when to start daughter in Kindergarten

[kirra]

Hi

 

Just debating what to do and curious to hear if anyone in similar situation and what you decide. We are moving to Sydney in March 2012 (its home for me).

 

My daughter starts Reception in September this yr. She is a June birthday so one of the young ones, but shes tall and trappy and 'rules the school' kind of kid.

 

Im not sure if in March in sydney I should enrol her straight into Kindy and she be the youngest kid in the class (June 26 bday), or hold off Kindy until 2013 where she will be the oldest in the year?

 

She's so excited about starting Reception in September (we have to try on the uniform every day and she sleeps with the school brochure!)...on the one hand I dont want to disadvantage her by being the youngest in the class, but on the other hand Im worried she will go through the big moment of starting big school in the UK then to be put back into nursery for a year might demotivate her... any one face this 'dilemma'?

[yumimumi]

Hi

 

Just debating what to do and curious to hear if anyone in similar situation and what you decide. We are moving to Sydney in March 2012 (its home for me).

 

My daughter starts Reception in September this yr. She is a June birthday so one of the young ones, but shes tall and trappy and 'rules the school' kind of kid.

 

Im not sure if in March in sydney I should enrol her straight into Kindy and she be the youngest kid in the class (June 26 bday), or hold off Kindy until 2013 where she will be the oldest in the year?

 

She's so excited about starting Reception in September (we have to try on the uniform every day and she sleeps with the school brochure!)...on the one hand I dont want to disadvantage her by being the youngest in the class, but on the other hand Im worried she will go through the big moment of starting big school in the UK then to be put back into nursery for a year might demotivate her... any one face this 'dilemma'?

 

 

hi there,

 

i would be interested in the answer to this one too. we are going over to nsw, newcastle in october this year.

our daughter too will be starting reception in september, full days everyday. currently attending afternoons only. now i understand that statutory school age in oz is 5 yr old. so not sure whether she will be eligible for preschool/reception when we get there for next term.

 

will be interesting to find out.

 

cheers nicola

[kirra]

Hi Nicola

 

I born and bred in Newcastle. Know all the schools and area's so PM me and Ill give you any info you want on the place :biggrin:

 

For NSW schools the official rule for enrolment is:

When to start school

Your child can start Kindergarten at the beginning of the school year if they turn five on or before 31 July in that year. By law, all children must be enrolled in school by their sixth birthday.

 

 

Now, my dilemma is that all my fiends back home are holding their kids back. So even kids born in the say February which back in my day I was born in Oct 75 so kids born Feb 76 were definitely in my yr. Now, its become really fashionable for them to hold that Feb kid back to the following yr so he is super old. Its the kids born June/July people umm'd and arr'd about yrs ago and depending on the child either put them in or held them back. But, no, all my fiends back home are almost holding their kids back to age 10 (ok Im exaggerating!). So this is whats got me worrying about my June baby! :wacko:

[Quoll]

The cut off date for NSW is 31 July so any child turning 5 before 31 July this year can be in kindergarten in 2011. With so many families being two income and the price of childcare being so high, a lot of families are sending their kids to school even with June/July birthdays rather than forking out for childcare.

 

If a child has had some full time school experience and falls within the cut off dates for enrolment in Aus then I would send them. You always have the option of consolidating - many schools have composite grades so if you felt that she wasnt making good progress she could easily move into one of them and not be obviously repeating. She will be young going through but if she is bright then that wont matter too much. The other thing is that if you keep her with her age peers, if all goes pear shaped and she needs to return to UK at any time, she would be with her age peers there too.

[yumimumi]

Hi Nicola

 

I born and bred in Newcastle. Know all the schools and area's so PM me and Ill give you any info you want on the place :biggrin:

 

For NSW schools the official rule for enrolment is:

When to start school

Your child can start Kindergarten at the beginning of the school year if they turn five on or before 31 July in that year. By law, all children must be enrolled in school by their sixth birthday.

