Schooling for September born kid

duchy

FBaby wrote: »

I don't think the frustrating is only about childcare costs but having to pay when the child is clearly ready to start all and even on some occasions staying in nursery can be more detrimental for that child. This seems to be the case with the OP.

If that's the case private education is always an option. If the child is genuinely that advanced there is usually a scholarship or bursary to be had.

jellyhead

Yes, it's a shame there's not more flexibility, but that would make class sized tricky I suppose. I like Janepig's school's idea of halving the year by birth date! But I suppose there will be those who would be more comfortable in the older or the younger class even then. Still, it probably reduces the differences between the children in each class.

My nephew was the oldest in his year but he struggled so much, and still does - thankfully he hadn't been born a couple of days early because being in the year above would have been disastrous for his self confidence. Both of my summer boys struggle socially and emotionally, and also physically - they are dyspraxic and have autistic traits that make it harder to fit in with their peers. With the youngest though, I think that if he could have been one of the oldest in his class he'd have been okay and his differences wouldn't have stood out like a sore thumb, and he might not have grown up with an expectation that he will be rubbish at everything.

Both of mine were average-ish academically by age 7, but emotionally and socially were still 'younger'.

Janepig

geoffky wrote: »

We all have choices...Some choose the money option..Some the being a full time mum option..
As i have said before my wife's best friend owns a nursery and the stories of so called parents are eye opening.
Like putting child in nursery when both parents (teachers) are off for six weeks in the summer...

We're all "full time mums" (or full time dads). This term for people who chose to stay home with their children really annoys me. I don't stop being a mum when I'm in work. Being a parent is full time whether you're at home or at work.

Jx

Spendless

geoffky wrote: »

We all have choices...Some choose the money option..Some the being a full time mum option..
As i have said before my wife's best friend owns a nursery and the stories of so called parents are eye opening.
Like putting child in nursery when both parents (teachers) are off for six weeks in the summer...

Instead of paying full fees for the nursery to not have the child for 6 weeks.......

neverdespairgirl

I think we'd all agree that children vary in development - some are ready to start school and so forth at 4, some are still not quite ready at 5. But equally, the same child will almost certainly be more academically advanced, bigger, stronger and more mature at 5 than at 4. So while there will always be exceptions, it seems pretty obvious to me that, on average, summer babies might struggle a bit more, because they are nearly a year younger than the oldest in the class at an age where even a few months makes a big difference.

My next sister and I aren't in any way extraordinarily bright, but we were both very early developers. We went to a primary school which had only 6 classes, and most people did 7 years between the 6 classes, but they didn't insist on it if you didn't need the extra time. So I took my 11+ at 9, and left primary school not long after I turned 10 (my birthday's the end of March) and my sister was younger, she left primary school shortly after her 10th birthday, which was in May.

So my sister ended up turning 15 half-way through her GCSEs, and had her 17th birthday in the middle of A level exams. It did mean we both had to have an extra year fitted in before university - going to university in England before your 18th birthday is complicated, so I took a year out and taught English, and my sister did a foundation art course at a local art college.

It suited both of us, but lots of other children end up with exactly the same exam results etc, but benefit from the extra year.

My son is a summer child - his birthday is the end of June, and he's the second youngest in his class. I did notice the difference, especially early on - when he'd just turned 5, and some classmates were nearly 6, there was a difference.

dktreesea

Don't be too quick to push your children into school. My first child was born in October, and at the time we lived in Australia, where the school year runs from late January to December, so she was 5 and a few months when she started school. Here (Scotland) she would have started school in August of the previous year, when she was still 4. When we came home, she ended up having to go into school a year ahead of where she would have been in Australia. It took her a long time to catch up.

Indie_Kid

I have a friend whose son was born in late August and he started school in September. His brother was born in November and will be nearly 5 when he starts.

When I was at school, we started in the term we would be 5. I was in April and started in January and my brother was born in October and started in the September.

alwaysskint96

neverdespairgirl wrote: »

Sounds as if your educational achievement in statistics lacked a certain something!

Explain please??

GobbledyGook

It's crazy that there's no allowances for children close to the cut off dates. In Scotland my friend's child only made the cut off by 2 days, he was also premature and was nowhere near read for school. She was allowed to speak to someone (not sure who), his nursery agreed and he was allowed to defer his start until the next year. None of this deferring until January and starting with an already established class. He started the next year with the new P1's and was the eldest in the class.

It is the same with children who just miss the cut off, you can apply to have them in early. It's strict and you have to show that the child really could, or couldn't, cope with the year they "should" be in so it's not lots of children, just a handful, but it's better than an arbitrary X date cut off imo.

Spendless

Sometimes there is allowances made, When my son went into Reception at the end of the school year, 2 children were kept behind instead of being moved up to yr1, one because he had missed some schooling due to his parents separation, he spent 1 extra term in Reception. The other because he was being medically assessed. He was found to be autistic and has remained in the year below ever since (he's now 13).