town still has reception places available and I will ask whether they'll consider taking him on from next Easter, either part-time or full-time. My instinct is that for him, this will be better than sending him straight into a class of 30 kids for 31/32 hours a week when he's just turned 4. I realise that the reception year is meant to be about play-based learning, but it must be tough on some of the kids doing long days, all week. In the meantime, we're making the most of the freedom he's still got aged 3.8: running around outside in the afternoons, playing with the kids in our street, terrorising the local cats and digging up all my plants!
Thanks again to everyone for your help.

Whereabouts in Lincolnshire are you looking? Here in the south of the county, places in "town schools" are as rare as hens teeth, so if you wait until Yr1, you will struggle. The "country" schools usually-but not always-have space. 10% of our children are currently taxi-ed in to my village school as the nearest town is full!

Hi Primarymum
We are moving to Louth. I just heard back from the LEA and one of the three town schools still has reception places, so if they would accept him there next Easter it would give us the Y1 place. I've looked at their websites/ofsted reports and there doesn't seem much to choose between them, just going by those (which I realise is not ideal!). It would be much better if we could visit but we currently live on west coast of US and won't have a chance to get back before we actually move back. I'm happy to send him to a village school too - I've heard good things about some of them - except that it would mean we have to drive. Part of me is tempted just to wait until we do move back and see what comes up. Things usually work out OK.

Louth is very nice ( but considered "north" when in my part of Lincolnshire )

Yeah, I think Louth is one of those places that's 'up north' to Southerners and 'down south' to Northerners!