Fuck me, secondary school local to me. Happy to have a Year 10 on work experience but maybe tell us if she has the cognitive ability of a reception child.

4-5 year old.

Could you arrange a meet with the head?
My daughter was born in July and before starting we brought her to the school and had little chat, mostly to her to see if she'd be ready.

My boys were born end of August, youngest in their year.
We considered it but ultimately put them in reception as soon as they were old enough. Yes it meant them being the youngest in the class but they have thrived and are all the better for it. They made awesome friends and are doing so well.

Trust in your kids and the teachers ability to work with them. They learn so much and so fast.

I've looked in the the future Muzz and it's fine. She gets straight A's, becomes Prime Minister and bans stand up wipers.

GooberTheHat wrote:

What's your thoughts on delaying enrolment for summer kids Tiger?

My boy was born in mid August, and we really don't think he'll be ready for reception next year, but also don't want him to miss out and just skip it. We are thinking about requesting permission to enroll him in reception when he is 5. Do you have any experience of that type of situation?

I'll type something up when I'm at my PC tomorrow.

Turns out I don't understand what 'tomorrow' means.

There's no doubt, statistically, that summer born children generally find Primary school harder. The phonics test data (for example) is very much skewed, where summer born children don't pass it as often as older children. The graphs might as well be in age order when you look at it on a wide scale. The academic side of your child being one of the little ones mustn't be stressed over. I'm sure that's not the big concern, but it's certainly something I'd tell everyone not to get too worried over. I think most here would be very conscientious and on board with doing what they can at home to support, so they'll mostly be fine by the time it actually makes any difference. The biggest thing you can do is just read with them lots and, if you do that, your almost certainly on to a winner. And not just the books the school give you.

In terms of whether they're ready or not, it can kinda depend on the school. Some are quite formal in EYFS, with children expected to all sit at tables and write at the same time (for example). This wouldn't be super-duper formal but it would be a lot closer to a 'typical' classroom for those short periods of time where they're tasked with this. Others don't kit out the classroom with enough chairs and tables for this, and will likely be a lot more free flow. I dare say the second is better for summer-born children as it's closer to nursery settings. Might be worth asking at the school what their approach to EYFS is? I'd always advocate for the second option, personally. 

I wouldn't sweat over them starting later so long as you work on some basic stuff at home (numbers 1-20 being the big thing, but some basic phonics stuff - what sounds various letters make - would really set them up to start well). Kids make new friends within days at that age so I certainly wouldn't be worried about the social side of things either. So long as they aren't super quiet, they'll make friends quick sharp. However, I will say they very few children do the delayed start nowadays. Very few.

My general recommendation would be to just let them start. They'll be exhausted, but they'll also be exposed to a lot of learning and social situations that you couldn't possible cater for at home. I can totally understand considering having them start later though and I wouldn't worry about it being something that would negatively impact on them if you decided they just weren't quite ready... so long as you were doing little bits and pieces at home, and not just watching fucking Blippi. After all, 5 days a week at school, with all the unfamiliar situations of new friends/places/teachers/dinner etc is going to be fucking knackering.

Syph's point about school places is super valid too.

Anyway, this article may be useful. I haven't read it because I've used my 'free' reading but there might be bits in there.

 too. https://www.tes.com/magazine/teaching-learning/primary/should-summer-born-children-start-school-later

Yes

Thanks, guys. Means a lot.

It's basically stepping up into my current manager's role, but it's coming at a bad time - budget cuts, angry people wanting to ban some of our books... Bit of a trial by fire but at least it's a place that I know back to front.

"destroyed"

You pocketed it didn't ya Moot

Been assigned to do some call listening at work with the new starters. It's that quiet the guy I'm supposed to be listening to hasn't had a call in over an hour so being paid to sit on the sofa watching Twitch.


Work is great innit.

Haha if they could hear me I'd be rinsing some Jungle

regmcfly wrote:

In work news I don't need to work for 6.5 weeks

How are you feeling mate? I know that's not something you look forward to every year. Have you got some nice things planned to do for yourself?

Time_on_my_hands wrote:

Thanks, guys. Means a lot.

It's basically stepping up into my current manager's role, but it's coming at a bad time - budget cuts, angry people wanting to ban some of our books... Bit of a trial by fire but at least it's a place that I know back to front.

Book bans? Por que?