 

 

Now, my dilemma is that all my fiends back home are holding their kids back. So even kids born in the say February which back in my day I was born in Oct 75 so kids born Feb 76 were definitely in my yr. Now, its become really fashionable for them to hold that Feb kid back to the following yr so he is super old. Its the kids born June/July people umm'd and arr'd about yrs ago and depending on the child either put them in or held them back. But, no, all my fiends back home are almost holding their kids back to age 10 (ok Im exaggerating!). So this is whats got me worrying about my June baby! :wacko:

 

 

aah i see what ur saying, similar predicament to us then really. our little girl will be 4 on August 1st . So if she stayed in the UK she would have been one of the youngest in her class. like i was when i was a nipper (born 1974 July baby). will decide what to do when i get there in october then, i think i will keep her in school in september here even though it will only be for about 3 weeks, as she loves her school, friends, teachers etc. dont see the point in upsetting her routine , plus it will give me a break while i am trying to pack up our lives in the day time when im off work. cheers for the advice about newcastle, further information would be fab. thanks. x

[pintpot]

Only you know your kids - but if your daughter will already be used to going to school in the UK then I'd send her

 

I think lots of people have read a bit of research (or news reports of research) that older kids tend to do better at school, but as ever with statistics, this is an average across the whole population and takes no account of individual differences. In the UK I even have friends who have tried to plan their families just to "take advantage" of this and try and have kids with Sept/Oct birthdays, which seems utterly bizarre to me

 

Personally we're moving to Sydney in November and our 4 year old (born June 2007) will be going to school in Jan 2012, no question - he already does here, he likes it and is learning fast, holding him back would be damaging IMO

[Guest shusselmann]

Hi,

We arrived in Australia 19 months ago and had a similar dilemma regarding our son. He was eligible to start school this year (the January after we arrived) but he’s one of the youngest in his year.

Before we left the UK we was attending preschool and in Australia he did a full year of preschool, I took the view that he really didn’t need any more preschool! I did have concerns though because Aussies typically wait until children are closer to age 6 so I was scared my son who wasn’t 5 when he started school would be in the same class as boisterous 6 year olds.

So far, I haven’t regretted starting him young. There are children in his class who turned 6 in January so they’re 17 months older than my son but the age difference doesn’t really stand out. There are children in his class who are small for their age and others who are big or more mature. Academically my son is doing well and socially he’s mixing with all of the children regardless of age.

I’ve read and been told than things can come unstuck in High School when children are learning to drive or starting to drink alcohol i.e. it might matter more to children then that they’re younger than the rest of the class, but I’ve decided to cross that bridge when we come to it.

That’s my experience:-) I also agree with other comments that if your daughter has started school already and likes it, I’d keep going!

Good luck with your move.

[LKC]

I had this dilemma with our eldest. She turned 5 in April this year, so we had the option to send her when she was 4 almost 5, or 5 almost 6. We decided to give it a go (in the most part due to pressure from family), she only did one day per week at pre-school, but is pretty confident.

 

She is the youngest in the year. With respect to reading and writing, she is at the top of the class, but that is because I had been teaching her before she started school, and because she is pretty bright and seems to pick those things up quickly. I don't have any concerns about her academically.

 

However both physically and emotionally there is a big difference between her and the others in the class. She always comes last in sporting things like running. She is so much smaller and less co-ordinated that she just can't keep up with her peers. Emotionally too, she is obviously much younger than the others. This may not be such a problem now, but I am wondering how in the future our 10 year old will deal with having almost 12 year old friends who are changing physically and emotionally at a rate of knots!

 

It is interesting to note that every single one of my Aussie friends with children whose birthdays are near the cut off (from Feb onwards) has kept their children back so that they are the eldest in the year. We have spoken to our daughters kindy teacher about our concerns, and she has made it clear that if there are any concerns with her progress at all then we have the option of holding her back. I am not sure how this would work practically though.

 

Part of me is glad that she has started school, because she loves going and is doing well from an academic point of view, but another part of me wishes that I had had the courage to say ''No'' when I was pressured, and kept her at home with me for another year. I feel that this would have given her a big advantage rather than a disadvantage.

[Sibella]

My daughter turned 5 in April and we moved here in June so she nearly completed a full year of Reception in the UK. She struggled in the UK - cried for me a lot and found reading difficult - I'm South African where kids only start school when they are 6 so I myself felt it was too soon.

 

When we arrived in Melbourne I had the option of sending her to PREP where she would have started in the middle of the year, or keeping her back until next year (the cut off date is April so she would have been the youngest). I asked around and most people keep their kids back if they are born after December.

 

So I decided to send her back to pre-school (which is called kindy here?). It's only 3 days a week for a few hours but she loves it -spends lots of time playing outdoors, making friends and generally getting used to her new environment. Also many kids from her pre-school is going to the same primary so it won't be that overwhelming.

