Help Needed - reasonably quickly

[Frazzledanddazzled]

Hi All,
I need your help and advice as I'm in a quandry and don't know what to do about my son. This is my first post here but I don't have any friends who have SEN children and I would be so grateful if I could ask you all.
My son is a year 2 child but we moved location and had to find another school for him. There was no room in the year 2 class in our local village school so they popped him into year 1 with a couple of other year 2s.
This year, we have begun to start the diagnosis process for him and it seems that he is very likely to be dyspraxic and possibly dyslexic. He is performing poorly academically although is a happy and social little boy.

He has made a couple of little friends in his year 1 class but now that he is due to go up to key stage 2, the school think that it would be best to put him in the year 3 class instead of keep him where he is and let him go into year 2 with the rest of the current class he sits in.
The school will allow him to stay where he is currently but the other year 2s will probably all join the real year 3.

The real year 3 is a big class and there will be 31 kids - if he stayed with his current class, he would be one of 16 - but the big class will have a TA and the little class won't.
He is very anxious about making the change but he says he will try to move to the year 3 class tomorrow on class change day.
The school want me to decide before the class change tomorrow. That's why I need your advice quickly!
I can't make up my mind. Do I move him up to his real year group or do I keep him in a lower class in line with his academic ability?
I feel for him as he has had a very turbulent time - we had to move house twice so this is his third school (he's only 6) straight after his Dad had a battle with cancer (he survived thankfully).
He is summer born (July baby) and has always been considered immature.
I mentioned to the senco that we would possibly keep him in the state system until year 5 and then move him and permanently put him down a year within the private sector. She said that not all private schools will allow it, particularly at that late stage and that private school might not be right for him as he performs poorly academically. I don't know of any more gentle private schools in our area (Northamptonshire/ Warwickshire border).

What would you do? Thank you so much in advance.

I'd ask for him to go into Y2. A whole year of the national curriculum, especially literacy and numeracy would be a lot for a normal child to miss out, and then expected to catch up somehow, as if by osmosis. IMO, it is totally unreasonable to expect a SEN child to do it!

(Its one reason why something like 1 in 5 children leave primary school without functional literacy, because the national curriculum was too fast for them or not taught in the way they needed; and having missed out on some crucial foundations, they never get chance to catch up because its all too fast, with no room to go back and revisit for those children - and they don't necessarily have SEN)

This may well all be about exam results later. If a child is out of their chronological year group for say GCSEs, then the school has to take them out of the statistics - too much bother for them.

Some private schools cater specifically for SEN children, who are too complex for mainstream but their parents don't want them to board at a specialist residential school either. There are several round here - they are not all for high fliers! Have a look at Gabbitas, which is a directory of state special schools; and independent or non-maintained schools with a specialism in one or more SEN.

You need to bear in mind that the current year 2s will follow the new curriculum next year while the current year 1s will stay on the old curriculum. So it will make a difference.

I'd be tempted to have him move to year 2 because he's had such a tough time.

What is the advantage of moving to year 3? His friends are year 1, his ability is year 1 (or below), it's a smaller class, he wants to stay. If they are giving you a genuine choice then you haven't listed any advantages of going into year 3. You need to know where you stand for secondary. If he had to move to secondary at end year 5 (in line chronological age) would that matter or is he likely to be v. behind anyway (it would not matter one bit if DS did not do year 6 in fact he would miss all the SATs awfulness).
You can actually formally apply to the LA as an in year admission for your child to be educated outside of their chronological year group, but obviously if school will allow it then may not need to do so.
What are his levels? How far behind is he?
Sometimes schools and councils just see it as an extra year to pay for sen provision so try and push the child though.
DS is yr 2 in a mixed year 1/2 class and moved recently too. I was convinced he should stay in year 2 (along with half class) and just finish at year 5 (he's unlikely go mainstream secondary so that's not a huge consideration), however he has done well, is not that behind academically and children who are friendly with him (he has no social interest) are year 2 and moving up. School and specialist staff who work with him are persuading me he can cope with year 3 and should go. DS has full time 1:1 and individualised curriculum so I am happy to go with it and see.
DS won't notice which class he's in though. Personally I think the academic leap from yr 2 to 3 will be tough call but we do have the buffer of 1:1 so really he can have his own work whichever class he's in.
Apart from school wanting it you aren't selling yr 3 to me
It's pants school given you 1 day to decide though as you don't know the implications further down the line.

Thank you all so much for your replies - I am extremely grateful. I'm going to say that I need more time and the school will have to wait for a response. I think I need to investigate further. You guys are great! Thank you xx

I agree with the others, keep him with his current peer group. You can keep him a year below throughout his school life it is called offsetting. I have worked with children who have been offset throughout school including one at private. The child at private school did not have a statement either. The school were more than happy to do it and as the mum pointed out they got an extra year of fees out of her.

Also in agreement with staying with younger group.

Just to pick up on your other point - I'm in Northants and have heard good stuff about Quinton House - it's non selective and very nurturing. If you decided to go the private route.

Thank you 500smiles - Quniton house looks brilliant - I didn't even know it existed.

Many thanks to all of you for your help, still undecided as whilst I think the curriculum he needs is the year 2 one, the SENCO said that he will have to do sats and he will have to move up eventually.

One friend said that if he has a TA in the year 3 class, he will at least be able to get some additional support whereas in the smaller class there is no where to go.

I feel completely out of my depth here.
In the year 3 class there are some low ability children, some performing at a lower level than my DS. His levels are 2c (although not consistently apparently). Handwriting is dreadful - it's impossible to decipher. Maths is confused and reading slightly better.
Thanks x

If you do leave him in the year below and need to move him back up at some point I would suggest doing it by skipping yr 4. So he would do yr 3 and get used to the way they work but then go straight to yr 5.

I have 3 Dd's and for each one yr 4 has been a year in which they didnt seem to do much. It has been a bit of a coasting yr. Year 8 seems the same at secondary.

Personally I would leave him with the younger group too. He needs to be happy or he wont learn.

Good luck

Do most of the primary end up going to the same secondary? There may be social problems if he ends up having to transfer after Year 5 rather than with his friends in Year 6. I had the reverse problem in that I went through primary a year early as my mother was a teacher at the school but then had to do two year sixes - at least they didn't do SATS in those days but was not the best situation. I think it is easier to transfer to a new year group the younger you are and kids are definitely getting bitchy by Year 6.