Anyone deferring school until next year? (Sorry if been asked before!)

Mine will be the youngest in his class I guess like everyone in this group. I think he's ready though. Will be weird when there's kids nearly a year older. Xxx

Mines the same, massively academically advanced for his age but really lacks confidence and social skills, if you deter, they don’t then go into reception next year, they go straight into year 1 which I feel would be a much harder transition so I’m sending him this year

We are as my little girl has a speech delay, her catchment school have agreed she can start reception next year and go to their preschool from sept this year x

My eldest is 29-08-13 and just started secondary, boy was she ready. From turning 3 age was ready to go to school it definitely would've damaged her keeping her back

My 3 year old ASD child is going to go with her peers, she has a cousin her age and I think if she didn't is have considered deferring x

No, the alternative of staying behind to do another year in the same nursery room whilst his peers went to big school was enough to deter us. Instead our school choices were made with his shyness and reserved nature in mind. He is ready in other aspects that matter more, as well as academics, so we’re happy with the decision to start him in September. It also not true that children automatically go into year 1 and miss their reception year (I’m a deputy head) it can vary by area but typically under almost every local authority children will join reception and be ‘educated out of year group’ as a school can’t argue it would be in the child’s best interest to miss reception.

Few years ago a child who went back a year in primary I worked (before I was there) in once went up to secondary school was put straight into yr 8 because they went based on their age/ dob I believe it was different circumstances as to why they were in year below. I think they were back due to additional needs and that was where confusion came from once in secondary school. Idk if same would happen once in secondary school or not perhaps best to double check x

The government guidance is very clear that children educated out of cohort (ie those that start reception a year later) should remain out of cohort for their whole academic career. So a secondary school should not force them to miss year 7. If they do they are going against government guidance.

No she'll be more than ready, she turns 4 and then starts school 2 weeks later. Nursery said she would be ready this year to start school. I think she'll struggle going 5 days and week, but I'm sure she'll soon settle and enjoy school environment reception is very similar to nursery

@Suz my daughter was preverbal when she started school. Best thing we could have ever done as she has an EHCP and weekly speech therapy. You wouldn’t even know now.

@Ellie It did happen but idk if it was resolved/how it was resolved as it happened prior to me working in the primary school. I heard about it when there were discussions about putting another child back (repeating the same year). During that discussion it was brought up how that happened to the other child years prior. I am not saying this always happens but it did happen once. However, it was a long time ago now.

Stuck with the same conundrum here. We’re going to see which school she gets in to and go from there. I feel like she’s too old for nursery, but not quite independent enough that she can handle school . It’s definitely a worry

I was seriously considering it but I think it’s too late to request a reception start in 2026 now, it should have been done when we applied for schools by mid-January. I really wanted for my boy to be the oldest in the cohort and have an extra year of play. However, my boy is tall and strongly-built and it always confused for a 4 year old already. He is also very social. So I think he will not be the smallest in the class, although one of the youngest

I wanted to to spend a bit more time with him as this year...he been doing my masters we've barely spent time together coz he's at nursery / the child minder But his nursery thinks he's really benefit from going to reception But he's so my biggest fear is bullying 🧍🏾‍♀️ my area is quite bad for it