What age should a child be starting school?

daheff

OK, so me & Mrs are trying to decide when we should send one of our kids to school.

The child's bday is in May. So should the child be 4 going on 5(in the may of jnr infants) or 5 going on 6(in the may of jnr infants)?

I understand that a lot depends on the maturity of the child, but putting that aside what age should the child be?

If child was 4 in the year then they would just gone 17, if they were 5 starting they'd be 18.
I know all my friends were 17 finishing the leaving (one was 16 still).

A little advice please!!!!

Absoluvely

4 going on 5. That'd be the norm.
Maybe add a poll to the thread.

miss no stars

I'd lean towards 4 if the child is engaged with learning and enjoys going to playschool... If they're resistant to playschool I'd say 5, because what's the harm, really? They stay at home in a comfortable environment, grow up for an extra year and probably want a bit more independence and will be less resistant to school by the time it comes around. A May birthday is at a time of year where either age will work out fine as long as they're ready for school when they go.

Might be no harm to drop into the intended school and find out if there's any local trend for the age that kids start at. If they mostly start at 5 and yours starts at 4 then they will probably be behind socially. Likewise if the kids tend to start at 4 and yours starts at 5 they might be bored and fed up having to play with younger kids (a year at 4 is 25% of their lifetime... Think of how important the "half" is to a four-and-a-half year old). If there's no trend then I'd say purely base it on when they're ready. My own school was great - two classes of junior infants and kids split into classes by age. My class were all 4 starting (a handful were 3 - September birthdays) and nobody was 5 til after the new year; the other class were all 5 (or turning 5 before the new year) and would be 6 in the following calendar year. I remember there being a difference between the classes - the other class were bigger and seemed a bit older.

Thinking further down the line is kinda moot; the pros and cons of each age cancel each other out so really their future educational success and satisfaction comes down to the relationship the child has with education - start out unhappy and it's hard to build any love of learning.

Go with your gut. You know your child, you know the school they'll be going to, you also probably know what their friends will be doing come September.

lazygal

Our child will go at five, she's also a May baby. We're planning on two years of preschool before then too. I don't see any disadvantage to waiting an extra year to start formal schooling, but I know lots of people who think they should have waited, especially for secondary school/college.

I don't care how 'ready' my child might be when she's four in the May, I won't be sending her.

pwurple

I think there was a thread on this recently, will add it if I find it... The studies show that children who start younger tend to do better academically, and the children who start later tend to do better at sports. That's not an absolute obviously, just a trend. Interesting chapter in the superfreakonomics book on it. Makes sense really, if your child is the biggest in the class, they are more likely to be picked for sports teams. And if they are not on the sports teams, then they spend more time on the books.

Looking at my own siblings, it worked out that way too... those who were older starting have all the sports medals, huge circles of sporty friends, great camaraderie. Those who were younger got better LC points, did better in college and make more money.

I guess it's where you think your child's talents/abilities are going to lie.


If you think your child is fairly bright (and I know most of us do!), then there are theories that boredom with school material when they are too old for it can lead to disruptive behaviour, not paying attention and generally doing badly at exams despite their ability.


There are also some great hulking 19 year old's who have completely lost interest in exams at that age, and are all about booze, sex, driving and generally getting away from home.


So, there are arguments for and against.

For me, as soon as long as she can tie her own coat, is competent enough in the bathroom, can write her own name, can sit down for 30 mins and do colouring at a table etc... then in she goes. I'd hate to see her bored.

edit to add the thread...
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2057119666

daheff

Absoluvely wrote: »

That'd be the norm.
Maybe add a poll to the thread.

I would if I could figure out how to do it!!

lazygal wrote: »

Our child will go at five, she's also a May baby. We're planning on two years of preschool before then too. I don't see any disadvantage to waiting an extra year to start formal schooling, but I know lots of people who think they should have waited, especially for secondary school/college.

I don't care how 'ready' my child might be when she's four in the May, I won't be sending her.

Didnt think you can do 2 years of preschool? I thought it was just one year?

pwurple wrote: »

The studies show that children who start younger tend to do better academically, and the children who start later tend to do better at sports. That's not an absolute obviously, just a trend. Interesting chapter in the superfreakonomics book on it. Makes sense really, if your child is the biggest in the class, they are more likely to be picked for sports teams. And if they are not on the sports teams, then they spend more time on the books.

