Under Aged kids

[stevew61]

qip001 you did ask for advice on sitting the exam early and I am pleased to hear of your positive result.

Looking for help was offering you the benefit of their experience and not suggesting that your DD would have problems.

The necessary but arbitrary cut off does cause problems, I'm an August born and know it affected me, my DS1 is the latest possible August born and he has caught up in so many ways but as he has just entered the 6th form at age 16 all his friends are turning 17 and getting driving licences, it is an issue for him, silly I think, but is an issue for him.

Being the youngest and often the smallest can be a problem in the real world where children interact.

But don't let that take away from your DD's huge achievement, congratulations.

If you ask for help and advice sometimes you may hear things you didn't want to? Best to take all advice with a pinch of salt. At the end of the day the parent knows best.

[Looking for help]

Quip0001 - I do apologise, I was merely bringing up something that we had recently been discussing at home, I thought it might be helpful for you. I don't know you , your daughter or the girl I am talking about. Well done to your daughter, I hope she does well in the future too - although I hope you don't take this the wrong way, please advise her to have a gap year before uni , she will miss out on so much if she can't take part in freshers.

Thanks Steve.

[doodles]

Well done to your DD, that is a very impressive result and you should be very proud of her.

I think your idea of a gap before Uni is a really good one LFH, not being able to fully participate in Freshers wouldn't be great. I still have friends I made during Freshers week.

I too have a young for the year DS who is very bright (I may be retracting that statement next week ) but we wouldn't have moved him up a year. He would have been able to cope academically but he most certainly couldn't have coped socially - maybe that's a boy thing, maybe it's just him as he is physically quite small and definately less mature than his Autumn born big brother at the same stage.

Enjoy your dd's success Quip and have a celebratory weekend.

[livviloo]

My DS in year 8 is a summer holiday birthday in the correct chronological year group BUT he is very emotionally immature. He has always only just been ready for the next move on at school, in fact sometimes he hasn't been. However he is very academic and scored in the top 120. I can't see how this is any different to a bright child in September , who dare I say is a girl( more mature?)being able to pass and be in the year above. Many children will be celebrating the end of A levels and school " under age" for the pub.
As a mother I am sure you know your child best.

[Samlet]

When I was at secondary school it emerged (when they wanted to show us an X-rated film, nothing exciting, Midnight Cowboy) that half of my year group were under age.

I was a September child and the youngest in the group was born in the May of the following school year.

Up to that point, we really hadn't noticed it and there was no correlation in our academic results.

[daveg]

When I was at secondary school it emerged (when they wanted to show us an X-rated film, nothing exciting, Midnight Cowboy) that half of my year group were under age. .

Strictly speaking, schools are not subject to film classification when showing films in class, although the school library is subject to the Video Recordings Act when it comes to lending things out.

[Looking for help]

Obviously with any year group there are old and young ones - the fact is that all children leaving year 13 should be 18 by 31st of August, hence they will be 18 by the start of a university term.

This is to my mind a social problem not an academic one - there are lots of children who could move up a year - lets face it there are not too many academic challenges in year 7 or 8.

[JRM]

I'm in a different region, but this is the situation we find ourselves in. (DS has had a full year added to his birth date in the standardisation process). There have been some very intersting 'debates' in our house about what the right thing to do is. Should he go 'a year early' then I always said I would insist on a gap year before Uni. However, there was talk of the mandatory school leaving age being raised to 18. In my googling I can find lots of reference to this proposal, but nothing of this becoming a legal requirement. Obviously this would impact on these children as they would have to do a 3rd year / part year at 6th form.

There is no magic answer. I know you have to go by what is best for your child, but I've lost my crystal ball! Academically it is a very easy decision, but there is so much more to life. And as adults we are finding that we are swayed by our particular experiences of school and adolecence.

I'd also like to point out that even though we are in this situation now, I am also a firm believer that children shouldn't be at school until they are 5. They're not mutually exclusive positions!

[Samlet]

When I was at secondary school it emerged (when they wanted to show us an X-rated film, nothing exciting, Midnight Cowboy) that half of my year group were under age. .

Strictly speaking, schools are not subject to film classification when showing films in class, although the school library is subject to the Video Recordings Act when it comes to lending things out.

They showed it as a treat after we had taken O levels (not in class time) and they believed that they could show an X film to us if we were 16 - shock horror, about half of us weren't.

[magwich2]

Why don't you simply take your child out of school and home educate for year 6?
You certainly wouldn't have to spend too much time on it to keep up with the state school year 6 (or 7 or 8!!) but you could have a great time.