Changing schools & redoing the year

ladyella

I was wondering has anyone had any experience with moving their child to a new school and repeating the year?
The background is, we commute to work and school and its a really long day for my kids. My eldest is in Junior Infants and this year, although academically hes fine, its been tough on him. So myself and my husband are discussing me changing jobs or giving up if finances allow, and moving schools to one local to where we live. If we do this, I have a notion that getting my little guy to repeat would give him a leg up as hes socially and emotionally very shy and reserved. Has anyone done this or any teachers been party to it? He would be well within an age limit even if he repeated as he started at 4.5 last September (hindsight now would make me hold off a year but thats hindsight)
I have myself in knots over what to do for the best

missguided

Not a teacher or parent, but from my perspective repeating would probably be a better idea than starting him into senior infants, as he would be going into a class that already know each other and if he's shy and reserved might find it hard to settle in. Age wise he'd be fine anyway. Then again if he's doing fine academically there's a chance he might be bored in school as he could be ahead of the other children and lacking academic stimulation?

ladyella

missguided wrote:

Not a teacher or parent, but from my perspective repeating would probably be a better idea than starting him into senior infants, as he would be going into a class that already know each other and if he's shy and reserved might find it hard to settle in. Age wise he'd be fine anyway. Then again if he's doing fine academically there's a chance he might be bored in school as he could be ahead of the other children and lacking academic stimulation?

The boredom would worry me but I'm sure I can think of ways to alleviate it. Thanks for the thoughts, I feel like the success of his future are all based on these decisions and it's (maybe unnecessarily) stressful.

Moonbeam

I think that this might be better in the primary school forum.

We did not get a place in the local school for junior Infants but did for senior so changed her to the new school for senior infants,it has been a bit hard for her as she went to Naíonra in the school then to a new school and now back in the school that we had intended for her to go to.
She missed her friends but when she got back thy had made new friends and where she always had a best friend she doesn't have one now and now misses the kids from the school she started in last year.
She is doing fine though.
The commute was too far to keep her in that school though.
There is no way she could have repeated JI she would have been extremely bored and a year behind her friends.

heldel00

I'm a teacher and my advice would be to talk to your new school. It is almost impossible these days to repeat a class but some schools may be more lenient.
Inspectors and dept come down heavily on schools that allow children to repeat (cost saving I suppose because the child is at school 14 years as opposed to the usual 13). Speak to the school you intend on him going to next year and they'll clarify

ladyella

That puts a whole new spin on it so Heldel00.
Moonbeam its the commute that's making me want to change, he doesn't even get to eat breakfast at home so we can avoid mental traffic, we're usually gone from the house at 7.15/20am and we don't get back in until after 6pm. He falls asleep on the way home so its late when he falls asleep in bed and then I have to drag him out of bed... rinse and repeat x 5 days a week.

Thanks for all the input, I'll go and talk to the parish office as they take care of the enrollments for all schools in the area. I think the way its done is you put the schools in order of preference and then it works from that and numbers.

Moonbeam

I would ring the schools directly,all schoolshave their own enrollment policies.
You will find in alot of schools that JI places for Sept have been allocated and they are on to their waiting lists now.

heldel00

You could have a better chance of getting him into a senior infant class as the junior infant classes are always chockerblock.
Remember though the lack of commute, more time with ye, home earlier in the evenings etc could mean that senior infants might not be as big a challenge as you expect. You could try letting him go on (if it meant getting a place was easier?) and have a conversation with his teacher this time next year about repeating?

ladyella

We've been talking more about it and I think we'll do senior infants in the school he's in now and then look at repeating senior infants in the new school or like you're saying heldel, let him go on if his now teacher recommends it.
I have until December if we wait til sept 16 for enrolling him and hopefully he can repeat SI.
That's the way the thought process is going now anyway.

byhookorbycrook

The DES are totally against a child repeating unless they have a very significant learning difficulty. Interestingly enough, David Carey (Psychologist who is on Moncrieff on Newstalk) is totally against repeating and said today that there were literally thousands of studies showing that is never a good idea.

zanador

Yes, you need to get permission from des and schools to repeat AFAIK. You can't just decide as parents.