Looking at my own siblings, it worked out that way too... those who were older starting have all the sports medals, huge circles of sporty friends, great camaraderie. Those who were younger got better LC points, did better in college and make more money.

I guess it's where you think your child's talents/abilities are going to lie.


If you think your child is fairly bright (and I know most of us do!), then there are theories that boredom with school material when they are too old for it can lead to disruptive behaviour, not paying attention and generally doing badly at exams despite their ability.


There are also some great hulking 19 year old's who have completely lost interest in exams at that age, and are all about booze, sex, driving and generally getting away from home.


So, there are arguments for and against.

For me, as soon as long as she can tie her own coat, is competent enough in the bathroom, can write her own name, can sit down for 30 mins and do colouring at a table etc... then in she goes. I'd hate to see her bored.

edit to add the thread...

Yeah we think the child is clever (has an older sibling so tags along with the flow and picks things up from there). The issue about boredom and not being interested is a good point.

Child is smaller than other kids of the same age so we're afraid that might be bullied as gets older /maybe knocked over too much by bigger kids at the start.

Only starting to take an interest in the potty now. We'd realistically need to be pretty much toilet trained to start preschool in september this year...so might be a big ask (might not either though!)

lazygal

One year is free under the ecce scheme and we'll pay for the other.

Raychi

Completely depends on the child, how social they are, how they adapt to learning etc. my little girl was 4 and this was ok! if the child seems to be having difficulty there is always the option of repeating the year again !!

lazygal

Raychi wrote: »

Completely depends on the child, how social they are, how they adapt to learning etc. my little girl was 4 and this was ok! if the child seems to be having difficulty there is always the option of repeating the year again !!

No there isn't. It is only in exceptional cases that a year can be repeated.

Raychi

Yes as i said if the child is having difficulty the teacher will normally suggest to parents if this is an issue!

daheff

Raychi wrote: »

there is always the option of repeating the year again !!

Yeah -we'd talked about this, but from personal experience its not fair on the child to see all their friends moving on a year and having to stay back because they are not able for it/too young/too immature.

lazygal

Raychi wrote: »

Yes as i said if the child is having difficulty the teacher will normally suggest to parents if this is an issue!

That's not the case. A school has to make a compelling case for a child to repeat not just because the child is having difficulty with concepts because they were sent to school too soon.

Penny Dreadful

I was 4 in July and was sent to school that same year. For a good while it was fine and academically there was never a problem but around 4th / 5th class when all of (or most of ) the other kids had hit and were going through puberty the emotional maturity and the difference therein did become a problem and it made me shy and very lacking confidence - this in turn affected my schoolwork and behavior in school.
The teacher suggested to my parents that I repeat 4th class and despite dreading the thoughts of it (there was a lot of crying that summer) it was actually the best thing ever for me.
If I manage to have children I will certainly keep them from starting school until they are 5. Also once they start their life of Monday -Friday 9-5 has started! They have such a short time without that really don't they?:(

Moonbeam

for a May baby 5 would be more the norm and I don't think there would be any disadvantages to it .
Kids start and finish school later then we did.

December2012

I'm in a similar situation and im waiting until the kid is 5.

hoodwinked

i would say talk to the school,

the gaelscoil we are sending our daughter to (july baby) recommended 5 years minimum to us, they also said they would prefer she did montessori since they knew she was already in a creche and had the chance of it, and then a year of naoinra before starting,

so she did montessori the same year as her friend from across the road, but then her friend started in her primary school (english language) and my daughter went into naoinra,

to be honest im now glad we waited, intellectually she could have started junior infants at 4, but even the difference in her now 6 months down the line, she can write her name neatly rather than just scrawling it, and spell other basic words from those junior infants books easons sold off,

she can manage her clothes better (awkward zips and buttons on certain items sometimes needed help now don't)...etc

her vocabulary has had time to grow so she has a better grasp of language, the naoinra has helped hugely with this (learning that there are other languages with different words for the same thing)

it's just little things, but that will stand to her going into primary school older.

byhookorbycrook

The DES will not allow a child to repeat because they are too young. It often impacts very negatively on a child's self esteem too.