 

And finally it increases the gap in school years between my eldest (nearly ten) and youngest which means if we go for private schooling in high school they will only overlap for one year - which will help financially!!!:biggrin:

For us it was the right thing to do but it depends on the child. My eldest daughter was one of the oldest in her UK class and I could see the difference - she learnt easily and now that we're in Oz she is doing very well again as she is confident in her abilities.

[lismith25]

My daughter is going to be 4 in May next year and will start Kindergarten or rather a kindy programme at daycare in January 2012. And then go into Prep in Jan 2013 yes she will be one of the youngest, but I do not think this will affect her. If we were in the UK she would start nursery in Sept so as far as I am concerned we are already losing 6months of stuctured education.

 

I am a teacher and can honestly say that I do not think age is a factor in the prep classroom's, I do not remember thinking one child was so much younger than another. However by year's 6/7 they are acutely aware if thay have been held back and its not something they are happy about!!!

 

Also I can't comment on the English childcare system as I have not used it, but over here Daycare is so expensive that I haven't even entertained the thought of holding my children back or going back to work full time yet!!!:wacko: Just something to consider, I find that most of my wages go on fees.

Cheers Lis

[RockDr]

I had this dilemma with our eldest. She turned 5 in April this year, so we had the option to send her when she was 4 almost 5, or 5 almost 6. We decided to give it a go (in the most part due to pressure from family), she only did one day per week at pre-school, but is pretty confident.

 

She is the youngest in the year. With respect to reading and writing, she is at the top of the class, but that is because I had been teaching her before she started school, and because she is pretty bright and seems to pick those things up quickly. I don't have any concerns about her academically.

 

However both physically and emotionally there is a big difference between her and the others in the class. She always comes last in sporting things like running. She is so much smaller and less co-ordinated that she just can't keep up with her peers. Emotionally too, she is obviously much younger than the others. This may not be such a problem now, but I am wondering how in the future our 10 year old will deal with having almost 12 year old friends who are changing physically and emotionally at a rate of knots!

 

 

 

If she's bright, then she'll benefit from being with children a year older and being pushed academically, rather than bored stupid as the eldest in the year. Bored kids stop trying, and this can be a disadvantage in itself, and far more detrimental in the long run than being the youngest in a class.

 

By the time she reaches an age where exams actually count for anything, a year won't make a difference, she'll still have had the same amount of schooling as everyone else. And having the opportunity to take a year off to work/travel/grow up emotionally before starting university can be a huge advantage. She'll be able to do this, and still be in a yeargroup with her peers at university.

 

emotionally, for the ten year old who'll be in a class of 12yr olds, it can actually be helpful to see everyone else go through changes before having to experience them yourself, rather than essentially being the guinea pig.

 

With the sport thing, try to get her involved in sport outside of school, where she'll be competing/playing with kids who are her age, rather than her school year. That should remove any issues with her feeling "rubbish at sports" because she's with older kids at school.

[pintpot]

I agree with all of that

 

I was young for my year, and was moved up a year when I was 7 and stayed a year "ahead" throughout my schooling - so did O levels (showing my age!) when I was just turning 15, A levels when I was just turning 17

 

I never felt disadvantaged at all by being up to 18 months younger than some of my class/peer group - quite the reverse. I learnt from my classmates' experiences through puberty, having the "extra year" in hand at Uni was really handy as I took a year off half way through and did something I really wanted to do without "losing time" if you see what I mean, and from a teenager's point of view it was pretty handy in terms of my parents feeling like they needed to cut me some slack in terms of what they'd let me do at a younger age - at 15 lots of my mates were 17.

 

It's partly because of that that I have no qualms whatsoever about my son starting Kindy in January when he'll be barely 4 and a half - he's already done a year of pre-prep here which is very school like and I'm sure holding him back would be worse for him than sending him

[LKC]

Thanks RockDr. I agree totally with what you say about the academic side of things. Although I am a stay at home mum at the moment, I am well educated and have always helped her along with things like reading/writing and simple maths and science stuff at home, but I don't think I could have kept her entertained for much longer.

 

Physically, it is the co-ordination that she lacks for the most part. For that I have started taking her to Physical Culture which a friend recommended for co-ordination, deportment and balance. She also has swimming lessons twice a week because she wants to start going to Nippers at some point. Although she is the smallest in her class, she is normal height for her age, so I guess as she gets older, it will all even out in that respect.

 

I am glad I sent her, I just feel bad when she comes last in everything!