Anyone's little ones not starting school until nearly 5?

[Jchihuahua]

I don't think it's as simple as waiting a year. I personally wouldn't like ruby to start school in year 1 with the other children in established friendship groups, used to the school system etc. If she struggles starting at 4 yrs 4 months then I will definitely have her do half days. I'm personally not cut out to home educate and have no choice but to work when Scarlett turns 5 anyway...

Also, starting in Year 1 would be a bit like being thrown in at the deep end because even though year 1 does have some learning through play and child initiated learning happening it is still fairly formal by the beginning of the second term in most schools. The reception year is still completely learning through play and much of the learning is child initiated and it is a great foundation for starting school.

 

[sun]

I would wait a year before starting, but since the school is in a different language than our main one at home he would end up being very behind in his basic language skills.

Claire - About the kids already having established friendships, if you delay a year you start them with the year younger so no one would have friends yet? Or do you mean delay a year but join up with the proper year?

 

[sun]

I don't think it's as simple as waiting a year. I personally wouldn't like ruby to start school in year 1 with the other children in established friendship groups, used to the school system etc. If she struggles starting at 4 yrs 4 months then I will definitely have her do half days. I'm personally not cut out to home educate and have no choice but to work when Scarlett turns 5 anyway...

Also, starting in Year 1 would be a bit like being thrown in at the deep end because even though year 1 does have some learning through play and child initiated learning happening it is still fairly formal by the beginning of the second term in most schools. The reception year is still completely learning through play and much of the learning is child initiated and it is a great foundation for starting school.

Is Reception like Senior Kindergarten? Here we have Junior KG (age 4), Senior KG (age 5), then grade 1 at age 6. Our cutoff is December, so all the kiddos born after Sept aren't quite of age yet. Is there no JK equivalent in the UK?

 

[Jchihuahua]

I would wait a year before starting, but since the school is in a different language than our main one at home he would end up being very behind in his basic language skills.

Claire - About the kids already having established friendships, if you delay a year you start them with the year younger so no one would have friends yet? Or do you mean delay a year but join up with the proper year?

In the education system here you would have to start them in their actual age group year.

 

[sun]

I would wait a year before starting, but since the school is in a different language than our main one at home he would end up being very behind in his basic language skills.

Claire - About the kids already having established friendships, if you delay a year you start them with the year younger so no one would have friends yet? Or do you mean delay a year but join up with the proper year?

In the education system here you would have to start them in their actual age group year.

Ah I see! Here when you delay, you just start at the beginning a year later. Also OMG!!! Congrats!!!

 

[Jchihuahua]

I don't think it's as simple as waiting a year. I personally wouldn't like ruby to start school in year 1 with the other children in established friendship groups, used to the school system etc. If she struggles starting at 4 yrs 4 months then I will definitely have her do half days. I'm personally not cut out to home educate and have no choice but to work when Scarlett turns 5 anyway...

Also, starting in Year 1 would be a bit like being thrown in at the deep end because even though year 1 does have some learning through play and child initiated learning happening it is still fairly formal by the beginning of the second term in most schools. The reception year is still completely learning through play and much of the learning is child initiated and it is a great foundation for starting school.

Is Reception like Senior Kindergarten? Here we have Junior KG (age 4), Senior KG (age 5), then grade 1 at age 6. Our cutoff is December, so all the kiddos born after Sept aren't quite of age yet. Is there no JK equivalent in the UK?

Here we have nursery school/pre school which is for children who are 3 and 4.
They then go into Reception aged 4 going on 5. Nursery and Reception and part of what is called the Early Years Foundation Stage and there is a curriculum from birth up to 5 which teachers who work in the Foundation Stage use. Nurseries and Receptions are part of normal schools. The first 'proper' school year is Year 1 and the children are 5 going on 6. Our cut off is August 31st.

