Summer babies- holding back school

[Bex84]

Schools have changed to one in take. You can defer but there is not different intake dates now. I'm hoping baby I am pregnant with isn't early as he could be youngest in year or oldest. My daughter is July and I worry for her. Luckily as I am a trained teacher I can give her some support. I would hold back but I saw how kids struggled socially to make friends when kids been in same class a year. What's awful is mixed year groups are very common, the last class I taught was reception and yr one mix and I made sure the reception got foundation stage working through breaks, one school I supplied at had reception, yr 1 and yr 2 together

 

[Bex84]

Add to that about 20% of my class did not have english as first language and had no English when entered, then add those needing additional support as well

 

[tommyg]

What a nightmare it must be hard enough teaching P1s without being in a mixed year and throwing in non- English speakers, Surely they should be getting extra help in nursery before they get to school.

When you can have 2 years between the eldest and youngest in a class is a huge gap, massive age diffrence between a 4.5 yo and a 6.5 yo.

Do you ever find the older kids in the year get bored?

 

[Bex84]

With the class I taught I structured day so yr 1s went to assembly with teaching assistant while I did maths activity with reception, when they came back reception had playtime outside with teaching assistant while I did yr 1 maths, reception came in for snack while I did summery with yr 1, yr 1 had break time and I did session or group work for reception, yr 1 back in for English and I would set them off and then do individual activity with reception while still been available to help yr 1 along with teaching assistant or I would be doing group work with yr 1, reception go for lunch earlier while I was teaching yr 1, then yr 1 lunch. Reception finished lunch earlier for letters and sounds then they mixed with other reception so done ability. Yr 1 back in while reception started reading and writing with teaching assistant while I started teaching year 1 then I would be going between both. It was tricky, then I had days I had no teaching assistant, plus needed to do sessions with EAL. We had lots of children come to schools where family stayed for year or 2 just for child to learn english, then quite a few would go back home early in summer so missed out then. The kids I taught were quick picking English up luckily

 

[Bex84]

To be honest I think its the children who are average and well behaved who miss out. Schools set up opportunity's to stretch high achievers and support those who struggle. Those in between I have noticed with some classes are just left to get on with it. I made sure not to as is unfair. Is one of reasons I am now sahm. I was working till 10/11 each night just to make sure children got what education they deserve and I can't take away that time from lo especially since her daddy is teacher to

 

[LeannieB]

Hi my eldest was born 27th August and he is the youngest in his year. He is currently in year 1 and I wouldn't say he has really struggled. He is slightly behind with his writing but he has never enjoyed this but he is doing some year 2 work with his maths which he really enjoys. My youngest is 4 in July and he is starting in reception this September but I feel he is much more ready than my eldest ever was, he is a lot more confident. I didn't actually know you could keep them back for a year. X

 

[mandarhino]

Hi my eldest was born 27th August and he is the youngest in his year. He is currently in year 1 and I wouldn't say he has really struggled. He is slightly behind with his writing but he has never enjoyed this but he is doing some year 2 work with his maths which he really enjoys. My youngest is 4 in July and he is starting in reception this September but I feel he is much more ready than my eldest ever was, he is a lot more confident. I didn't actually know you could keep them back for a year. X

What's changed is that schools can't issue a blanket no to requests to hold kids back a year. In practice, I would imagine most schools are still saying no to requests where there isn't a compelling developmental or medical reason. It is still likely to be rare thing for requests to be granted going forwards.

Read a thread recently on another forum about the situation in Ireland where they've had widespread deferrals in place for years so now some school years have an age spread of 2 years within the same class. Now that is unfair for the youngest kids.

 

[hypnorm]

i would have loved to have deferred Ewan for a year but there was no option and he would have just gone in to yr1, also our local authority don't give and option for easter starts either. So Ewan has struggled a lot, he is 22nd august so literally 2 weeks after he turned 4 he started school and within a couple of weeks pupils in his class were having they 5 birthdays.
we had to change his school as he ended up getting so behind but they kept saying it was to do his poor behaviour... new school no problems at all.

 

[ILoveShoes]

My LO turns 4 on 31st August, and starts in reception on 2nd September.
I am a bit worried, but he's very bright, so I'm hoping he'll be ok. Xx

 

[KaceysMummy]

My LO starts school in August, she'll be 4 and a half. I'm in Scotland too so I could have kept her back at nursery for a year but I think she's ready for school now.

 

[tommyg]

Kacey I don't think I would defer a November baby either unless they had very obvious problems ie born premature or had significant development delay. November is over 3 mths before the cut and therefore would make your child somewhere in the middle of the school year or the oldest by far in the year below which could bring a different set of problems, feeling bored and when they hit puberty feeling they are in with a bunch of weans, their can be a big difference between a just turned 12 yo and the youngest who'd still only be 10 year olds.
I'm not sure how far back parent have the choice however the LA don't need to provide nursery funding for deferred children born before Jan / Feb.

 

[~RedLily~]

My LO is a July baby and I have worried about this but seeing how she is at pre-school and how much we enjoys her reception class visits I can tell she is more than ready for school and holding her back would just leave her bored and frustrated. I'm not quite as ready for her to start school though