Below is an extract of the Q&As contained within Advice on the admission of summer born children, a new publication this week from the Department of Education for local authorities, school admission authorities and parents.
Key points
School admission authorities are required to provide for the admission of all children in the September following their fourth birthday, but flexibilities exist for children whose parents do not feel they are ready to begin school at this point. Continue reading
The Department for Education has today published new advice for local authorities, school admission authorities and parents of summer born children.
The document Advice on the admission of summer born children can be downloaded on the DfE website page, which also provides a summary of the new advice: Continue reading
In the context of expert opinion that many children are experiencing “too much too soon”, I thought that this article might be of interest to readers of this blog:
Is there a magic ‘age’ for kids to begin playing sports?
It appeared in the Freeport Journal-Standard on July 27, 2013; written by Brenda Young.
There are many individual reasons why some parents want to wait until their child reaches compulsory school age (i.e. the term following their 5th birthday) before starting school, but news of the latest government proposal — formal testing for all children within weeks of beginning their Reception class — is certainly one reason many choose to wait. The increasingly academic and testing environment of early years teaching is something they don’t wish their child to experience at the tender age of 4. Continue reading
Reverend Lucy Winkett, Rector of St James’s Piccadilly, presented today’s Thought for the Day on BBC Radio 4, and I was really touched by it:
New tests have been announced this week for 11 year olds and a new national league table for 5 year olds is being suggested by the government as the latest initiatives to raise educational standards across the board. With some differences of emphasis, the main political parties agree on education policy, embracing the model of academies with a strong focus on standards and attainment. Continue reading
This week, Hannah Richardson, a BBC News Education Reporter, asked the question: What can five-year-olds be expected to learn?
Of course, as we know, the vast majority of children are only four years old when they start school, and many summer born children are STILL only four when their development progress ”for a five-year-old” is assessed, and in the article, primary education expert Jean Gross says, “It’s going to be really difficult with summer-born children and those with special educational needs who are going to be pushed too soon with inappropriate learning.”
The article below appears in The Observer today, in which journalist Paul Gallagher explains how a parent who WANTS her child to begin school in Reception class age 4 (so the very opposite of parents in our summer born facebook and google groups want) is being told that she can ONLY have a part-time place, and not full-time.
Michael Gove rewrites school rules to scrap right for four-year-olds to have full-time primary places: Change to school admission code by Michael Gove’s Department for Education leads to confusion for parents and officials
It seems as though confusion reigns on both ends of the spectrum of choice for a child’s school start…
Emily Dugan’s article in The Independent this week is worth reading:
Under-fives need more time to play, say carers as they warn of ‘schoolification’ of children’s early years (July 9, 2013)
Vote: Should there be more formal testing of children at nursery?
Sir Michael Wilshaw (Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector, Ofsted) and Dr Richard House (senior lecturer in Early Childhood Studies, University of Winchester) set out their case for and against – and readers can vote Yes or No (poll results then shown).
Using cheque books used to be ‘the norm’ for almost everyone. Until debit and credit cards came along and cheque usage fell dramatically.
But when in 2009, the UK Payments Council announced plans to close its central cheque clearing facility, there were complaints and in July 2011, the government answered the question, Are cheques being phased out? with an emphatic… “No. The Payments Council announced on 12 July 2011 that cheques will continue for as long as customers need them. A previously announced target for closing the cheque clearing system by 2018 has been cancelled.”
Yet when it comes to allowing our summer born children to receive a full primary school education – a right already enshrined in law… Continue reading
Thanks to Annette Brook MP, the Early Day Motion below has been tabled this week, and signatures of support can be read here. Continue reading
BBC News education reporter Hannah Richardson published this article on June 14, 2013:
BBC: Flexible school starts urged for summer-born children
This week in an interview on the ABC News website, Dana Vela, president of Sunrise Preschools in Arizona, says:
“The reasons parents choose to redshirt their child vary, depending on the child’s emotional, social and academic readiness to join school.” Continue reading
The June 2013 edition of the Early Years Educator Magazine carries this Opinion article, which the EYE publishers have kindly given us permission to post here:
The Scandal of the Summer Born – by Richard House and Stefan Richter
Dr Richard House, from the Department of Education Studies, at the University of Winchester, has had the letter below published in the TES magazine website today: Continue reading
The first National Children’s Day is being celebrated today – Celebrating the Rights and Freedoms of Children – by organisers savechildhood.net (read more in this Nursery World article).
“Childhood is precious. It creates the values, mindsets and dispositions that determine our interaction with the world around us for the rest of our lives. Children, therefore, have one very special right – and that is the ability to be able to develop, naturally and happily, to their full potential. National Children’s Day UK is dedicated to helping ensure that this can happen.“
The babies’ charity Bliss says it “would like to see flexibility for all children entering primary school. Preterm summer born children who are facing developmental delays should be allowed the flexibility to delay their entry to reception class by up to and including a full school year if this is in their best interests.” Continue reading
A friend of mine who teaches in a Canadian primary school was shocked to learn that most 4-year-old children in England MUST start school at age 4 OR lose their Kindergarten (Reception) year of teaching. I decided to take a look at some of the latest research going in Canada, and found this: Continue reading
Its
new report, When You Are Born Matters: Evidence for England, makes very interesting reading, and will likely lead to vigorous debate among policy makers and education professionals. I’d like to quickly share a few things that struck me almost immediately.
The authors clearly state that their findings do not directly address flexibility in school starting age; yet they confidently assert that such flexibility is unnecessary. Continue reading
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