School starting age, please advise

moomoomama27

shirlgirl2004 wrote: »

I'm not being argumentative I'm trying to get narrow minded people see that they way in which they do things isn't the only way. Some people on MSE are so judgmental.

So you tell me off for being insulting, then call people narrow minded based on nothing, pot-kettle-black!

shirlgirl2004

moomoomama27 wrote: »

So you tell me off for being insulting, then call people narrow minded based on nothing, pot-kettle-black!

I think you should try reading all of my posts on this thread. I may or may not agree that what the OP has done or is going to do is right but it isn't for me to give my opinion. The OP wanted to know when his child could start school and that is the answer he has been given. Some people then took it upon themselves to judge the OPs parenting skills by castigating him for not researching the school starting age in his area. This was opinion that was not requested but designed to make the PP feel good about themselves. Yes that is what you were doing. Can you point me to the post where I said YOU were narrow minded? If it's others you are concerned about then try reading the thread there have been lots of narrow minded posts.

balancelife

shirlgirl2004 wrote: »

The OP wanted to know when his child could start school and that is the answer he has been given. Some people then took it upon themselves to judge the OPs parenting skills by castigating him for not researching the school starting age in his area. This was opinion that was not requested but designed to make the PP feel good about themselves.

Uhhhh actually the "judging" was mainly due to the horrific attitude the OP has towards people and the rudeness of their posts, rather than not researching the school starting age and general parenting skills. And most certainly from my posts never designed to make me feel good about myself and definitely didnt achieve that!

Whenever anyone posts something on MSE more information is usually asked for from the replies. If the OP had originally just asked "Please can someone tell me when is the latest age you can legally send your child to school" that might have been different, instead of the whole jumble (how are we meant to know about school starting, what to do next, how to choose a school, whether to bother with reception or stay at nursery, transport, moving house, etc ect) that led me to think it was either a hoax post or someone who honestly knew nothing about schools. In PPs asking for more information or giving their reasons for choices and how it had or hadnt worked the OP then responded in vicious attacking ways critically about others choices and parenting styles even down to right at the beginning telling me that I obviously wanted rid of my child ASAP and that I wasn't teaching my child things at home, before then jumping on a suggestion I had that at school in reception they my dd has learnt how to negoitate lunch queues and carry a tray just to show more than academic reason for reception over nursery, on to shriek about the idea of a child walking/scooting 3 miles to school and how selfish I was for not taking her on a bus or in the car.... all thrown in with a generous amount of name calling. and that little lot was just what was directed at ME. lots of other people got the same rude reponses, and the OP expressed that those who live on council estates are "scum"... so all in all not a pleasent person.

Of course t is worth remembering that we do all live in different areas. I've certainly thought about that as obviously a lot of what I said is down to where I live. Council estates round here are all pretty good from what I've seen (plus Im a believer in taking people for who they are not where they live/go to school/ work) and I'm in the countryside where its not uncommon to walk about places, and we have a lot of fun walking to school etc. Schools round here are also quite good, so while I wanted my child in a church school for our own religious reasons, if she hadn't got in the alternatives wouldnt have been to awful.

I did assume everyone knew about schools in the same way we did, perhaps we were lucky not to have to push and chase it, and our school has always just had one September intake and the year dd started every child starting reception could choose to go full or part time until January no matter what their age.

The OP wanted to send her child to a particular school, even planning to move closer to be in catchment etc, and to me that shows they thought about the education but Im suprised they didnt go to the school and look around, make sure it was right and ask those questions about when would my child start and do they go full time, part time or start at different times of year, since every school is different.
I also "thought* that even if you thought you didnt have to send your child until after easter for example that you put the application in at the same time as everyone else to the LEA for that academic year so your place was "reserved"? so a recent change in some areas wouldnt really affect the admission process and timescales?

picnmix

shirlgirl2004 wrote: »

The point is until the last year there wasn't a uniform starting age. Now it is the September before they turn 5 this is a VERY recent change. If the OP had researched it when their child was born (you know in all those hours they sleep so you get to sit with your feet up ) then they would have thought they had more time before their child started school.

.

I was under the impression regardless of the intake within the year, all school places needed to be applied for (for example Sept and Jan intake) at the same time, in our area my DD started in the January, I applied the year before and was informed of the school she had a place in in the May of the year before she started, everyone received the emails from the LEA for both the Sept and Jan intake. All that has changed is that the staggered intake within a school year has stopped and they all begin at the same time.

SpikyHedgehog

jellyhead wrote: »

My son's nursery was in a surestart centre. They had private nursery where people paid for all day or whatever, but there also 2 lots of 2.5 hours (it was called NEG funding) each day for the local kids. All in the same room.

