held back a year

[julie1]

ive got a question hope someone has some idea of how to help. My son who is in year 9 is behind his peer group, but has started to make progress at this present time. He has just been given a level 4 today in english but he is usually around a level 3. so i think that maybe the light has been turned on for him, i hope so anyway. He starts year 10 in september GCSEs. But i was wondering if holding him back a year would give him a better chance of doing his GCSEs. He does have a statement and is in a supportive school, however both me and his school doubt very much that my son would cope with 6th form which is in a local college. So his best chance would be to get GCSEs at school, but with his grades it is highly unlikely he will do very well, by that i mean get grades at c or above. Does anyone no what the rules are on holding a child back a year are ? would he still get funding by staying on a year? would the LA maintain his statement? We are in the process of appealing his statement , and are trying to get a different school named but this could be an allternative to changing the named school. The reason i wanted to change the school was for my son to be able to resit his exams in a specialist school setting, as our college is not suitable for him. And his school are finding it difficult to meet his social needs.