Originally Posted by LittleKittyCat (Post 9151785)

Having spoken to my friends who have kept their children back until almost 6 before starting kindy, there are a couple of reasons. Firstly children who are held back are at an academic advantage. This is because they are older and therefore more able to learn than their peers, and therefore will perform better at school. Secondly, from a physical point of view, an almost six year old will be far stronger and physically capable than a four and a half year old, which again puts them at an advantage for sports. Thirdly, the number of school years are fixed at 13. Those children who start earlier will only be 17 on leaving school after year 12, and potentially their friends will be 18 and therefore adults.

I don't know how true those things are, but that is what I was told by friends who have kept their children back.

Originally Posted by corfu (Post 9153851)

Hi there

I understand this is info you have got from some friends.
Firstly if you hold a child back til they are almost 6, they are not at an academic advantage, all this means is that they are doing things that they should have been doing 12 months prior so parents get this false sense that their child is doing great against 5 year olds!!

The same applies in the advantage at sport, they should be competing against 6 year olds not 4.5 year olds, of course they are doing well. This gives the child a false sense of achievement because the playing field isn't fair, can't parents figure this out!!!

And a year difference of 17 to 18, is that a reason????

Anyway, thanks for your reply

Originally Posted by elice_in_oz (Post 9153948)

TBH, I think it's up to the parents to decide what is best for their child, but I agree with Kitty that holding a child back is not harming them. The arguments that she gives are some that I have heard from parents as well as professionals. It does make sense that a 5.5 or 6 year-old will be more confident, more mature and probably physically stronger than a 4.5 year-old. That is not a bad thing. Parents might think their child is ready to be with lots of older children, but if it goes wrong, the child suffers.

I have 2 boys. One should be starting school next year at 5.5. As it stands today, I don't believe he is ready for school. He had Auditory Processing Disorder and this impairs his speech development. I am very happy that he still has a whole year of kinder before school. We'll see how he does.

Number 2 should (if we go by the rules :unsure:) start school in 2013, at barely 4.5 :blink: We will be holding him back one year. He is happy in the toddler room of his childcare and will graduate to kindy next year rather than this year. He's not potty trained yet (still under 3 is my excuse :o) and I would rather there was 2 years at school between my boys so that Number 1 has less chance of ending up in the same class as Number 2 if he has to repeat a year because of his APD. Again, it's down to the individual child, but I think that starting school before 5 is a big ask for a small child. It requires a lot of independence and confidence and many children probably lack those when they start because they are too young.
Only my two cents...:)

Originally Posted by corfu (Post 9151498)

Hi we arrived in Sydney 8 weeks ago and have been in our rental since beginning of Jan in a suburb near Rouse Hill.

I am battling to get my 4.5 year old son into full time kindergarten in a public or Catholic school. But he misses the cut off date of 31st July. His birthday is 14th August. In the UK he started Reception (class before year 1, equivalent to kindergarten) last September. Yes he had only just turned 4 but had been at pre-school since the age of 2 and was socially, emotionally and academically ready for school.

Here, everyone keeps their kids back, not sure why. I have spoke to the Education Office in Hornsby who said he would have to be "gifted and talented" to enter early, whatever that means and she stated that my child could have "social issues" if I sent him to school early. I kept stating he has already started school but this fell on deaf ears!

After being mislead by one of the Catholic schools I went to the Catholic Education Office in Parramatta when it was 45 degrees to speak to the Head of Systems Performance, she was approachable and understanding but ping-ponged me back to the schools, happy for me to use her name as ammunition.
Basically, if the school has fulfilled threir obligations to all the 5 year olds in the area then if the principal agrees he can start.

Problem is it is hard to get passed the receptionist. I keep trying to stress to them what you have said above about returning to the UK. We are on 457 visa for 4years and likely to return to the UK, so if I leave him start kindergarten at 5.5 and then start Year 1 at 6.5, he will be 18 months behind his peers in the Uk and THAT will be detrimental, but it is like talking to a brick wall, they are inflexible and have an inability to think out of the box, it's a bit like "the computer says no".

My son is upset and cannot understand why they won't let him go to school and keeps practicing his writing and showing me what he can do, which just upsets me and makes me angry.

It has been an uphill struggle from the beginning just one thing after the other, it is wearing me down and want to go home before the container arrives and put my son back into the beautiful village school where he was thriving.

Apologies for hi-jacking your post pine-cone, just thought I would give you an insight into a real situation.

Hope all goes well for you:fingerscrossed:

Originally Posted by corfu (Post 9153835)

It is just the system I know, but my childs educational needs surely are more important than bureacracy, which this place seems to love.
Every child is different and needs to be catered for, even if that means bending the rules.

