entitled to the same number of years at school as a mainstream child?

[clangermum]

If a child starts school a year late due to their special needs (i.e. during reception year she went from age 5/6 rather than 4/5) does she have to skip a year later on so that she leaves secondary school at the 'right' age?

Because she's in the special school system, we're being told that work is differentiated to her ability so it doesn't matter if she goes up to secondary school when she hasn't actually completed up to end of year 6 (although she will be the 'correct' age.)

I understand that levels are all over the place, and she is way behind, but surely that's all the more reason not to effectively skip a year of time in school? (It's the amount of years in school she'll be getting, rather than covering the curriculum that I'm really thinking of.)

Or do special needs children have to leave secondary school at a certain age, in which case she just has a set amount of time left in school?

Don't specifically know the answer to your question, but my daughter is in Special School System and her school goes up to Age 19 so she will actually do 3 years in the 6th form instead of the usual 2. She hasn't skipped any time either - infact she started there at 2 1/2 at the nursery.

Hi clangermum my DD is due to start school a year late this coming September. What we were told by our LEA is that if she stays in MS, she will always be a year behind (and I will ensure this is in her statement) but that she will miss the last year of her school education, the year she turns 19?

It was explained to me that children are "allowed" up to 3 years for A Levels and that my DD would only be "allowed" 2 out of the 3.

I had previously been warned on here that in some areas they make children skip Yr6 because secondary schools don't like to accept children out of their year group.

Possibly not much help, but this is what we were told

Sorry, just seen that your DD is in a specialist school. My LEA did tell me that if my DD later transfers from MS to SS, she will have to go in with the correct age group but that because the classes are mixed ability across 2 and sometimes 3 age groups it shouldn't make much difference. I will cross that bridge when I come to it

Is it the case that you'd rather she completes her primary education in her current setting before going up to secondary?

Thanks for the replies. I didn't know about having up to 3 years for A levels.

Mess, yes it's really at the moment about wanting her to have another year in primary, mainly because of it being such a jump from primary to secondary. (Two linked schools, so at least some continuity in that the staff talk to each other during transition more than most, but different buildings and staff in primary and upper school).

She started in mainstream then went into the special system.

Even if she's in a class with different ages all the way through schooling, it's just that thing about being in the secondary environment where you've got much older teenagers around that scares me a bit at the moment. The linked secondary school deals with a lot of behavioural issues, and I really need to go and have a look round and see how severe they are I think. I know she has to go at some stage, but given another year she might be a bit more confident.

Plus the other issue of whether or not, if she skips a year (and it's the Year 6, as you mentioned) will it feel like she's being short-changed?

So basically if she went up to secondary this September, she'd get 3 years in sixth form, but if she has another year in primary she'll have 2 years.

I guess we need to think about which is likely to be most valuable.

Hi clangermum I'd feel exactly the same as you, wanting my DD to have all the years of primary and, if she has to, lose a year at the end of secondary. I reasoned that she may actually not be in school for those A level years anyway, she may be at college in which case I suspect other rules may apply .

With my DD, I'm working on the basis of what I know now and, in her case, deferring a year was definitely the right thing to do. I may regret the loss of that last school year in the future but I'll deal with that then

I'd check for sure what arrangements apply in your LEA because I may be mistaken and what applies here may not be applied where you are but it could end up that you have to make the decision of stay down now vs 3 years 6th form.

Good luck!

How do you persuade the LA to defer school for a year? We are applying for our sons statement right now. He is 4 in march due to start reception class n ms school with support in sept this year. He has moderate asd. I told the ed psych we felt it the best outcome if he starts school a year later and goes in sept 2014 but she said cos he was not premature and not a summer baby this wont be allowed to happen. It s so unfair o him to have to start this sept, he never learned to talk till really late and only has limited speech and understanding now, his language is progressing slowly though and if he had an extra year at nursery this would be best. I'm still going to suggest that he defers for a year to the LA, if you have any tips on what to say that would be great. Thanks xx

Hi Toni27 we made a case to the County Ed Psych allocated to our DD.

We're lucky - she's really reasonable and took the view that we, as her parents knew best and we made it clear that we'd considered the potential downsides and that we had a clear plan for the deferred year in the form of a private tutor to work on the deficits in our DDs development to help her cope better with school a year later.

The EP then backed up our request to County. Without her support, I don't think we'd have got it. In our case it would have made the difference between MS and SS - our DD would not have been able to cope with MS this year but, in our opinion, she will later this year.

Btw my DD has a rare chromo disorder and severe learning difficulties so different to your DS.

With regard to your DS, it would help your request if you could show, as we did, that you'd considered the potential downsides and had solutions for them or reasons why they weren't really downsides at all and, if you could show what you're going to do to help your DS be more ready for school in the coming year, that might help too.

HTH a little and good luck.

Hi Toni and mess

In our case, dd is summer born so it was a bit easier. At that time you didn't have to start until the term after you were 5 (I think) which tipped her into the next year, although because it did this we still had to go before an LEA panel, as it was effectively delaying her school start for a year. Most summer borns just started in the term they were 5.

All good advice from mess though. Our LEA is very worried about parents trying to delay a year when it's not really necessary - to give their children an unfair advantage. I think there's even a name for it - red shirting? (may have got that completely wrong, I think it's some kind of sports metaphor, whatever it is). However, this is a shame because those of us with special needs kids are doing it for reasons of survival - a whole different ball game. My dd would never have survived in mainstream then, and even though she did eventually transfer to special school I'm glad she had that mainstream experience so we at least saw that it could only work for her for a little while.

One very general rule I learned from ipsea, which may or may not apply here, is to find out 'the law' and compare it to 'the way your LEA says they do things.' These may be the same but they may be completely different. If you know what the law is, you are in a better position to challenge what your LEA is telling you. The law should always take precedence, even if the LEA doesn't like this. Lots of parents think that what the LEA tells them is 'the law'. (I've no idea what the law is now regarding school starts as I know there have been lots of changes to the system.)

Make a good case, back it up with professional evidence if you can, as parental wishes/knowledge don't usually carry much weight but if a professional is saying starting at a certain date would be detrimental that's something else entirely. If the ed psych isn't supportive, try to find someone else who is - preferably someone who is already involved with your ds rather than getting him seen privately, as the LEA will take an involved professional more seriously. (I'm generalising here, but that has been my experience.)

Hope that helps!

Thanks very much both x I'm off to look up "the law" :)