Keeping him back a year

[Pippin]

HI, has anyone any experience of keeping a child back a year in mainstream state primary schools? P is 8 and in year 4, but is taught with year 3 due to small year sizes. he is soooo much better with year 3 than year 4 that we, and his teachers, want him kept with them right through primary and senior school (he's also an august baby who was due in September so should have been year 3 anyway). His School are adamant that the LEA will refuse our request, even though he is statemented and the school agree it would benefit him. What we really need is written evidence that the LEA`ARE allowed to do this. Can anyone help?

 

Sue

[stressedmumto2]

Sorry no advice on this.

My daughter is one of the youngest one's in her class too and is struggling. I think if it suits your child and everyone is happy incluidng him then why should it be a problem. Personally I don't think my daughter would like to be back a year but I think if a child is managing better then that should be what is taken into consideration not age and month of birth.

 

Hope you get things sorted soon, take care <'>

[reuby2]

I have a friend whose child is classed as "learning disabled" but is in mainstream and last year when my son went up to year 3 she stayed and repeated year 2.As far as I am aware it was sorted out within school.

Hope you get what you want <'>

Edited January 16, 2007 by reuby2

[jomica]

I think school are right. A child has to move up to secondary school at the time their (birth) peers move.

 

My son was kept back a year in Y1, working with the reception children for another year. His teacher - who was wonderful - caught him up to his peers in Y1 and he joined them again in Y2 and has stayed with them ever since.

 

Whilst he can stay down a year in primary throughout his normal primary years, he would still have to go to high school at the end of Y5 instead of Y6. It might be worth thinking about reintegrating him with his peer group (even though I know where you're coming from) before he leaves primary as he may well be too stressed to cope with high school and reintegrating in Y7.

 

Best wishes,

Edited January 16, 2007 by jomica

[Pippin]

Thanks. I should add that the school are happy to keep him back for the next couple of years but the problem will arise when he gats to year 7 and should go up to secondary school (2 years away). They feel the LEA will insist on him going to the comp where we(and the primary school) feel he wouldbenefit from staying with the year he should have been in had he not been prem. Finding an altermative school will be hell as there is nothing appropriate within 50 or 60 miles.

[Pippin]

Hi Jomica, I posted before reading your reply. Keeping him down at the end of year 6 is exactly what we want. We want him withthe year below all the way through high school and everyone who deals with him on a day to day basis agrees this would be best for him. He is emotionally right being with them as well as academically. He just happened to arrive a few weeks early. We're prepared to fight the LEA on this one as picking a date line has nothing to do with his well being. Various people have said we cant do it because we'd "set a precident". We say a) he has a statement which means that whatever is in that statement should be provided and "tough" if it sets a precident. He's been setting precidents all the way through school so far. His needs are different from anyone else's and he must be treated as an individual. I suspect we have a fight ahead but I just wondered if anyone else had had a similar one.

[lisa]

I think school are right. A child has to move up to secondary school at the time their (birth) peers move.

 

I'm sure they don't have to move up with their peers. A down syndrome child in our school was kept back a year all through primary and stayed at the primary to do year 6 even though she should have been in year 7. She was 12 when she left. She didn't end up going to secondary as mum wanted a special school and LEA wouldn't budge on mainstream. She was definitely supposed to be going into year 7 even though her peers were in year 8.

 

Also another boy, ASD, didn't go on to secondary because mum wanted a unit but LEA said mainstream, so she kept him at home. He missed his first year at secondary, but when he did go he went into year 7 instead of year 8.

 

I don't know how it works when they get to SATS and GCSE's but I know they can carry on being in the year below right through school, primary and secondary.

 

Lisa

[kirstie]

I deferred my son from Primary School when he was in mainstream nursery. It was the very best thing for him as there was no way he would've been able to cope be it a special school or mainstream school. He then went into a language unit a year later (attached to a mainstream primary schoo, for kids with ASD's) after shedloads of supports and behavioural therapies etc and he has loved it. He definatley needed that extra year so we could access the supports and try to turnaround some of his behaviours. My son integrates with his peers in the mainstream class and it doesn't matter he's a year older than the other kids. I know parents can defer entry to primary school even if their child is NT so if you have the backing of the staff then i can't see why it would be a problem.

Good luck and keep us posted.

[reuby2]

Oh , i forgot to say, one of my sons new friends is a year older than the rest, because he didn't speak till he was 5 , he is on the spectrum. His Mum told me that he had been kept back a year at nursery, But now he will stay with his class all through school, so he is now 9 whereas the others will only be 8 by the end of this school year. <'>

[Brook]

Hi Sue,

 

I know that doing this is possible, as I know a child that started school a year later than they

should have, but I'm not too clued up on when they get older, so I googled it for you and came

up with this:

dont know if these rules apply to each area or if each area has their own..

maybe you could google this using your area..

 

http://www.lea.tameside.sch.uk/governor/chronological.htm

 

Brook

Edited January 18, 2007 by Brook

[Pippin]

Thanks everyone. It's good to have some evidence of children who've done this to throw at them, and the links you posted too. I think I'll phone the LEA next week and light the blue touch paper.

Sue

[summertime]

As a school we have kept several children back a year for various reasonswhich include one child with asperger's who was a august birthday another with learnign difficulties and one who had a serious illness that kept her out of education for a long time.

 

we don't need to get the approval of the LEA to do this and once they are put back into a year group or kept in a year group for an extra year they then stay with that year group for the remainder of their education.

 

Also my daughters go to a school in a different LEA to the one I work in and my eldests boyfriend was kept back a year when he was in the infant department and will next year be sitting his A levels at age 19 instead of 18