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Education Committee Chair Graham Stuart (@grahamstuart) said today: “The issues around school starting age and summer born children are complex and controversial.We, as part of our evidence check, we asked the Department to provide the basis of their policy and we had a huge feedback on our forum on our website, many pointing out that there was other research which the Department didn’t highlight, others suggesting there were inconsistencies in the Government’s approach.
We were particularly struck by the individual experiences of parents and others, talking about the impact it had had on their families and on their children.
So we’ll be bringing the Minister before the Committee.
We’ll be able to ask him about these issues and others, and we’re asking anyone who views this video to join the conversation ahead of the session with the Minister and to, on Twitter or elsewhere, suggest any questions or make any comments, so that we can have the most productive morning possible, and we can have the best possible policy going forward for the new Government we’ll see in May.”
(Thanks to SBC group member Brigitte Kehrwisch for transcribing.)
summerbornchildren 
My son is summer born, but also has SEN, and a statement. The problem is that the LEA then thinks they can muck about with his year grouping without giving weight to the view of the HT or parent. Given that other summer born children with no special needs are allowed to be educated out of year group if parent and head teacher agree it is in the best interests, surely this is discrimination to remove this decision for a SEN child and leave it in the power of the LEA? He was forced to start at 4 yrs, in a special unit, and was not ready. He then repeated his reception year when he moved to mainstream (HT’s condition of accepting him). He was forced by LEA to skip Y1 and ‘catch up’. It was awful. Friendships were shattered and progress lost. He then repeated Y3 when it became obvious he wasn’t ready for Y4, and is doing Y4 now – huge progress! The LEA wants him to skip Y6 and enter secondary provision with his chronological age group. It will be a disaster, so we’re fighting to get him to finish primary school properly before transition. It’s only one extra year, but will affect his whole life ahead. He has made such good progress and I fear that will all be lost for the sake of bureaucracy.
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