 

[RachA]

Yeah they start with the peer group. TBH though that wouldn't bother me as it's very rare that friendships get that established in Reception. At the school my son goes to the Reception classes (60 children in total) work together between 2 rooms - they have their own form teacher but most work is done together. Then in Year 1 the classes are mixed up. My son was taken out of one class and put in another, so were a number of other children. The classes get mixed up again in about Year 4.
Because of the mixing up in year 1 the children really get to know a lot of other children. I can honestly say that had my son started in year 1 it wouldn't of mattered to him at all - he would of just got on with making friends. I know not all children are like that though.

 

[Jchihuahua]

At the school my son goes to the Reception classes (60 children in total) work together between 2 rooms - they have their own form teacher but most work is done together. .

This is exactly how it is in the reception I teach in as well.

 

[Mum2b_Claire]

I think ruby probably would be ok with making friends, she's v outgoing. I think she'll be ready in September though, I'm not really concerned. There are definitely established friendships at rubys pre school - not surprising (it's a private nursery so some kids are there for 10 hours a day every day!)

 

[pinklightbulb]

I guess I think how I do as I was so advanced and was ready to skip a grade by year 2. I don't want Eamon to be bored like I was. He will turn 5 basically the week after he starts school and he already gets so bored

 

[sun]

At the school my son goes to the Reception classes (60 children in total) work together between 2 rooms - they have their own form teacher but most work is done together. .

This is exactly how it is in the reception I teach in as well.

Wow 60 students! Here we have 28 students to 2 teachers and I think it's too many students LOL. How many teachers between the kids there?

 

[RachA]

At the school my son goes to the Reception classes (60 children in total) work together between 2 rooms - they have their own form teacher but most work is done together. .

This is exactly how it is in the reception I teach in as well.

Wow 60 students! Here we have 28 students to 2 teachers and I think it's too many students LOL. How many teachers between the kids there?

I think it's all to do with different school systems. Here we tend to have the local state schools and church schools. These schools usually have classes of 30 children. Each class has 1 teacher and if you are lucky a teaching assistant. So kind of 15 children per adult.
If you pay to have your child educated those schools would tend to have smaller classes of around 15-20 children.

 

[Jchihuahua]

At the school my son goes to the Reception classes (60 children in total) work together between 2 rooms - they have their own form teacher but most work is done together. .

This is exactly how it is in the reception I teach in as well.

Wow 60 students! Here we have 28 students to 2 teachers and I think it's too many students LOL. How many teachers between the kids there?

We have 2 open plan classrooms and a shared outdoor classroom and we work together as a reception unit. There are 60 kids and two teachers. I am personally responsible for 30 of them. We also have two full time teaching assistants and a nursery nurse 3 days a week.

 

[Tacey]

No, Ofsted aren't involved with home ed. If you are on the radar, the LA will usually contact you. It varies from authority to authority what they will do. You need to show them that you are providing a suitable education, but how you go about that is up to you.

 

[Logan's Mum]

Esther's birthday is the middle of Oct so she'll be 4yrs 11mths when she starts.
I will be following her lead but I won't be actively teaching her as I don't think it beneficial for her to know too much when she starts. I have several friends who are all primary teachers and they have all said they much prefer children starting with minimal knowledge as otherwise they get really bored. They are just not set up to deal with children that are well ahead as they really need to get the children that are seriously behind up to a good level.
My son started school 4 weeks after he turned 4 and he knew pretty much nothing. He's in year 1 now and not behind at all.

If Esther really wants to learn stuff I won't discourage her but I won't push her too far.

Thanks for this, Logan will be 4 yrs and a bit over a month when he starts school. I was worried at first that he might be behind, but he's a quick learner and loves being with other children so I think he will do well. I'm also not teaching him before, we do numbers and letters as games anyway and he's starting to write too (he can write his name which I'm very proud of). I'm looking forward to him starting school as I know he will enjoy it.x

 

[pinktaffy]

Havnt read all replys.
But i will be homeschooling preschool. Weve joied homeschool groups etc so she will meet new kids have freinds and lote of fun.
But for me 3 is alittle young she would be 3 end of march an start school in septeber and that just didnt feel rite for me.
Im a sahm anyway so i thought why not enjoy the preschool age myself and teach her.
Then she can start school at 4 then.