Can you delay entry to Y7 due to oversubsciption?

[Sally-Anne]

Dear Apial

Keep the arguments coming. It really helps brainstorm the idea.

Well, as you’ve asked …

For most, passing the 12+ has only been of psychological benefit, as they will never get a place.

I’m afraid that is the nature of the 12+ - it is not risk-free and places are not guaranteed. The advice I give to parents (as a 12+ veteran parent myself) is to make sure that they establish before the exam how likely their child is to get a GS place and manage their own and their child’s expectations accordingly.

We already have another sibling who jumped up a year, and this did not create any problem.

Generally where children jump up a year it is because the school/authorities have satisfied themselves that the child is academically very able and also socially mature. Assuming that this assessment was undertaken for the sibling, the move up a year will have been a success because those issues were taken into account.

The reverse situation of a child moving down or being kept down usually only occurs when the child has moderate Special Needs (examples I know of include Delayed Development due to premature birth, Downs Syndrome), or has suffered serious illness resulting in a significant loss of time in school. Children with mild SEN will be given additional support, rather than being kept down, whenever possible because it is seen to be beneficial for most children to be with their own age group.

Keeping him challenged is already a problem because he is "waiting" in a comprehensive.

Won’t that problem be even more serious if he has to repeat a year as the GS?

The peer age is not such a big issue. Some local primary schools have 4 age groups in one class, and even within the same age group different levels of maturity exist.

It may not be a big issue now, but it could be a real problem as he gets older, especially once the teenage hormones kick in and he is the only one going through each stage of that, possibly as much as 2 years ahead of his classmates.

If any of his current peer group friends are at the school, how will he feel about being in the year below them?

On the bright side, he would be able to learn to drive earlier than all his schoolmates, so he would be the most popular kid in the class.

One question I have is when his birthday is? If he is very old or young for his year that could make a big difference in your decision.

Sally-Anne

[Etienne]

I know age does matter in Year 11 - if you take it early your stats are used the following year not the year you sat the exams in.

Guest55 is quite right.

On the other hand, I do recall a grammar school appeal for a different age group (there aren't many of them), where the headteacher said "It won't help me with the league tables, but I sympathise with this case and have no objection ....." (There wasn't even a financial incentive - all year groups were full, and the school's finances were healthy!) ......... This head might have been atypical.