School starting age, please advise

M_A_R_I_E

Again, can't believe you did not know this?? Surely everyone works out in their head when their child will start nursery, school etc...

I would def try to get your daughter into Reception class this Sept - she will have missed so much socially and emotionally by missing a whole school year.

Does your daughter not have any friends of similiar age who are starting school this time? What about her nursery friends?

spartacusthe1st

Kimitatsu wrote: »

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

how on earth can you say reception year isnt important??my daughter has learnt to read and write,do maths,spell and learn to use money to name but a tiny portion of what she has learnt all of these are essential life skills. and if the op is living in a village there may not be many children there

MrsAckroyd

Yes that's right, my daughter turned 4 last August & started in reception last september, so she was 4yrs & 3 weeks so she's the youngest in her class!

pleasedelete

I can't quote but what kimiatsu says about admissions is not true.

You can't appeal to the governors as they don't control admissions.

The LA does.A school cannot change their admissions. Under certain circumstances the LA can. This has financial implications over a number of years.

A school that admitted over 30 on its own would be required to fund an additional teacher from their own resources for up to 3 years ( or until the numbers dropped below 30).This could be seen as gross mismanagement by the governors.

In certain circumstances an excepted pupil rule can apply for 1 year only.

Please make sure of your facts.

Also you obviously know more than a wealth of international research about the value of early years and play. The literature review completed by cambridge university looked at all research last year but hey you know more based on your view of your 2 children

Hmmmm

JC9297

balletshoes wrote: »

In reception year I really don't think it makes much difference. My DD has an April birthday, so under the old 3-term admission system she wouldn't have started school until after the Easter school holidays (so she would have been the last intake for that year). I think that would have been a disadvantage for her, because the older children would have been in the school year routine for 8 months before she started. Having seen all the children in her year go through school with the single September start date (they are all finishing year 5 now) generally you can't tell who has what birth month by either their report results or their behaviour.

My 14 year old son with a May birthday went half-days from Easter and only full-time in year 1 (all that was allowed then), his friend with a June birthday stayed at nursery and started school in September. They were both at the top of the year group all the way through school, so they were not disadvantaged at all.

polejunkie

My ds is a June baby and started in the septemebr, I am glad I didnt defer his to the Jan intake because he picked up so much in those extra 5 months. I wouldn't want to defer any child from reception class as I feel it is so important to all start at the same time.

Luciferswench

nannytone wrote: »

this definately isnt the case. In Barnsley they start the feb - aug kids in january. my daughters in laws have a child who was 4 in may, and they have been told the start date is after the xmas holidays. no choice.

Not all schools in barnsley operate this way the one local to me only does a september intake now as of this year. But it used to do a september and january intake.

apples1

I have a feeling now I think about it that it is being regsitered with your GP that gets your address in the system which they then use to send the letter asking you to select a school. Was your daughter registered with the correct DOB at the GP in the area that you lived?

Just a thought and doesn't really help going forward.....!

SpikyHedgehog

My LA does not send out lettters asking parents to apply anymore, it is down to parents to be aware they need to apply... Once they know they can apply online, get a form to apply from any primary school in the county (as the forms all go to county to be processed) or be given the form by the child's pre-school education provider. (Who will have had to copy enough forms for all the relevant children, only to discover more than half have already applied online.)

Must admit OP, I do think your child's nursery have been a wee bit slack about not asking you if you realised you had to apply. As a key person in a preschool, I've been asking all my key children's parents since last December if they realised they needed to apply & if they'd done it.

As the deputy in the preschool, as soon as the letters went out to parents to tell them where their child has a space, I've been asking where they've got. And this flagged up 2 children who hadn't been originally given any space - 1 because the form was still at home and 1 because the LA had apparently lost a whole batch...

Js_Other_Half

We are sent nothing by the LEA in this area, it's up to the parents to find out about this - perhaps by being psychic if this is their first child?!