Has Anyone's Child not got a place at their preferred primary school?

SnowyOwl_2

spendaholiceejit wrote: »

We just got our letter. He starts in September and he's so excited.

Congratulations to Master Spendaholiceejit. Hope he loves it there and that he makes lots of friends.

Ex-Spendaholic

Brilliant news. :beer:

neveranymoney

Nope, didn't get ours and our local primary is always oversubscribed, if it doesn't arrive tomorrow, I think I'll just phone the school. I put down the school my son attends the nursery at as a second choice and I'm hoping they don't just place him there, it is a lovely nursery but would not be my choice for primary school, grr!

beccam

We're waiting on the letter coming and keeping everything crossed as apparently this year the schools we put down for first 2 choices are both heavily oversubscribed!!

The joys of east Belfast..lots of schools to choose from but lots of kids needing places!

blueberrypie

caz2703 wrote: »

Thanks for the responses. When I left primary and went onto secondary education there were 2 girls with birthdays 1 month apart in July and August. One was 12 when she started 1st form and the other girl turned twelve 11 months later. To me it seems daft that my son would have to wait an extra year to start school and will be behind kids who are only a month or two older than him.

The system needs to have *some* cut-off date, and he just happens to have been born after it rather than before it. It doesn't mean he'll be "behind" anyone - he might be in a younger year-group than someone who is just a few weeks older than him, but that actually gives him an advantage, rather than being a problem. There is masses of research which shows that the older children in any school year are more likely to do better than the younger children. It's not a stumbling block - indeed, it's likely to be beneficial for him.

spendaholiceejit

I totally agree with you blueberry. DS is leaps and bounds ahead of some of the children who will be joining him in his class. I'm not saying he's genius, what I am saying is that he has 10 months more life experience behind him which at 4 is almost a quarter more of his life!

I am glad that he was born in August. It gives him a good start.

caz2703

I guess there's two sides to every story. I know there's a cut off date and there has to be one but I can see both opinions. I feel he'll be missing out by losing a years education but at the same time there's nothing to stop me home schooling him or sending him to nursery before he joins P1.

SuperMum2010

Hope everyone has had good news today? We just got our post and it was good news for us, so fingers crossed for you all...

seatzie

yep our son got in too, but he's an August baby and was going to the attached nursery so we'd have been pretty disappointed if he hadn't

blueberrypie

caz2703 wrote: »

I guess there's two sides to every story. I know there's a cut off date and there has to be one but I can see both opinions. I feel he'll be missing out by losing a years education but at the same time there's nothing to stop me home schooling him or sending him to nursery before he joins P1.

Why do you think he'll be losing a year's education? He'll have the same number of years in school, regardless of whether he starts when he's 4-and-a-bit or 5-and-a-bit. And with all the research evidence that free play is far more important than academics for learning at that age, you could say that he's gaining from an extra year of not being in a classroom.

The children who really lose out from the system are the ones who start school just two months after their fourth birthday. My son was one of those - or would have been, if we had been less determined to avoid the damage we were certain it would have caused. We did choose to home-educate - our intention was to do that for just one year, and send him to school when he was five, but as it happened, it turned out to be such a great choice for the whole family that we're still very happily doing it :-)