Admissions: If your child is/was outside of their normal age group at primary school ...

[preenin]

... how does your local authority handle secondary admissions?

I heard of one local authority where summer born children whose parents have chosen to keep them back a year (so they're now in a younger cohort) are expected to still apply for secondary school at the 'correct' time for their age, i.e. when they are in Year 5. Is this typical?

No idea, but it is possible.
So every parent in that situation needs to check in good time.

Both before deciding to defer so you have some idea; and because policies can and do change, again when the DC is a year 4 ie the year before an age-based move, so if you need to act you have time to do it.

Always check before moving house too.

If you are really stuck with having to apply based on age, then I think missing yr6 is the lesser of two evils (compared to completing primary and moving to yr8)

As I understand it, every child has to enter school in the correct year group for their age. The only exception is entry at the start of Reception and needs to be approved by the LA. A summer born child can start reception a year 'late' and be the oldest in their year but in really specific circumstances only. Friend of mine did this and it was only approved because DC was premature and corrected age if born at term would have taken them in to the school year she was applying for. Ie, born prem in July but should have been born in Sept. So it was approved to start Reception the following year. If not approved, she would have had to either start DC In Reception a year earlier or go straight in to Yr1 and miss the reception year. She fought hard to not do that.

The rules are the same for primary admissions and secondary admissions. The admission authority must have a process for applying for a place outside the normal age group. The admission authority cannot have a blanket policy of refusing all such applications. They must look at each case individually, taking into account the child's best interests, the parent's views and the views of the head of the school to which they are applying.

You have to apply in year five for entry and then deferral. So they enter when they should, out of cohort. The only reason a child would be expected to miss a year of schooling is if it were in their best interests- not the school's.

So, yes, you have to apply in year 5. But no, they don't miss year 6. Does that make sense? It's the same as when you originally deferred in reception- you apply with cohort to defer, then again the year you want them to go.

I've never met anyone who regretted deferring. Obviously, though, there were good reasons to do it. There is a popular myth that children will have to miss a year later on- this isn't true, and shouldn't be used to put parents off deferring when it's in their child's best interests.

I deferred entry at reception- when I applied for secondary school, I couldn't apply online as it said their date of birth was incorrect. The Head of the primary school contacted the education authority and then gave me a phone number to speak to someone and I then applied over the phone and had no problems.

Thanks all. I've found some Government guidance which says you need to apply in Year 5, but with a request to defer. If the request is accepted by the admissions authority(ies) you then withdraw the application and reapply the following year, so its a 2-year process: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/summer-born-children-advice-for-admission-authorities/guidance-on-handling-admission-requests-for-summer-born-children

If applying for multiple preferences (6 in our borough) I suppose some admissions authories may say yes and others may say no, so then that might limit the application options the following year.

I have met several folk who regretted deferring ( in contrast to another poster)
If the child turns out to be talented at sports then yes, they can play at school in the team for the year group they are in, but the rub comes if they qualify for national finals, and these ( as far as I have seen) are totally age based so we had a really talented hockey player, had to sit out at the nationals as too old, ditto with rugby etc.
They had played with the team all the way through until hitting the final, most prestigious game

In my LA you just apply in year 6 the same as any other child in the cohort. No special permission is needed.

They can certainly suffer at the other end of their education, because of the limit to the number of years you can get funded post 16

I expect there's nothing to stop you doing this in any LA. However, the advantage of applying in year 5 is that you have some certainty in advance. If your preferred admission authorities don't give permission then you have the option of transferring your child from year 5 to year 7, which might be preferable to transferring them from year 6 to year 8 the following year.

My instinct is that most secondaries would give permission but, if not, I'd want to know sooner rather than later.

My understanding is that there is no right of appeal against a decision to refuse out-of-age group admission. You could only make a complaint, following the school's complaints procedure.

In my county you have to join your age group cohort at secondary. A boy I know who was a year older than all the others in my DS's class in primary due to some SENs had to skip Y6 and go straight to secondary school. I was horrified that this happens and actually even in some independent secondaries they frown on out-of-year admissions.

Are you on the summer born Facebook page op? There is one for transferring to secondary school- information and advice about secondary admissions. I think the vast majority of LA and academies just approve it, no secondary want to be taking a child that has missed a year of education.

My DS is in this position (late August birthday) and I think if you are in the same local authority then you are on very safe ground.

I think if you applied for a secondary school in a different local authority then you may need to explain yourself a bit more as a new decision would need to be made but, as others have said, hopefully nobody wants a child to miss a year of schooling. The issue for the new local authority would be that they are effectively having to fund a year of your DC's education that was not funded by the original local authority.

We haven't quite faced this yet as DS is only in year 5, but when we had to move primary schools after Reception year the new head put up an argument that he would prefer to place DS with "the his own cohort", which would have basically meant him missing the whole of Year 1. We just pointed out how ridiculous this was and they dropped the argument.

That said, we have been told that there are some sports matches where our very sporty DS will not be allowed to compete for the school as he was born a few days before the start of the school year. Crazy.

I think if you are in the same local authority then you are on very safe ground.

@tachetastic Not if all the secondary schools are academies or voluntary-aided faith schools. Each admissions authority would be making the decision independently. Some may say yes, others no.

Fair point.

I have always seen being an advocate for my children a core part of my job as a parent. I pity the headmaster who picks this battle.

I think anyone who decides to defer entrance to Reception needs to have that view.

What happens in a grammar area? Are you still allow to defer?

Not correct - that has been debunked. I'll try and find the definitive wording, (it's in one of the support groups) but if a pupil starts a course (for example a 2 year A level course) before the age of 18, then they will be funded to complete it.

Yes, if the grammar school's admissions authority agrees - they are still subject to the Schools Admissions Code.

The 11+ is taken with the adopted cohort, but the scores are age-adjusted anyway.

@JaffavsCookie I am not sure if this is universal. England Hockey gave my DS a waiver to play a year down until he turns 18. That applies to all competitions governed by England Hockey, which I hope includes nationals. If England Hockey doesn't run them, who does??? Did you have a specific age dispensation certificate?

England Rugby has also been flexible so far, but there a fresh application has to be made every year.

Other sports do seem much less flexible on this.

All students are funded to 19 anyway for a-levels etc, so if a student follows a normal program of study, e.g. two year A-levels, they will be fine at post-16.

My understanding is that the issue may come if they e.g. want to repeat a year of sixth form. There's a small minority of students every year who either restart Y12 with different subjects, or repeat Y13 to try and improve their grades/gain passes. If a student were already 19 I don't think there is funding for this- that would be where they might lose out. They'd have completed the program of study, so the above statement doesn't apply.

It's also worth bearing in mind FE colleges aren't bound by the admissions code in the same way schools are, so could, in theory, reject an 18yo student wanting to restart courses due to lack of funding.

Say, for example, they do a year of A-levels at secondary school, decide it's not for them, and want to do something vocational e.g. a T-level at college. If they're already 18 at that point, without an ECHP, the college could choose to reject them.

It's not something I would base an overall decision to defer on, though, because it doesn't apply to most students, and there are other routes that would be available.

@tachetastic , hopefully it has changed in the past couple of years then, the sports were hockey and rugby. It was gutting for the kids to play all the way through and then be barred from playing in the national finals. I know of several instances where this has happened, but the last one was more than 5 years ago.