Deferrals and composite classes in primary schools

[SayDoWhatNow]

I'm curious about the combined impact of the referral window being widened to 6 months, plus the frequent use of composite classes in Scottish primary schools.

Doesn't this lead to potentially a very wide age range in classes? For example a non-deferred winter born (Feb) would be 4.5y at the start of P1. But a deferred P2 would be 6.5y. These children could potentially be in the same class, which feels like a very wide range to cover.

I know in rural areas it is very common to have 2 year groups in one class throughout primary school. But I think that is also generally alongside small class sizes which reduces the teaching burden a bit.

I'm thinking of the situation in urban schools where there might be 3 full classes - P1, P2 and composite P1/2. Intuitively it feels really messy, but how is it actually managed in classrooms?

I don't know how well it's managed but it's something that concerns me as well. My youngest will be going to school aged 4 and could have kids aged 6 in the same year. Her school will be big enough that they do split by age, so she will be in the younger class, which gives me some comfort.

It's a mess to be honest. They need to change it completely to be the same as the English system ie 1st august is cut off for the year. Then at least everyone in the year is born within a year of each other.

My eldest has always had a composite class and it's been ok for him as I think it has pushed him on a little. There is a messiness to it though. At his school the infants and uppers have different lunchtimes and end of the day - even those in the same class (ie in P3/4). Then in the p5/6 class there will be some with an iPad and some without. It's not ideal.

Oh wow, different end times / lunch times in the same class sounds like a total mess! Really not ideal at all!

Tbh, the older/younger grouping across composite classes also feels messy - a de facto acknowledgement that the child's age matters more than the year groups. But then those children are in different year groups with different expectations around exams etc.

I'm not anti deferral on principle - the 3 month window for summer borns in England seems reasonable. And I appreciate that it is the norm for children in Scotland to start school at 5 not 4. But a 6 month deferral window on top AND composite classes is a lot!

Actually children with additional needs can impact the range in a class to a mich greater extent. For example, a pupil may only be able to count to five and other can add and subtract three digit numbers etc, count to a million etc.

In my experience, when there has been a situation where a school has a P1, P1/2 and P2 class they split by age anyway. So youngest third of P2s and oldest third of P1s will be in the composite.

Where I find it messy is you can have P1s older than the P2s!

I support an older school start age generally and I feel, where we live at least, the more people are deferring the more common it is becoming which makes those 4.5 Feb Borns stand out even more.

Schools don’t always composite on age some do it on ability. Mine was old for his year (April) and in a composite in p6, it was composited on ability (the most able p6s, as they had more ability to work independently) so there were p5s in his class almost 2 years younger. School did a good job of still trying to do a lot with p6 as a year group though. He eventually left school with 5 As at higher, advanced highers etc so never held him back!

Its not a huge issue in my area as most Jan/Feb kids are now deferred. However the ones who are not deferred tend to be at a disadvantage because they are far younger than the rest of the year now. The age gap doesnt always show in early primary but often does show in later primary.

Often the youngest in the year can be put in a composite class with younger children as they can be closer in age to them than kids in there own year. For example if there is a P1/P2 composite and a P2/P3 composite and the child is the youngest in the P2 year they are more likely to end up in the P1/P2 because the P1 children are closer in age to them. A good teacher is able to ensure the children get the right teaching regardless of age.

This. In any given class, whether composite or not, there will be a wide range of pupils. A key part of teaching is effective differentiation.

In our local authority composite classes are done strictly on an age basis so in fact, although in two different years the actual age range in a class can be smaller.

Even in non-composite classes it’s a mess - some of these deferred children are enormous.

My child is at the younger end of the school intake and I absolutely do not feel comfortable with him being in a class with deferred children. I can’t imagine how some of the other children feel, who are more than a year younger than them.

An 18 month gap is outrageous

It's become a complete farce and these massive deferred kids are also clogging up the nursery places, the play based P1&2 for which there was no training can mean a chld is still playing in a sandpit at 8 rather than having any basics.

However, a composite has to be done on age, so at our school it essentially groups the deferred ones in with the non deferred. We just had a composite (half) move up to high school, including my Nov born DS, and the half still in primary had parents complaining how bored their kids would be with another year at primary.

Deferring taps into an insecurity of making sure your child in never misses out on an advantage someone else might get,even by chance. Moving the choice to defer from early yr experts and children definitely behind, to parent choice has only widened the attainment gap and caused problems. Private nurseries encourage it as well as it's cheaper and easier to fill up with the 5 year olds than have the nappies and ratios of younger kids.

In our area composite classes are done by age, and therefore mean the age range of the class is smaller. So there might be a P2 a P2/3 and P3. With all the kids within 9 months of each other.

Same here.

oldest P1s with youngest P2s and so on.

it works fine.

