Should they start school late?
Primary school teacher Jessica Heslop explains why Madison, at age four, was too young for lessons
When the letter arrived to tell me my summer-born daughter was due to start school that year, she was only three-and-a-half; so small, she was still wearing clothes for babies aged 18 to 24 months. How, I wondered, could Madison possibly be old enough to graduate from her two days a week spent at nursery to five full days at school that same year?
The nursery days were hard enough: she’d come home exhausted, overwhelmed and often emotional, and still needed a nap to recover. With a June birthday, she would only be four years and nine weeks old if she started in reception the year she was automatically expected to.
I knew she wasn’t ready, so I decided to exercise my legal right to wait another year, until she reached compulsory school age. I’m not alone, either.
Last week, a Government report found the number of families choosing to delay their summer-born child starting school had almost doubled in just a year. In 2015, there were 916 requests, while in 2016 the that jumped to 1,750. About three quarters were approved in both years. Some affluent parents were “playing the system”, holding back children if they failed to get into their first choice school and reapplying the following year, it was claimed.
But my reasons were nothing of the sort. As a qualified primary teacher in Cambridgeshire, I knew very well how the youngest children in the class could struggle, not just in reception but perhaps even more in year one. I have a degree in child psychology and have worked with children for a long time, which has not only given me an understanding of the way they learn, but also led me to question why it is we send them to school before so many other countries.
In Germany, most don’t start until they’re six, while in Sweden and Finland it’s seven. Here, we start ours younger and test them relentlessly. Little wonder British children are said to be suffering an “epidemic of anxiety”, with a report in December showing soaring numbers are receiving psychiatric treatment.
Children who start school before they’re ready quickly fall behind and require extra support in the classroom. The struggle to keep up causes untold damage to their self-esteem and confidence. These problems don’t just affect them at the start, they often continue to dog them throughout primary school and beyond. A test, last year, showed that
‘People promised me she would ‘cope’ – but I wanted her to be ready from the start’
by the time children are aged nine to 10, September-born pupils are outperforming their August-born classmates in literacy and reading.
Research has shown, too, that children born in August are 50 per cent more likely to be labelled as having special needs than others in their cohort.
People promised me my daughter would cope, but I didn’t want it to be a matter of “coping”. I wanted her to be ready, right from the start of the autumn term. Had she begun when she had just turned four, much of the year would have been wasted – on getting her settled and working our way through the tearful drop-offs, overwhelming afternoons and evenings of upset. She has no special educational needs but like many of those born in the summer, she simply wouldn’t have been ready, emotionally or socially, to start school at that age.
It’s far from common knowledge that parents of summer-born children have the right to delay their school start date by a year. I didn’t know it was possible myself until I began to look into the issue.
I informed the local authority that Madison would be starting school at compulsory school age the following year and I asked that she start in reception; yet to my dismay, they told me she would have to go straight into Year 1.
The admissions code states that all decisions must be made in a child’s best interest. How, then, could they justify her missing an entire year of school?
In the end, after 10 months of letters back and forth, an appeal board hearing and, ultimately, the involvement of my MP, who backed me, I got the decision that was best for Madison: she could start school a year later, in reception. It came as a relief.
When Madison did start her formal education, in September last year, she was five years and nine weeks old. She was excited about it by this point, and emotionally ready to learn. In her first eight months she has blossomed. Most importantly, perhaps, she loves school. I know it was the right choice for her. She’s now got a fair chance to succeed.