Youngest child in year woes

mustbemad

Is anyone else having a nightmare with an August born child?

My son's school is driving me mad! They do not seem to be making any age adjustments for him and he is getting more disillusioned by the day :sad:

I really wish they would let a parent decide if they felt there child could cope with the older year group or if they would do better if they didn't start till the following year.

emsywoo123

mustbemad wrote: »

Is anyone else having a nightmare with an August born child?

My son's school is driving me mad! They do not seem to be making any age adjustments for him and he is getting more disillusioned by the day :sad:

I really wish they would let a parent decide if they felt there child could cope with the older year group or if they would do better if they didn't start till the following year.

My DD is late August, and has been youngest in her year from Kg throughout (she is now year 5)

It does get easier, and the "gap" becomes less obvious IYSWIM

Lunar_Eclipse

I agree with you, but mainly from the other end of the spectrum with a very early September born. She was ready and keen for school the year before she was meant to start (when her friends all went) and it has been nothing but one disappointment after another. She's 11 now and in hindsight we should have found a school that would have enabled her to grade skip from the beginning.

It will get easier. I have a young one too, and although it has been fine academically, she spent most of the first term absolutely exhausted after school and wasn't her best in the afternoons! It was a long term and not the best introduction to infant school.

CuppaTea

My daughter's class is a very young year, only 3 autumn born, 10 spring and the rest are summer born with a fair few being late july and aug. It has made for a very needy year group esp teacher wise and the usual class expectations have had to "relax" slightly to accommodate this.

In fact the school uniform shop had to order in new jumpers/cardi's as the usual ones swamped the littlies, many of them are in 3yr old clothes still.

There is never an easy solution as the cut off point has to be somewhere and from an administrative point of view it has to work as well.

puppypants

I was born at 11o'clock on 31st August!! Another hour, and I would have been in the year below.

mountainofdebt

I know when I was expecting Junior (due in October) August was a very fraught month .....and I breathed a sigh of relief when September dawned for this very reason.

motherofstudents

I have one son born in August and one in September. It's a while ago since they were in school but they both did well and don't seem to have suffered either way. They both got 1st class honours degrees and one has a Masters and applying for PhD. I know at the time they are in primary school it's hard to think so far ahead but they will be fine.

pleasedelete

Is he in Reception? You can delay the start- rules changed a couple of years ago. He must start by statutory school age- term after term in which they are 5 but the school must hold the place if a parent wishes the child to start later in the year.

meritaten

pleasedelete wrote: »

Is he in Reception? You can delay the start- rules changed a couple of years ago. He must start by statutory school age- term after term in which they are 5 but the school must hold the place if a parent wishes the child to start later in the year.

True - you can delay his start if you feel he isnt ready. oh and 'Must' start isnt quite accurate.........You can 'home school' as the law states that a child must have an education - not that he attends a state school.

ash28

mustbemad wrote: »

Is anyone else having a nightmare with an August born child?

My son's school is driving me mad! They do not seem to be making any age adjustments for him and he is getting more disillusioned by the day :sad:

I really wish they would let a parent decide if they felt there child could cope with the older year group or if they would do better if they didn't start till the following year.

We are bringing up our grandson who has just started in Year 7 - he is still the youngest in the year.

When he started school (he didn't start until the Easter before he was 5) he was four and a half - some of the children who had started in September were five and a half.

His motor skills weren't as developed - the teacher explained this one day when I commented on how poor his handwriting was compared to some of the other children. She said it was just a time thing and that he would catch up. He probably would have been better stearting in the September - but that didn't happen where we lived, they took them in in three batches. So he was already 6 months behind the September starters by the time he started school.

However he did learn to read quickly. By Year 3 - in the reading and spelling department was on a par with the older children in the class - his SATS in Year 2 were what they should have been for his age.

As the years went on the gap became smaller still until by his SATS in Year 6 he reached level 5 in both maths and English - though he is better at English than he is maths. The headmaster gave him and another child extra tuition in maths as he thought they could achieve a level 5 with a bit of one to one. They did.

Our grandson had the attention span of gnat when he started school - he's
not much better now. And his handwriting is still crap!

I actually found the infant school made too many allowances for him - it was always - "but he's so cute". The rude awakening came in Year 3 when he had a strict male teacher - who told me in no uncertain terms (when I had gone to the school because grandson was crying in the mornings and didn't want to go) that he "didn't do cute". He was the best thing that ever happened to him.

Don't worry about him too much, he'll get there.

meritaten

ash28 wrote: »

We are bringing up our grandson who has just started in Year 7 - he is still the youngest in the year.

When he started school (he didn't start until the Easter before he was 5) he was four and a half - some of the children who had started in September were five and a half.

His motor skills weren't as developed - the teacher explained this one day when I commented on how poor his handwriting was compared to some of the other children. She said it was just a time thing and that he would catch up. He probably would have been better stearting in the September - but that didn't happen where we lived, they took them in in three batches. So he was already 6 months behind the September starters by the time he started school.

However he did learn to read quickly. By Year 3 - in the reading and spelling department was on a par with the older children in the class - his SATS in Year 2 were what they should have been for his age.

As the years went on the gap became smaller still until by his SATS in Year 6 he reached level 5 in both maths and English - though he is better at English than he is maths. The headmaster gave him and another child extra tuition in maths as he thought they could achieve a level 5 with a bit of one to one. They did.

Our grandson had the attention span of gnat when he started school - he's
not much better now. And his handwriting is still crap!

I actually found the infant school made too many allowances for him - it was always - "but he's so cute". The rude awakening came in Year 3 when he had a strict male teacher - who told me in no uncertain terms (when I had gone to the school because grandson was crying in the mornings and didn't want to go) that he "didn't do cute". He was the best thing that ever happened to him.

Don't worry about him too much, he'll get there.

so, you still think that this teacher improved matters?