I think it just widens the attainment gap. Middle class parents who can afford to keep their kids in nursery an extra year go for it. Others who can’t afford it don’t.

My child was in the younger end of the school year and was always in composite classes. They weren’t stretched in any way whatsoever. We moved them to private in the end just to get an education.

There have been composite classes for a very long time. My daughter was in one in the 90s. Usually composite classes are smaller so it's easier to manage. I've never found my kids suffered from it

I don’t understand why deferrals are becoming so commonplace, aside from the composite class issue it can’t be good for kids to be grouped together with a different age group all through their school years.

in my admittedly limited experience, the kids that are disruptive in class in mid and late primary school are those who are considerably older than their peers and were deferred. These are kids with no ND or SEN. It may be coincidence, but it feels to me that they are frustrated and acting out as more mature and advanced than their classmates.

As someone who works in education i haven't seen this at all. The older ones tend to be more mature rather than disruptive.

However the deferring kids who are sept/Oct/Nov birthdays for no other reason than to give them an "advantage" is not helpful long term. Late Dec/Jan and Feb children often do benefit from being deferred long term.

My grandson was deferred because his birthday is towards the end of February. Academically he was and is bright and able. However emotionally he was young for his age. He has definitely benefited from the extra time at nursery. I find your comments rather rude and I doubt their veracity

Don’t English parents also have an option for summer borns? So they could have the same age range, just different cutoffs. my daughter is 13 and late November so started school at 4, as did everyone else her age at that time. She was more than ready, but it is a bit obvious in secondary school that she’s a young 13 (she’s also ND so that’s a part of it too).

I have a friend who deferred and is happy with the decision, except of course loads didn’t so her daughter still started school with plenty of 4 year olds so she ended up a bit bored academically and socially. Of course every child is individual and a calendar age doesn’t mean much typically, but it’s just adding more to it.

Lots of really interesting thoughts here - just catching up now!

@2026Mummy I agree that a child with significant SEN may have very different abilities than the rest of the class. I suppose my thoughts are that this is generally 1 or 2 children in a class, who often (to be realistic) have an entirely separate curriculum and 1:1 support. Deferrals with a 6 month window is going to widen the general ability level in the year group quite a lot!

@PurpleThistle7 the summer born window in England is 3 months (June - August). That feels reasonable, but in Scotland it's been increased to 6 months (September - February). That seems huge. I agree with @Firry that the end result is likely to be widening the attainment gap - in my middle-class friendship circles it is generally taken as given that kids born in the winter will be deferred; whereas the less well-off parents I know don't even have deferral on their radar when their child has a birthday in the tail end of February.

Really interesting to see that composites are almost always by age. I asked at our catchment primary (my child is in preschool) and they implied the classes would be determined by friendship groups, which seemed very ad hoc.

How does teaching work when you have say P4, P3 and P3/4 classes? Surely there is a curriculum for P4 that is separate from P3. Do the younger P4s in the composite class just get a repeat of P3 with some add ons? It's doesn't seem ideal when there is another class in the school with a full focus on the P4 curriculum. (As separate from a school that is so small that full year groups are combined).

I don’t mean to be rude and the comment was certainly not directed at your grandson.

But ‘doubting my veracity’ seems extreme! This was merely my observation from my kids’ primary school years, and I don’t expect it to be universal. The children involved were bright, mature, able, which made it all the more surprising when they were regularly at the centre of scuffles in the playground or disruptive behaviour in class.

They are now in secondary - the differences have evened out and these specific deferred children no longer seem to be struggling. But at primary school they were.

Ach, sorry, I probably overreacted.

It’s a strange system. I hadn’t quite got to grips with it before we moved to Scotland and didn’t defer my daughter. In p2 she had a boy in her class turning seven before she had even turned six! I was wondering whether long term it will be sustainable re government funding of nursery places. Does the government fund 30 hours etc?

Does the fact that composite classes have to be smaller, is it maximum 25 pupils?? mean that the disadvantage, if any of a rider age range is mitigated by being part of a smaller class overall?

Where these children friends? There may well have been other dynamics at play you were not aware off. The worst behaved kids in one my children's year were like that because there mums were friends. They caused endless trouble and bullied other kids constantly. However they lied and covered up for each others behaviour and because they each told the same story and lies about other kids individually there parents believed them. This stopped in secondary as the school were aware of them.

The problem with not deferring in Scotland is that if you turn 5 during P1 then you end up leaving school aged 17 which is young to be going off to uni or into work. I left at 17 and was definitely not very socially mature compared to the 18 & 19 year old English kids at uni. I wouldn't want my kids to be finishing school aged 17.

Agree that the optional deferral will increase the attainment gap as poorer families can't afford another year of nursery.