Deferred Entry Into Reception

[Guest]

I have recently been approached by a parent who is considering deferring her child's entry into Reception. The child has a December birthday and would therefore usually enter reception the following September in our county. I have had no experience of deferred entry but feel it may be appropriate for this child........ What have your experiencs been? I would like to hear both positives and negatives before I get back to the parent!

Thanks

[Susan]

She needs to speak to the school, unfortunately sometimes this is not possible--not because the school want to be difficult but because they cant keep places open and unfilled, especialy if it is an oversubscribed school with a waiting list. This was the situation in the last school I worked in.

 

The mother needs to think about why she wants this deferrement. It is always easier for a child to settle at the same time as their peers and if staying in nursery/preschool means the child is separated from his/her friends, that can be difficult too. Socially, I would recomend that this does not happen!

 

If the school does not provide what the mother wants for her child, perhaps she needs to thinking about an alternative school rather than deferring entry?

[Marion]

I have had two children who have had deferred entry. One was because of SEN and the child has continued through the school a year behind and will hopefully transfer to comprehensive school a year behind and remain in the education system an additional year.

The other child's parents deferred entry and this child skipped reception year and went directly into Y1 missing out valuable experiences.

 

I would advise that she thinks carefully about this before deciding and considers whether the child will miss valuable time in school (not to say that other settings dont offer valuable experiences)

[catma]

Currentlychildren generally start school the term they turn 5 (unless they all start together in sept) with statutory school age starting the term after the child's fifth birthday. so presumably the child would be legally required to start school in the following January. (This I think is changing in the new eyfs to the Sept after the 5th birthday i.e start of Yr 1) Also presumably the child will only be 4 this december then? That would equate to entry next sept (2007) If they are 5 this dec they should have gone into Reception this term already....so bit confused there.....If still 3 there is a lot of time to go before starting reception, nearly a year so is this a bit pre-emptive??

However any decisions would need to be made with discussion and agreement of those concerned and would also need to include assessment as to the exact nature of the reasons for starting later than the rest of the peer group and also to meet their needs when they do start.

The issue of school spaces is a real one e.g. there is no guarantee that attending a school nursery class will give you a space in the reception class, and this compounds as previously said into Y1 as spaces generally cannot just be "held" vacant

 

Cx

Edited November 4, 2006 by catma

[Guest]

Thanks for your comments. Catma, for clarification, she could go in September next year, her 4th birthday is this December. In our area, there is a lot of surplus provision for children due to declining birth rates, and we feed into at least 2 primary schools! We work closely with all receiving schools and would most definitely involve reception teachers as well as our area SENCO , parents and our Foundation Stage Mentor.

I would love to hear some more first-hand experiences from those of you who have kept children in your settings for an additional term or more. How did you manage Baseline Assessment etc......

[Guest]

I currently have a child in my reception class who is staying with me for a second year. His diagnosis of global delay means we are well on the way to getting a statement for him and he may end up in a MLD school eventually. He actually fits very well into this current year and is much calmer, more settled and developmentally with his peers.

We did the same with his brother, well similar. He started at our school from a traveller background, recently housed and never having been at school or even nursery. He was supposed to be in year 1 but needed all the reception experiences. He is now in y3 and is a year behind and probably always will be.

Another child is in y5 at the moment, he started with us in Reception, with EBD issues and was in our EBD unit. He too repeated Reception for learning and social reasons and this was shown on his statement. We are now looking at a MLD secondary school for him, possibly if we can, starting him Sept 2007 so that he will leave us at the end of y5 and then go into y7 with children the same age as him.

Seems the only confusion with children in the 'wrong' year is disapplying them for SATS and secondary transfer, oh and I presume leaving school at 16 unless they want to stay on.

That the sort of thing you wanted to know? Gosh I do go on!

Liz x

[Susan]

Lots of changes can happen in 2 terms!

Why is she contemplating this?

[Marion]

Seems the only confusion with children in the 'wrong' year is disapplying them for SATS and secondary transfer, oh and I presume leaving school at 16 unless they want to stay on.

That the sort of thing you wanted to know? Gosh I do go on!

Liz x

 

The child we had who started in reception a year behind her chronological year group wasnt disapplied from KS1 SATs but took them with the class she was in (rather than with the class she should have been in..........if that makes sense). She is currently in a Y5 class (should be Y6 by age) and wont be sitting SATs this year but will next year when she moves into Y6. She willmove onto secondary school a year after she should by age.