Delaying school entry.

[JKCR2017]

Hi all, DD is 3, 4 in late July. She is the youngest in her Pre school class. She is significantly speech delayed, has hypermobility, low muscle tone and global developmental delay but no major behavioural issues. She is being assessed for asd. Mainly because my eldest DS is on the spectrum but it was a lot more obvious in his case.

Anyway, being so young and having delays. I am seriously thinking about looking into delaying her school entry so she would go to school when is 5. But I would want her to start in reception, not year 1. I’ve heard some schools now allow this (it wasn’t an option when DS started school, keeping him back would of meant he had to start in year 1).

Anyway, how do I go about approaching this? The primary school in the village - in which DS goes too has become an academy in the last couple years. It has an executive headteacher and a head of school which happens to be DS’s teacher. Which would I contact? Or should I approach the senco?

I’m going to discuss this with her pre-school, her speech therapist and other professional she sees.

How easy is it to get the school to agree to this?? Where do I start?

Areas might differ but here you apply for a deferral with the council, it isn’t done via the school who, presumably, have not yet accepted your dd. Have you applied for a school place? I think you have to do that alongside incase your deferral application is rejected. I have a friend who successfully deferred her summer born ds who had a dx of GDD. He will start reception next year, has an EHCP in place already and they have just confirmed the school.

If you have an early years team in your area I would ask them for advice about the process locally.

I deferred my DS last year and he will start Reception this coming September 2019. I think the process can vary between areas, but here you need to apply for a Reception place as normal (so you have a place if deferral isn't granted) and then contact Admissions at the Council directly for the deferral. Our LA have changed their criteria so that they look to agree to the deferral if children are summerborn, as long as you have evidence specific to the child to support this. I sent in EYFS tracker, SALT reports, specialist teacher reports etc.

The school needed to agree as well. Our local school is an academy too and it was the Headteacher of the school who I spoke to and they provided the report. I would check the deadline for applications. I think it was end January last year in our area. I submitted our application and then the LA contacted the school directly for the report, so we didn't need to have it in hand before applying.

It is a good idea to have preschool, specialist teachers etc on board as well. I just stated in the application that they supported the request and that was sufficient.

In the end, after worrying about it, our request went through smoothly without any issues.

Often, schools are very supportive of this, especially if you can couch it in terms of how much better it will be for the school. Eg accepting DD our od age group will make her developmentally matched to her peers and could reduce the need for additional support. It will allow DD to access the curriculum on a par with her peers, etc.

My DDs who are 7 and 5 have each of a pair of summer-born twins in their classes despite being 2 years apart at school. The parents of the twins deferred one twin by 2 years because of severe SEN. But they had to take the school to court to achieve that.