Deferring entry to Reception - ASD

[HateTheUnknown]

Hi - I am wanting to defer entry to reception for my son who is summer born and has a diagnosis of ASD. I believe it will help him to catch up in terms of self-care and socially. 🤞🏻

Has anyone been successful in doing this?

Does anyone have any suggestions for what to write in our statement of justification to the LA?

TIA

I have just done this for my son who has a speech delay. Is your little one due to start sept 2019?

Hi there..i delayed my son for a year..he was diagnosed at 2 and his nursery staff were brilliant.and he was happy there.he went to a special school afterwards..hes 7 now and doing so well..he was non verbal untill recently ..now hes a chatterbox..big leap in last 6mths..best decision i have made so far keeping him back he simply wasnt ready..he was quite delayed in understanding back then.

Just to add..the nursery did most of the work as it was just requested by headmistress at annual review that he stay as he was making steady progress but overall was still quite delayed in most of the early years stuff .

Hi OP, I deferred my DS last year and he is due to start in Reception this September.

LA’s do vary, but ours in terms of agreeing to a deferral looks for the child to

• be more closely matched in terms of physical and emotional maturity
• maintain a better academic position in the class
• need less or no differentiation/support to access the curriculum.

When drafting the letter I focused on an extra year allowing him time to mature and improve his speaking and listening skills and therefore he would require less differentiation and be more closely matched with a younger peer group etc. Also, at that point DS hadn’t had a full year of preschool at 15 hours, so I put that down as a reason too. I did mention his diagnosis, but didn’t focus on it ifyswim.

Application went through smoothly. The LA had just changed its policy on summerborns whereby there is now a presumption to agree to deferral, which helped.

Thanks for the responses.
Yes he is due to start in sept 2019.
Milk - what do you believe made your DD progress with language? My DS is very delayed in communication and language - currently around 12-18 months and his actual age is 45 months.
A little worried that I'll have to prove he won't need additional support as were also going for an EHCP.

DS has a severe language delay and an ASC diagnosis. We applied for the deferral and an EHCP in tandem last year. They are dealt with by separate LA departments and we didn’t have any issues with either.

I worded the deferral covering letter to reflect their criteria, so we were creating our case round what they wanted to hear. Focused on how DS would develop rather than the support he would need, so they wouldn’t have any obvious reason not to grant it. I’d contact your LA admissions to see what they are looking for and then you’ll have a better idea how to word it.

I think it did help that they had just changed policy for summerborns. Our LA will now presume to agree (application doesn’t even go to panel) as long as you can provide evidence specific to the child that deferral will be beneficial. We sent in preschool, SALT and Paediatrician reports and our supporting letter. Headteacher of the school had to send a report agreeing to it as well. Didn’t need to do anything else and deferral was then confirmed a couple of months later.

I did this for our summer born son. He's not got a diagnosis, just on a waiting list to see someone.
I had a statement from nursery about how much extra help he needs and where he is compared with his peers. I also spoke to the sendco and the head of the school he's due to start in, and was able to give specific examples of things that nursery do that school can't do.

Where we live they ask you to do it before the deadline for school application, so if it is the same where you live you'd better get a move on!

Good luck

I've already applied - in our LA you submit with your application for reception, for which the deadline was Tuesday. They have since contacting asking for further information.

Thank you everyone for your advice. It is extremely helpful

My June born son with SEN started Reception in September aged 5. In my area it's v straightforward - I emailed the headteachers of my 3 favourite schools, they all wrote back expressing support. I wrote to the Council requesting a delayed start and they granted me permission within a week. It was definitely the best choice for us - hope that your application is dealt with positively and speedily

I obtained my son's Statement (now an EHCP) whilst he was still in Nursery, and it named a specialist ASD school. Despite being a summer-born preemie, I decided to let him start Reception just after his fourth birthday because he needed that social environment to learn from his peers. It was then agreed in his annual review during that year that he was too different to the other children of his class, so he repeated Reception the following year and is now travelling through primary school as one-year-delayed.