Summerborn Deferral - impact on 11+

[Smellysaurus]

We live abroad and our daughter is an early August baby. We will likely move back to the UK when she would be due to go into Y1. I would like to defer her and have her start in reception instead. I had intended to defer even before we moved abroad but now I'm even more convinced it's the right thing to do. She will have done a couple of years in nursery/preschool but not in English and we are in a country which delays formal reading/writing until age 6/7. So I really think she wil be at a disadvantage...

However in the uk we live in a super selective area. If she is grammar calibre we would like her to sit the 11+ - but the entry requirements suggests she wouldn't qualify if we defer and shed be too old.

Does anyone have any experience of how summerborns have been treated if they have deferred their reception start??

Thanks!

[Goodheart]

...but the entry requirements suggests she wouldn't qualify if we defer and shed be too old.

I don't know which area you're in, but one of the super-selectives local to me specifically talks about this scenario in their FAQ (see http://www.wallingtongirls.sutton.sch.u ... 2017-entry):

If your child is going to be in Year 6 at the time of the test but is out of date range (i.e. their birth date is not between 1 September 2005 and 31 August 2006) then there are instructions on the registration form on who to contact to make the registration. You will be asked to provide supporting evidence from your child’s primary school confirming why the decision was taken to either promote them by a year group or hold them back before any registration can be made.

So, it seems, as long as you can provide a reasonable justification for your DD not being in the 'expected' year, you'll be fine. You should, however, obviously check the individual policies of your local schools, which may differ from the above.

[Sally-Anne]

The School Admissions Code 2014 is your friend https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/s ... 19_Dec.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;.

Wherever the word "must" is used, the admission authority is obliged by law to comply with the provisions in the Code.

Admission of children outside their normal age group

2.17 Parents may seek a place for their child outside of their normal age group, for example, if the child is gifted and talented or has experienced problems such as ill health. In addition, the parents of a summer born child may choose not to send that child to school until the September following their fifth birthday and may request that they are admitted out of their normal age group – to reception rather than year 1. Admission authorities must make clear in their admission arrangements the process for requesting admission out of the normal age group.

2.17A Admission authorities must make decisions on the basis of the circumstances of each case and in the best interests of the child concerned. This will include taking account of the parent’s views; information about the child’s academic, social and emotional development; where relevant, their medical history and the views of a medical professional; whether they have previously been educated out of their normal age group; and whether they may naturally have fallen into a lower age group if it were not for being born prematurely. They must also take into account the views of the head teacher of the school concerned. When informing a parent of their decision on the year group the child should be admitted to, the admission authority must set out clearly the reasons for their decision.

2.17B Where an admission authority agrees to a parent’s request for their child to be admitted out of their normal age group and, as a consequence of that decision, the child will be admitted to a relevant age group (i.e. the age group to which pupils are normally admitted to the school) the local authority and admission authority must process the application as part of the main admissions round, unless the parental request is made too late for this to be possible, and on the basis of their determined admission arrangements only, including the application of oversubscription criteria where applicable. They must not give the application lower priority on the basis that the child is being admitted out of their normal age group. Parents have a statutory right to appeal against the refusal of a place at a school for which they have applied. This right does not apply if they are offered a place at the school but it is not in their preferred age group.

[Ladymuck]

The tricky bit about that part of the admissions code, is that whilst the primary school may agree to the deferral, there is no obligation for a secondary school to agree to a subsequent deferral simply because the primary school has done so. It will depend on the circumstances at that time. Whilst those circumstances will include the fact that she has been educated our of yeargroup to date, they will also consider her physical and emotional maturity. If your child is towards the high end of the ability range, you may find it more difficult to justify her being out of yeargroup when she comes to the correct date to progress to year 7.

[Sally-Anne]

The tricky bit about that part of the admissions code, is that whilst the primary school may agree to the deferral, there is no obligation for a secondary school to agree to a subsequent deferral simply because the primary school has done so.

They are legally obliged to consider it. As you go on to say, they may look at other factors, but there is no wriggle-room on their legal obligation.

[TIDDLYMUM]

Be careful about this. I helped a lady with an appeal letter ( her daughter had narrowly missed the pass mark) and of the four schools open to her , only one allowed her daughter to sit the exam as she was 'too old'. She had lived in NI where I think they start later depending on their date of birth.

[Smellysaurus]

Thanks all. I will make some phone calls.

Hurdle 1 - see if deferred reception entry is possible
Hurdle 2 - see if this deferral will mean she could take the 11+ with her deferred year group

[Enjoyingthejourney]

How would the age standardisation work with such a case? I ask as my own son is a late August baby. The prospect of him sitting an exam with children more than a year older than him does not seem fair.

[Smellysaurus]

I read that our area doesn't do any age weighting.... Not sure if others do, but guessing it would need to be factored in if they do.

[ToadMum]

I read that our area doesn't do any age weighting.... Not sure if others do, but guessing it would need to be factored in if they do.

If you are in Essex, no, the CSSE doesn't use age standardisation. I was told that they do look at the results and would, if there appeared to be a need for it, but at least up until then, there had been no statistically significant difference. Possibly with the increase in a spread of up to seventeen months difference from oldest (1st April deferred birthday) to youngest (31st August non-deferred), they will find that there is a need.

Although, as our June-born DS1 (mid-340s score, 2008 entry) said when I told him that nowadays he could have waited - just one term in his case, as his was the last of the three-term intake at his primary school - and gone into reception in the September, 'Why on earth would anyone want to?' . But then, he had attended a full-day nursery for over four years and the staff there felt, as we did, that he would actually have benefited from being able to start school at the beginning of his own academic year.