Families who want to delay in starting their summer baby Primary school Are facing a “inappropriate” Postcode lotteryThis has been claimed.
The parents, who launched the reception for a child born between April and August, depends on where they live, found in an analysis, some councils have rejected more than half of the requests of the parents.
Statistics – obtained using freedom of information (it was) Request – Some councils have rejected their children’s majority of requests of parents to start school.
Meanwhile, several councils approved 100 percent requests for delayed admission in a period of three years.
Preachers and parents are calling for more and more stability in England for families who do not want their child to start a year smaller almost a year smaller than some of his classmates – as some families worry that their child is not emotionally or physically prepared.
This comes amid concerns about the decline in school readiness among children starting reception, some debate Kovid -19 lockdown has increased developmental delays.
Children in England usually start primary schools after being four years old in September, but the parents of children born between April 1 and August 31 may request to delay the reception for one year.
A child does not reach “compulsory school age” until his fifth birthday.
Education department ,DFE) Guidance, which was updated in 2023, says admission officials are expected to decide whether the summer-born child can be excluded from their normal age group-to welcome instead of 1 year 1-based on “the best interests of the child”.
To deny the request of the parents, it must be “rare” for a council, and the government believes that it is rarely “in the best interest of the child”, which remembers one year of education by starting in year 1 instead of reception.
About three out of five councils in England-91 out of 153, given full data to PA on the total number of requests from the parents of children born to delay the reception in 91-15 years: September 2022 to September 2023, September 2023 to September 2023 to September 2024 and September 2024 to September 2025.
Of these, 86 councils provided a complete breakdown of requests that were refused in three years.
statistics show:
- Lammeth Council In London this year, more than two requests were refused to delay the reception entry in London from September 2024 to September. Seventeen requests were made for children born in summer and refused to 12. A spokesman for the council said that all decisions are “carefully considered on the basis of case-by-case, with the best interest of the child at the center of the process”. But he said that the evidence remains within his chronological age group “usually supports better long -term results”.
- Lincolnshire County Council refused to delay the start of the school in a year to about two (64 percent) of requests to parents. He received 87 requests to delay the reception from 2023 to 2024, and refused 56. But in the following year, only 13 out of 89 requests were rejected to start a delayed school from 2024 to 2025. Matthew Clayton, head of education aid at the council, stated that it was “change”, the way it belongs to requests for the start of a delayed school for children born in summer. DFE In 2023. He said: “As a result, the possibility of requests being made for 2024/25 is more alignment than the national picture.”
- The Southampton City Council refused more than half of the requests from the parents to delay the start of the school in a year. He received 23 requests for delay in the reception from September 2022 to September 2023, and 13 were refused. Counselor Amanda Barns-Andrews, Cabinet Members for Children and Learning in the Council, said that the process of DFE for education is followed outside the general age group, for which “the child needs to review every request personally to consider the effect”.
- Out of two (45 percent) of the councils, more than two of the councils, which provided data on the number of refugees-86-39-in the said that they did not reject any request to delay the reception in three years from the parents of children born in summer. This includes Leesterushair County Council, which is the neighboring Lincolnshire, where 139 applications were received during the period and none of them were forbidden.
- Heartfordshire County Council-which automatically processes summer-born applications-received 766 requests in three years, and the West Sussex County Council registered 293 requests in the same period and none of them were rejected.
The figures are only based on the requests of the councils, so the number may vary because they do not include all the requests made for the academies and voluntary assisted schools, which are their own entry officers.
Bianca applied to SUPTER Lammeth Council In September 2024, to request a delay in starting the reception in his son Rumo because he did not feel that he was ready for school as he was delayed in speech, wasolation worrying and still taking a nap during the day, but the request was denied.
Rumo was born on 26 August 2020-two weeks before his due date-with the position of a kidney, which led to two operations in the first year of her life, and Mrs. Sumpter said that Rumo did not have “socialization” due to her illness and Covid-19 epidemic.
