General Chat

what age children start school? Is it at the start of the academic year in which they become 5? Or the term in which their 5th birthday will fall?

Son and I are discussing this!!

Love

Daff xxxxx

when mine started 7 years ago they started in Reception class in 'the term in which they celebrated their 5th birthday' - they then moved up to year 1 the following september - either 1, 2 or 3 terms later. of course, it may vary around the country!
Maz. XX

Hiya Island... yes, the same with me...... I remember being devastated that as a June baby, the term I started meant buckling down to serious learning and no playing in the sandpit..... the older ones had a term or two of pure playing!! Marked for life, I was ;¬))

The same with my two sons.

My one granddaughter started school in September... she was only 4 last May... but my younger granddaughter will start next September we think... and will barely be 4!! That is far too young! In my opinion, of course, lol!!

Love

Daff xxxx

Hiya Maz... I thought that was the way, too... my son and I both think littlie will be far too young at barely 4... but it seems that in Scarborough that is the way it is... the year of the fifth birthday, not the term of the fifth birthday.... so sad!!

Love

Daff xxxx

we have changed here its normally the term after there 4 but as there is now no january intake baby satan wont start reception till 2 weeks before he is 5 in sept instead of january :(

I don't know whether it is the same nationally, but all children here start in September of the academic year that they will be five.

They attend part-time (mornings or afternoons only), and become full time in the term which they will be five.

My friend's daughter was four on August 17th, and started school that September.

I agree that it is too young for some.

Britain has the youngest school starters, just about, in Europe... and they are quite long days, too... my little granddaughter, she has homework, after a full day at school.... and she won't be 5 until next May... I find that dreadful.... I know it's only reading a bit, or drawing in the dots of her name, etc... but at her age that is formal learning, not play.. it is actually called homework!! And hard work for littlies, just as hard as doing a full day at the office, and then having to take work home to finish off..... appalling!

I found this though, which gives a gleam of hope... it would seem that in some areas they are pre-empting it!!

http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2009/apr/30/school-starting-age-primary-review

Joanne, that is just so young... they are barely out of nappies at that age!!

Love

Daff xxxx

It is too young and they are so tired when they get home. I don't remember mine being tired when they got home from school. Even our 7 year old Granddaughter is shattered when she gets home, and then has homework, whatever happened to childhood, they are all mini adults these days with all the subsequent worries.

I know, Ann.... I have strong views on giving homework to primary age children... very strong views indeed... I actually consider it abusive, and I wouldn't allow mine to complete it.... refused point blank. However... we read silly stories, made them up ourselves, played board games, painted played things like hoopla... so they were always learning, but having great fun while doing it!

I also worked in the primary school.... volunteers in those days, they didn't actually have teaching assistants, as such..... and the school I worked in agreed with me, fortunately..... so anything that the children were sent home to do, would be fun things... like collecting leaves for a collage, or something like that.... and there was no problem if they hadn't managed to do it.

Love

Daff xxxx

As far as I know, the local authority are obliged to offer your child a school place in the term in which they have their 5th birthday. However, you are not obliged to send them to school (or to provide an alternative), until the term AFTER they celebrate their 5th birthday.

Frankly, I'm not convinced they should begin formal learning until they are at least 6.

IMHO my eldest started way too early. Her birthday is in the last days of August and she started full time school a few days after she turned 4.

Looking back ...wishing I knew then what I know now...I wish I'd held her back for a year x

Hello Daff and everyone.

My mum is a primary school teacher and a short while back she had an interview at a private school ( children 3 - 11 ). She was given a tour of the school and said she was really shocked to find three year olds say at desks receiving a lesson in handwriting. The poor children could hardly hold the pencils and had little thingies on them to help them grip. Apparently the teacher told mum that the parents expected results. Mum didn't get the job - probably because of some of the comments she made lol - but she said she wouldn't have worked there for all the tea in China lol. Her feeling was that PLAY is a child's work and that's what they should have been doing.

Catie x

I think Granddaughter progressed from playschool to preschool (at the school she eventually went to, and then school proper, but I am unsure of the ages. M Keynes has a lower. middle and secondary school system so she has just changed school at aged 7 but fortunately she loves it.

Catiel, I agree with your Mum re play being a child's work. I think it is sad that once in the system the poor children have test after test and no time to be children and play. And then we, the adults, complain about them growing up too fast, wearing inappropriate clothes, being mini teenagers before they are ten etc. If we don't allow them to be children we must expect them to want to be 'grown up'.

I agree with you Ann. I also think that the amount of pressure children are under to 'perform' in tests , could be quite damaging. It could also put a lot of children off school in the long term.

Catie x

Fiona, that is what I understand the new proposals to be.... that it isn't compulsory, a matter of parental choice, until the term after their fifth birthday... although when son and I started discussing this, neither of us knew the facts, lol, so we are learning.

However, what then concerns me is that the places in the best... or even the nearest... schools, will have been taken by children who started at 4, so that those parents who wish to keep their children in a less formal learning environment for those very early years, will be forced to go further and further afield.... meaning a drive or bus to school rather than a walk.

Catie... we always had tests in everything... I am 55, it didn't really do me or my friends any harm at the time, as it was all conducted inside the school... it was just a case of monitoring what we knew., there were spelling tests, comprehension tests, mental arithmetic tests, etc... and always little tests at the end of each term... and year.... but they weren't this big thing they have now, by which each school had better, or worse, budgets depending on their performance in the national scheme of things. And where a child is considered to be failing, or passing at such an early age. They are being labelled!!

We did have the 11 plus (well, Cardiff stopped it the year I was due to sit it) which decided whether you went to grammar school or Comp... that was stopped , and now they have introduced the same sort of thing much more regularly for much younger children.

Ann you are just so right! They just don't have the time to be children any more.

Muffy, bless, mwah... but you still encourage your girls to be girls, and have fun... and do all the stuff children should be doing... just having all those pets helps, lolol!!

Love

Daff xxx

It is not the tests Daff, we all had those (even me back in the dark ages Lol!!!!) It is the pressure. I remember our spelling tests were fun, so were the mental arithmetic tests. But because the 'honour (ie budget) of the school was not reliant on the results, there was not the pressure to perform. I don't ever remember being made to feel a failure for not doing well at tests and later exams because it didn't reflect on the school.

In our school we used to have 2 intakes, one in September, the other in january. Mine both started in the January, the term before they were five.

This year, we only have the one intake in September which is two classes.

The class with the youngest children were only doing half days until half term, and have just started full days. Some of them have just turned four.
(I'm their Midday Assistant & loving it)

oops, sorry Ann.... that was what I was trying to say, lol.... am I being as clear as mud, again?

No... we didn't really feel any pressure until the 11 plus (I still sat a scholarship exam for the school Charlotte Church went to... not for the same time, of course ;¬)) but now these poor mites are feeling it from the earliest age... and their teachers are stressed out by it.... and so are the parents... kids are not effective learners when they are stressed, and in that sort of climate, so many of them pick up on the adults' stress.....

I do think that if enough parents rebelled, then things would have to change... but it isn't going to happen overnight!

Love

Daff xxx

~~~~~ to Mildred

Yes we had the eleven plus, known then as 'The Scholarship' But even then there was not really any pressure. Only 3 of us passed the year I took it but no big thing was made of it.