November baby deferred.

[Jess5579]

Just wondering if anyone is deferring their November baby?

In what country?

What do babies need deferring from?

Are you in Scotland?

What do you mean? Is this a school thing? How old is the baby/kid?

Maybe they mean to avoid baby being an august birthday in school?

I have a December and not deferring. I wouldn't unless they weren't ready socially. They lose a year of adulthood at the other end of school and I think that's a shame.

Have you posted in the wrong section and do you mean putting off TTC in November so you dont end up with an August born baby / youngest in the school year?

Or are you in the right section and on about a child being deferred from going to nursery as you've posted in the Nursery section? In which case why would you defer in November? You either need childcare or it's a school related Nursery but then we need info on which country you are in.

Hey yeah. How do I post it just in the Scotland one 😂

First time using mumsnet so think I posted in the wrong group. Not sure how to delete 😂🤦🏼‍♀️ So in Scotland you can defer your child from going to school if their 5th birthday is after the new school year on August. So was just wondering if anyone is considering doing that. So any Sept-Feb kids.

I deferred my January born but I wouldn't defer a Sept to Dec birthday unless some sort of ASN

@Jess5579 I've reported your thread and asked for it to be moved to Scotsnet

Thank you so much 😁 I got an email and they asked if they should move it so I said yes. Thanks for your help 😊

Maybe now - not 5 years ago. I'm hearing that mums with October dc are finding that they are the youngest in the class. Your November will likely be the youngest. Not an issue in itself but worth factoring in.

We’re considering deferring our daughter (oct born). She is awaiting ASN assessment- likely high functioning autism but painfully shy and still screams at every nursery drop off after attending for over a year. We were told to enrol her anyway, give it a few months and see how we feel then.

There is a fb group called deferral support Scotland that I’ve found quite useful.

My November born (she turns five in two weeks) started school in August. To be honest it never occurred to me to defer her, but I do think it depends on the child and the circumstances. My daughter is a third child and a girl, obviously, which does make a difference as I think girls are a bit ahead of boys at that age generally. She was certainly more ready for school than my eldest son, who was five when he started, and she would have been bored rigid and potentially a bit troublesome for nursery if she had another year to do.

I would have deferred a baby born in Jan/Feb I think but in November they aren't that much younger. My daughter is the youngest in her class to be fair but not by much, there are a few sept/Oct birthdays in there.

I deferred my December born. There are quite a few November/December deferrals in his class. Also a couple of autumn non deferrals who seem incredibly young and are struggling.

There’s another thread running about deferrals currently. If possible you’d be as well to see if you can find out what the make up of the year group will be - will it skew young or old? And is your child’s nursery going to keep them engaged - we were extremely lucky on that front and it was an absolute no brainer to keep him in that amazing setting for another year.

People get to be adults for most of their lives… I always saw deferral as giving my kids another year of childhood which is a relatively brief part of life!

I have a Jan baby but I’m not deferring her. She’s my youngest of three and would be bored senseless doing another year at pre school.

If you wanted extra reassurance there probably is a ready for school questionnaire you can ask about doing . If I had a Jan / Feb dc I would be look to be doing it to give myself the reassurance. There are big advantages in high school in being one of the oldest.

I have a December child (not approaching school age currently) and I never considered deferral unless I see something closer to the time that makes me think he needs more time.

Then I read a thread on MN which highlighted that your child born in Nov/Dec/Jan would start school age 4 years 9 months/4 years 8 months/4 years 7 months.

When you consider a child born the year before them who has deferred and ends up in their class, they could potentially be 5 years and 11 months old (if born the previous September).

It seems mad that a 5y 11m could be in the same class a a 4y 7m child.

I deferred my 28 Feb born as she would absolutely be the youngest and she missed a lot of nursery through Covid. She has a girl in her class with an October birthday who was deferred and the difference between her and some of the youngest in the year group is huge. Probably not helped by the fact this girl is very tall. At our school they split the classes by age (3 classes per year) which does help this. But it must be weird in a smaller school where the age gap can be huge. I think the whole deferral thing has got out of hand to be honest. I wouldn't have deferred my daughter if it wasn't such a thing now. I felt I had to.

I don’t know this, thank you. I don’t feel like I do need the reassurance and I have spoken to her nursery but it’s good to know such a thing exists! It is a hard decision, I understand the implications of going to school one of the youngest in the year and it makes me cross that the system allows for such a wide age range in the school year. It’s almost forcing people to defer. My eldest two started school in England and deferring just isn’t a thing!

thank you so much I’ll go have a look 😊

As an infant teacher in Scotland, I would think about:

How will your child cope emotionally with the reduced adult/child ratio? 1:8 in nursery and 1:25 in P1 in my school,

How will your child cope socially in the playground with the reduced adult/child ratio. 1:120 ish in the infant end of my school.

How will your child cope in the dinner hall with the reduced adult/child ratio? 1:100 in my school.

Is your child ready for learning - sitting, listening, following instructions, etc?

How is their fine and gross motor skill development? Can they draw a recognisable person? Can they do up zips, buttons, Velcro, open packets, etc?

Do they know 5 nursery rhymes by heart? Rhyming is the step before phonics.

Can they play a board game and take turns?

The hardest of all: can you predict how they will cope with P7/S1 transition? S6/Uni transition.

I deferred my Feb born son as I didn't want him to be the youngest in the year. He is in secondary now and I am so glad I did as some of the younger ones in the year seem to be really struggling. He is thriving and really settled in school.

My middle child is late October. If didn't even occur to me to defer him. He was ready for school and is still doing really well now (P4). Very few August to November kids were deferred in his year. There was a couple of kids deferred but they had ASN needs or had quite significant social issues.