The 43 -year -old London said: “You are deciding because it is best for your child, and you just feel so helpless that they are removing this decision with their hands when they do not know your child.
“It has really been terrible. It has been really stressful.
“I don’t want Rumo to go through school thinking that it is terrible. I want him to enjoy education. I want him to feel that he can achieve what he wants to achieve.
“But this is putting obstacles to say that ‘well because you are born on this day, you are probably always going to be an undercover’.”
Mrs. Sumpter said that the family faced one year uncertainty after the council denied her request and she decided to keep the rucks in the nursery in the nursery last September instead of nomination to the local authority school.
During the summer tenure, Rumo was offered to settle something in sessions at the reception in his favorite school and the teachers concluded that he was not ready to enter the year 1 in September. The council has finally agreed to keep the school back to the school, so it begins at the reception next month.
Mrs. Sumpter said: “This is a massive inequality between the councils and the Boro. You are in the lap of the gods in the context of that specific council.”
Southworks Council, who said that it approves all requests from parents who want their summer-born child to be admitted to reception after one year in their community schools.
Three-sas said: “I could really walk there [to Southwark] In seven minutes. It is ridiculous that we have to fight.
“Surely we want the result that children are achieving educationally better, but also that they are achieving socially and emotionally better. That is where we should get our children.
“Not only to say that ‘this is a cut-off day and there is no option and your child has to be in school” because then we only have generations of children who are unhappy and uneducated because they feel emotionally out of control. “
Summer Born Abhiyan spokesman Polyne McDonagh Hul told PA: “Based on the current law, what is happening with this postcode lottery is completely inappropriate.
“It is inappropriate because some parents have more information about law and their rights, and some parents have more ability to fight when they need a fight.
“Some parents are lucky and they are in an area where it is just naturally, or the school advises them so that they have an option.
“I don’t know that the year -direction year -head, the government does nothing about it and does nothing about it.”
The campaign group has called to update DFE School entry Code-Which is the legal guidance that schools and local authorities in England-to give “legal rights” to the parents of children born in gardens at the age of five to give their children to reception.
Ms. McDonagh Hull said: “The government has not followed through its promise to ensure that the school entry code gives automatic rights to all summer children to be automated for uninterrupted education, if their parents decide to enroll them in school at the age of compulsory school.
“Other parents can go on a private route if they can tolerate it. The other parents will choose homescooling.
“Other parents will just do the cave – their child either enters the reception class at the age of four, or they enter the year 1 at the age of five if a place is available.”
Timely visiting Senior Fellow in Tami Campbell London School of Economics and Political ScienceSaid that the FOI results reach the entry deferred for the summer -born children, “far from justified”.
She told PA: “The right to request” the policy is playing unevenly according to both the local region and family background factors.
“It is not effective in ensuring that children are most likely to benefit from the deferred entry.”
Dr. Campbell said his research has shown that it is potentially more “advanced” families, whose summer -born children are likely to start reception after one year.
“Not registered for the child Free school food And as the first language, there is more likely to postpone those people from English families, ”he said.
Margaret Mulholland, sending and inclusive experts Association of School and College LeadersSaid: “Government guidance is very clear that it should be rare for entry officers to deny the request of parents, but the rules do not apply continuously in behavior.
“Our view is that the decisions must always be in the best interest of children – and may be sure that there is correct support rather than delaying the child’s entry into the school.
“However, whatever approach is taken, it requires a clear set of expectations that support the interests that are constantly to be implemented so that families will know what is really expected and it is not a postkode lottery.”
A DFE spokesperson said: “High and growing standards are at the center of this government’s mission to break the obstacles to break the opportunity to achieve and thrive.
“The guidance of the government is clear that it rarely is in the best interest of a child to remember one year of its education, and therefore it must be rare to refuse to reject it.
“We believe that parents’ experiences may still vary and continue to support individual entry officers with their decision making.”
