Some parents want their child to be held back a year and to start school a year behind their chronological age group. This is called delayed entry. This is covered in 2.18 – 2.20, School Admissions Code.
Parents of children born prematurely who would have been born in the following academic year if born on their due date may be more likely to consider requesting their child has a delayed entry.
- There is no automatic right to delay your child from starting school.
- Schools are unable to hold a place for your child from the previous year.
- Agreement for delayed entry only applies to the particular school named within the request
Children who are born between 1st April and 31st August are described as summer born children. If you decide your summer born child will start school aged 5, and you want your child to start school in reception (not year 1), you need to make a request for delayed entry to the school’s admission authority.
The admission authority decides whether children who start school at compulsory school age should be admitted to reception or year 1. They must make this decision on the basis of the circumstances of each case and in the best interests of the child concerned.
This will include taking account of:
- the parent’s views;
- information about the child’s academic,
- social, and emotional development;
- where relevant, their medical history and the views of a medical professional;
- whether they have previously been educated out of their normal age group;
- whether they may naturally have fallen into a lower age group if it were not for being born prematurely.
- and the views of the head teacher of the school concerned.
Parents have a statutory right to appeal against the refusal of a place at a school for which they have applied. This right does not apply if they are offered a place at the school, but it is not in their preferred age group.
Things to consider when thinking about requesting delayed entry
If you apply for a school place for the September following your child’s fourth birthday you can:
- withdraw your application later
- or decline the offer of a reception place if it is agreed that their child should be held back a year.
You might want also to consider part-time or deferred entry.
Staying on in early years settings
- Early years settings do not generally offer as much focussed learning as in a Reception class at School.
- Early years settings are not generally as experienced as schools in identifying the wide range of possible special educational needs.
- Early years settings do not generally have the same high level of resources available in schools to deliver SEND Support.
- If eligible, free early years funding ceases when a child reaches compulsory school age (age 5).
Moving back to the normal age group
- There is no automatic right for your child to remain a year behind their chronological age group for the whole of their education.
- Headteachers decide how to educate the children in their school. This may include moving a child to a different year group when there are good educational reasons to do so.
Changing schools
- If you want your child to remain a year behind, every time your child changes school you will have to make a new request delay entry for each school applied for.
- If a delay is not agreed, your child would have to move back to their normal chronological age group at their new school.
- The implications for transition to secondary school may mean your child would have to miss a school year and transfer from either Year 5 to 7 or Year 6 to 8.
- Special schools very rarely agree to placements outside of normal year groups.
- Selective tests (11+) for Grammar Schools or Selective streams in mainstream school can only be taken in accordance with age rather than year group.
Leaving school
- Your child would legally be allowed to leave school the term after their sixteenth birthday, the year before other young people in their year group.
- Although GCSE’s and other examination courses that usually finish in Yr 11 can generally be taken at any age, this means your child would be legally allowed to leave school before completing examination courses that usually finish in Yr 11.
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