I was wondering if anyone can give me any information/ views on deferring school start for summer born children in independent schools. I am aware of how this works in the state sector but can’t find as much on it for private schools - I’m assuming each school is different. I did not attend private school and the whole system is very new to me.
There seems to be an awful lot of scientific research that confirms summer born children are at a disadvantage and labelled as attaining less than their older peers. Anecdotally, I’ve heard of summer born children struggling at school too. I am a September birthday but my brother was born in August and I saw him struggle a lot at school when I was younger and also incorrectly labelled with having additional needs etc (later discovered not to be the case). So I feel very cautious but at the same time I don’t want to hold my daughter back based on a general rule and a couple of experiences I’ve had. Every child is different and I want to honour that and do the best by her.
My daughter was born late July and will only be 4yrs 1 month when she starts reception in September (if we go ahead with that).
She currently attends a nursery attached to a pre-prep. She has a key group within nursery of 6 children in her “standard” school year that she does most core activities with. But she also plays and interacts with children in nursery who are technically the year below, and others of the her actual year in different key groups. So it’s mixed ages at the moment. About half the kids she is at nursery with now are staying on for reception at her pre-prep so there will be familiar faces. It is a small school and only 2 classes (of no more than 16 children each) in reception year so she will be with other children she knows. The reception classes are across the corridor from her nursery so the physical transition would be small.
She is only 3.5 at the moment but tall for her age (4-5yr clothing or 5-6 in some brands!), taller than the majority of older children in her year. She is also very confident socially and has quite advanced language/ cooperative play skills so people often assume she is already at school when they meet her and normally assume she is 5. This is all great of course but the issue I am worried about is that in other areas she is very much “on track” developmentally - fine and gross motor skills are still that of a 3.5yr old, core strength is a little less than other children in her academic year, her ability to sit still and focus is that of a 3 year old not a 5 year old. She can do it but not at the same level as a child a year older. I worry that she will be labelled as “behind” when really she is just the youngest in her year, this is compounded by the fact she looks so much older. If she looked like the littlest in her year I would maybe be less worried as instinctively staff and other children would see her as younger.
I have raised this in passing with the school at an open day event (they basically told me not to worry, they are used to summer born children and focus on each child individually but offered a follow-up chat) and am going to have a conversation with the them about this in a week but wanted to get some general views from other parents who are or have been in the same boat.
Neither DH or I are from a private school background and we feel very fortunate to be able to send her to this pre-prep. But it does mean that we are completely unaware of whether these concerns we have are mitigated somewhat by her being at a private school with smaller classes than state. I have tried talking to a few other parents with children at her nursery about this but generally they seem to think it’s a non-issue (and a lot of them are from a private school background so maybe they are correct?).
If we can’t defer at a private school is it worth us pulling her out and sending her to a state school (with deferral to start mid-year in Jan or the following year in sept)? Where we live, standard practice is she’d go straight into yr1 if we did delay a full year rather than reception which I think seems a harder transition.
Because she is socially able and thriving at nursery, my gut is telling me to keep her in her “normal” academic year even if she will be the youngest but I’m still worried.
Any advice or thoughts appreciated!
Thank you so much