Not entitled to free pre-school

StormWarrior

My birthday is also at an inconvenient time of year, and my parents sent me to school when I was 4. I was the youngest in the class, everyone else was 5/6. All throughout school I was the youngest, it meant that I even started my A-Levels when I was 15, everyone else was 16/17. In my case, I think it was definitely too soon. Not just A-Levels, but alot of things I had to do when I was just too young/immature, I wasn't ready for alot of stuff and it didn't do me any favours.

In some places, like parts of Scandinavia, kids don't start school until they are nine, and they have higher rates of literacy and numeracy, it doesn't hurt them at all to start later.

Fad

Haven't read the rest of the thread but......

Please dont send kids to school too young, I was 4 for about 20 days when I started school, worst idea ever......

Leaving it to five is probably a much better idea tbh

smelltheglove

From experience I would recommend waiting the year. Honestly, I have a child who went at 4 and I held back due to maturity. I have a brother who was also held back after starting school at 4.

My daughters teachers in playschool recommended trying to get her into school in September as she would be well able for big school, she interacts great with other kids and is quite smart, I told them I didnt want her to go, not that she'd get in anyway as she will only be 4 in October so it would be crazy but I think if the child is ready for school at 4 they are even more ready at 5. Ok so maybe the early years wont be too much hassle but what about when their friends are reaching puberty a year before them, when their maturity levels arent high enough to deal with situations with their peers, with putting proper consideration into subject choice which affects career choice also.

If not for the early years, think about waiting longer for the later years.

gogo

My sister started her son in school at four, and has kinda regretted it since. He's on the gifted school children programme and attend extra classes in UCd, so intelligence isnt the problem, he's streets ahead of his class. The problem is that he is head and shoulders smaller than the other boys in his class and even tho he's good at soccer and has a good group of friends, nine out of ten times he will be picked last for teams. He very self consious that his legs are skinner than the other boys and this has gone as far as no longer wearing shorts or presently he's at soccer camp and pulls his socks up over his knees.

My son will be starting one month shy of his fifth birthday. Here's hoping he's a little genius too. He's already very good looking, so he has that going for him;)*


I might be biased tho...

The Big Red Button

As regards starting primary school young, I think it really depends on the child, and parents know their own children best!

Of the seven children in our family, one brother's birthday is towards the end of August, one brother's is at the start of September, one sister's is in the middle of September, and my own is at the end of September. Yup, my parents must have really enjoyed the festive season. We all started primary school when we turned four (my sister and I both had to start a few weeks late, on our fourth birthdays.)

It never caused any major problems for any of us. One brother flew through primary and secondary school, no problems whatsoever, always did well in everything and got on with everyone, didn't do TY, was seventeen for his first year in college, and is now qualified with a good job. The younger brother ended up repeating first class, which was fine, he had gotten on OK academically but he himself didn't want to move on to second class yet, and so my mother and his teacher decided to let him do so seeing as he was so young. And he made loads of friends in his new class, and has gotten on grand since, he's now in college. As for my sister and I, we never had any problems at all keeping up academically - if anything, we were both always a bit ahead of our classes in primary school, and I think that if we had been held back a year at the start we might not have found the pace to be anywhere near challenging enough for us. Secondary school was fine for us too, we both did TY and both went on to get good leaving certs and good degrees and jobs etc.

The big advantage, I think, of starting young is that there won't be any issues if a child has to stay back a year at any stage, or if they want to do TY, or if they decide to repeat the Leaving Cert. And if a child is struggling in primary school and needs to stay back a year, staying back really isn't that big a deal as in most primary schools the classes are split most years anyways, so he/she won't necessarily be the "new child" in the class. In fact, it might even be possible to arrange with the school that the child moves into a split class with some members of their class from the previous year, but in the lower of the two classes.

But as I said, it depends on the child in question.

Sorry, quite a bit off topic from the original post!