School starting age, please advise

pleasedelete

All 5 year olds have to have something called an EYFSP or early years foundation stage profile completed at the end of the summer term. It's a national assessment. Almost all are done by schools but nurseries can do them but need training and support from the LA.

All of the research shows that it is better for a child to start school in reception. The reason the national age has been standardized to the start of the reception is in response to a wealth of research and it is part of tbe strategy to close the gap in achievement between children.

Being with peers is important. Again research shows that children learn most from other children around them. If she is the eldest with younger children that peer challenge will not be present.

Call the LA and find out where they have places.

5 years olds do very well in Doncaster. They have good schools and given the relative deprivation of the area (so compared to all similar Las) you get a flying start to your education in Doncaster schools.

bestpud

pleasedelete wrote: »

All 5 year olds have to have something called an EYFSP or early years foundation stage profile completed at the end of the summer term. It's a national assessment. Almost all are done by schools but nurseries can do them but need training and support from the LA.

All of the research shows that it is better for a child to start school in reception. The reason the national age has been standardized to the start of the reception is in response to a wealth of research and it is part of tbe strategy to close the gap in achievement between children.

Being with peers is important. Again research shows that children learn most from other children around them. If she is the eldest with younger children that peer challenge will not be present.

Call the LA and find out where they have places.

5 years olds do very well in Doncaster. They have good schools and given the relative deprivation of the area (so compared to all similar Las) you get a flying start to your education in Doncaster schools.

ALL of the research...? Are you sure about that? Seems a bit of a sweeping statement...?

pleasedelete

bestpud wrote: »

ALL of the research...? Are you sure about that? Seems a bit of a sweeping statement...?

Ok point taken maybe overwhelming woukd be better although off the top of my head I can't think of any of the research reviews for the rose review, primary curriculum review or eyfs review where they looked at worldwide research that said it was better to have children starting at different times or to have child start at a different time to peers.

bestpud

pleasedelete wrote: »

Ok point taken maybe overwhelming woukd be better although off the top of my head I can't think of any of the research reviews for the rose review, primary curriculum review or eyfs review where they looked at worldwide research that said it was better to have children starting at different times or to have child start at a different time to peers.

My understanding is the difference between early and late starters tends to even out by the end of Keystage 2 or the end of compulsory schooling?

My reservation for the OP's child would be that she is clearly bright if reading and writing already, so she may need the 'challenge' of school.

Are the advantages social or academic?

That said, I find it odd that anyone would want their four year old started on the educational treadmill, where it is non-stop to GCSE. But that's me and my opinion, of course.

pleasedelete

The eyfs is for children aged 0-5 including those in reception classes. It is very much a child led play based approach. A child starting in year 1 would go straight into much more formal education without having built up relationships with peers , being familiar with school and routines etc.

The gap is by birth date or age. 92 out of 152 LAs have had single starting points for at least a few years. The question is will moving to national point help to close or reduce the gap between autumn born and summer born children. The rose review made the recommendation as they believed that we have to take positive action to address it.

The gap decreases as children progress through education. We know that children identified with a gift or talent early tend to do better as they get more opportunities (outlier effect). The question would then be if starting year 1 potentially behind peers would have a negative effect. If the child can already read and wrote then being in an environment whet they would be pushed and challenged not just by staff but by peers would seem to be beneficial.

CAN1976

My daughter finishes reception at the end of this week, and she's STILL 4. Won't turn 5 until Aug 21st.

spartacusthe1st

CAN1976 wrote: »

My daughter finishes reception at the end of this week, and she's STILL 4. Won't turn 5 until Aug 21st.

same here my daughter will be 5 on the 17th of august, so glad she went to school she has gotten so much out of it:j

go_cat

My son starts this september having just turned 4 in May. I had 2 letters from the county council about admissions around November 2010 plus a reminder and also the nursery my son goes to was talking about it. I genuinely don't know how you didn't get any information on this / were unaware... have you moved during the last year which would mean you missed the correspondance?

Kimitatsu

Can we all keep this on topic please?

OP I will move this to the families board for you as there is a wealth of advice on home schooling there.

However just to add my own twopence worth in

Reception is NOT an important year in terms of education, all learning is done through play. Both of my boys went to a montessori nursery and were excited to be going to school only to find they were way ahead of the curriculum and wasted the reception year in school. Mixing with peers is important but if you are moving into a village then you have the advantage of knowing everyone anyway.

If you cannot get an allocated place at your school of choice that is not the end of it, you can appeal for a place to the board of governers who have the option to increase the class size on a temporary basis, I have known schools who have had allocated class sizes of 30 and have 33 in tha class due to children living in the village.

If you are looking at appealing then I would suggest getting the every child matters documentation from your local authority and cross referencing your appeal to the points raised in that document. You dont need to employ anyone else to do it, just explain why your childs development and education would be adversely affected if they did not attend this school.

Funding will continue until September 2012, and to be honest children at that age fall in and out of friends constantly so your daughter will fit in just fine whenever she goes. Ultimately only you can decide what is best for YOUR child.

Good luck

mummyplus3

Sorry to thread-jack op!

My daughter is 4 in December 2011 when will she start school? For some reason I thought it would be Jan 2012 but I think it's actually September 2012 is that right? and in that case when do we have to start applying to schools, I'm about to move into a completly different LA.

I didnt want to start a new thread!