I don't know if they deal differently with people who pay for their nursery, but people like me who applied for the free 2.5 hours per day for the academic year after they turned 3 (my son is in year 1 now, I don't know if things have changed in the 2 years since he went to nursery) had to use the LEA's centralised application system to get into the nursery. We were given pre-printed forms for our primary school application, with our reference numbers already on them because we were 'in the system'.

Weird. I wonder if it's different for every LEA?

OP's child attends 3 days a week for 5 hours a day (1 to 6 pm) so is only accessing the 'free' funded entitlement.

I know the nursery near us that offers these session says that most parents actually pick up well before 6 pm, at different times so there is none of the chat at the gate I had when I picked my sons up from their preschools.

balancelife

That's true. at the preschool we would all be standing outside just before to pick them up, it was a structured day 9-12 or 12-3 or both, so I don't think people really picked up early. That's how I got to know a lot of her class mates parents and set up times to play in the holidays etc. My friend uses a nursery when she works where its more childcare than preschool (hes only just 2 now) and she drops him off and picks him up when she wants within the timeframe.

Thanks picnmix re the admissions question, that's what I had thought.

jellyhead

spiky hedgehog - 2 years ago when mine went it was a structured session 5 days a week and all of us parents would be waiting outside the door, to be let into the building.

A more flexible nursery allowance means people aren't all stood outside doing 'school playground' chat thing.

jamespir

in wales all children start at 4

bestpud

balancelife wrote: »

Uhhhh actually the "judging" was mainly due to the horrific attitude the OP has towards people and the rudeness of their posts, rather than not researching the school starting age and general parenting skills. And most certainly from my posts never designed to make me feel good about myself and definitely didnt achieve that!

Whenever anyone posts something on MSE more information is usually asked for from the replies. If the OP had originally just asked "Please can someone tell me when is the latest age you can legally send your child to school" that might have been different, instead of the whole jumble (how are we meant to know about school starting, what to do next, how to choose a school, whether to bother with reception or stay at nursery, transport, moving house, etc ect) that led me to think it was either a hoax post or someone who honestly knew nothing about schools. In PPs asking for more information or giving their reasons for choices and how it had or hadnt worked the OP then responded in vicious attacking ways critically about others choices and parenting styles even down to right at the beginning telling me that I obviously wanted rid of my child ASAP and that I wasn't teaching my child things at home, before then jumping on a suggestion I had that at school in reception they my dd has learnt how to negoitate lunch queues and carry a tray just to show more than academic reason for reception over nursery, on to shriek about the idea of a child walking/scooting 3 miles to school and how selfish I was for not taking her on a bus or in the car.... all thrown in with a generous amount of name calling. and that little lot was just what was directed at ME. lots of other people got the same rude reponses, and the OP expressed that those who live on council estates are "scum"... so all in all not a pleasent person.

Of course t is worth remembering that we do all live in different areas. I've certainly thought about that as obviously a lot of what I said is down to where I live. Council estates round here are all pretty good from what I've seen (plus Im a believer in taking people for who they are not where they live/go to school/ work) and I'm in the countryside where its not uncommon to walk about places, and we have a lot of fun walking to school etc. Schools round here are also quite good, so while I wanted my child in a church school for our own religious reasons, if she hadn't got in the alternatives wouldnt have been to awful.

I did assume everyone knew about schools in the same way we did, perhaps we were lucky not to have to push and chase it, and our school has always just had one September intake and the year dd started every child starting reception could choose to go full or part time until January no matter what their age.

The OP wanted to send her child to a particular school, even planning to move closer to be in catchment etc, and to me that shows they thought about the education but Im suprised they didnt go to the school and look around, make sure it was right and ask those questions about when would my child start and do they go full time, part time or start at different times of year, since every school is different.
I also "thought* that even if you thought you didnt have to send your child until after easter for example that you put the application in at the same time as everyone else to the LEA for that academic year so your place was "reserved"? so a recent change in some areas wouldnt really affect the admission process and timescales?

It was actually me who suggested you were a little obsessed with getting your littlie off to school and we don't all feel that way.

That was in response to the rude and patronising post you made about the school day!

The OP had already answered, politely, several times that they did not know about the school entrance arrangements, but still people felt the need to ask how they missed it and suggest they were somehow not good parents because they didn't know.

Up until that point, the only 'rude' point made was about people living on the council estate, but that isn't what you responded to.

Seriously, have a look back at your first post - it was OTT.

Pearlstar

I am truly amazed to hear people talking about "council estates" Where we live they have almost all been sold off under the right to buy schemes, obviously this isnt true everywhere!

Pearl:starmod: