Sandra Greenbank’s three children are summer born

Hertfordshire County Council has told parents it “has amended its policy regarding summer born children. If your child was born between 1 April and 31 August 2012, and you do not believe they will be ready to start reception in the 2016/17 academic year, you may instead make an application for your child to start reception in September 2017.”

The council is asking parents to complete a short anonymous survey on its page Reception entry and summer born children.

This is excellent news for parents living in Hertfordshire, though for Sandra Greenbank, the news is bittersweet; her two youngest summer born children, Vincent and Saga, will now have access to Reception class at CSAge, but the change comes too late for her eldest child, Astrid, who started school early at age 4.The council’s full statement reads:

“Legally, a child does not have to start school until the start of the term following their fifth birthday.

Recent guidance from the Minister of State for Schools, Nick Gibb MP, has indicated that the government intends to amend the School Admissions Code to allow summer born children to be admitted to the reception class at age five this is the parents choice. Summer born children are those born between 1 April and 31 August. Currently summer born children are expected to start reception at the age of four.

In anticipation of this change to the school Admissions Code, which will require public consultation, Hertfordshire County Council has amended its policy regarding summer born children. If your child was born between 1 April and 31 August 2012, and you do not believe they will be ready to start reception in the 2016/17 academic year, you may instead make an application for your child to start reception in September 2017.

The reception application process for 2016 will open in November 2015. The booklet will contain further information for parents of summer born children.

For Hertfordshire County Council to understand whether parents would be interested in delaying their place or would have delayed their place given the choice, we would like parents to complete a very short anonymous survey on this subject.

The short survey can be found here.

Applying for a nursery place

Children are eligible to access a free early education (nursery) place from the term after which they are three until the child reaches compulsory school age, the beginning of the term following their fifth birthday. This entitlement is delivered in Hertfordshire by childminders, pre-schools, day nurseries, independent schools, maintained schools and academies.

If a parent wants to delay their child’s entry into a reception class until the term after which they are five, the setting where the child is accessing their free early education entitlement will continue to receive funding for the hours a child is attending up to 15 per week, 570 hours per year; parents will not have to pay for the 15 hours. Current rules on nursery admissions will remain unchanged, and children must be admitted if they are eligible for funding and meet the relevant admission criteria.

If you have any queries, please contact the customer service centre on 0300 123 4043.“