Retarded!!! Can't believe people still use this word.

Anyway a kind lady on this thread has PM'd me who has totally picked up the fact that I have a child who just is ready for school younger than others and has given me some other avenues to try.

Goodnight

Originally Posted by hevs (Post 9155337)

Well, how nice of the lady :) Its nice when someone agrees with you and give you help...however the origional question asked was about school starting age, I think most other people helped there too.

I said educationally RETARDED.....The word by definition means....to be delayed! I love quotes out of context :rolleyes: The word retard isnt about mental capacity (unless you are 13 and everyone is one!) You can make it so by adding the word "mentally" in front of it , if you so chose..... As the mother of an Aspie boy I have had more than my fair shair of derogatory name calls and wouldnt chose to do them to anyone else!

BOTH of my kids in the UK were born On the 24th and 30th of July respectively, so I am MORE than aware of the early start, they were 4 years and a month when they started prep. As I said, IMO my son, who turned 4 in November and has just started Kinder is no furthur back that my other kids were. In actual fact in many ways he is further ahead....

My eldedest was on the gifted register in the UK, my middle was a SEN student....

Originally Posted by quoll (Post 9155457)

LOL I must have missed that post that you quoted. What a delightful thought, if all parents felt like that it would be total anarchy! Sadly, the repercussions of such determined behaviour may not be felt until quite a few years down the track when her kid is led astray by kids up to 18 months older who have their Ls (or Ps), want to go out with girls, experiment with substances etc and she still has a little kid.

It is perfectly possible to cope with a G&T kid without pushing them into education at a very young age, it just requires very hands on parenting to offer them the broad range of hand, foot and mouth activities (as an old school counsellor I used to work with wisely said).

Originally Posted by HelenTD (Post 9155508)

In one of her posts, corfu said that they were here on a 457 visa and likely to return to the UK after a few years and that she was concerned about her child returning to the UK and being put into their age group and being behind. I don't understand why she's being criticised for trying to ensure that her child gets what he needs:blink:.

When I was at high school, I was one of the younger ones and others turned 18 and could vote, drink and drive. Kids here can get a learning permit at 16, and drive at 17 :scaredhair:. My youngest is in the right year for his age and will be 16 starting Year 12, 17 when he finishes - there's always going to be this issue in Year 12.

Originally Posted by hevs (Post 9155337)

As I said, IMO my son, who turned 4 in November and has just started Kinder is no furthur back that my other kids were. In actual fact in many ways he is further ahead....

Originally Posted by quoll (Post 9155619)

And that is fine - they may or may not leave after 2, 3 or 4 years but to come to a foreign country and say "I dont like your rules, you must break them because MY child is more important than any other child" really isnt on. She should, perhaps have done a tad more homework and realized that her child wasnt going to have the same educational experience that he had back home - she wouldnt have expected it if they had moved to any other foreign country. In which case, she should have been prepared for some sort of alternative to provide the stimulation he might need and that need not be school, it could be physical, artistic or social activities it doesnt need to be reading, writing and 'rithmetic! As it is, in reality, being in another system from K - 3 is hardly going to be a lifelong disadvantage, it might take a bit to catch him up but if he is bright, it really isnt going to matter and he may take a whole lot of different skills back with him.

It was also pointed out that he could get in if he was assessed as G&T - the same goes for any child in any system AFAIK but the onus is on the parent to get the assessment done which proves that the child is in the top 2% of the population. Parents do that quite frequently. I have every sympathy for the parents of G&T kids, they can be just as challenging as kids with other disabilities but getting on your high horse because the rules dont suit you is inappropriate.

Originally Posted by ozzieeagle (Post 9155640)

Why do they start their kids so young in the UK ? Doesn't Finland allegedly have the best performing school system, in the world, and there they start the school system proper at age 7.

I guess it's what we are all used to, and change via migration is hard to take, especially when it involves children, then the emotional responses take hold.

Surely people should be following the Finish model though. BTW Music is compulsory in Finland.... helps with Maths ;)

Originally Posted by teza (Post 9155666)

Having been raised and educated in Finland, I can comment on that. School system is fantastic and covers large areas of study. As for starting the calendar year you turn 7, given that I can only compare to my own kids education in Australia, I would say days were longer and homework load was massive from day 1. Here, my kids go to school for 6hrs a day, cover sport, english, maths, science, dance and drama, japanese and computers.

From day get-go my days were between 8am and 4pm, with one shorter day during the week. Homework was huge, and took several hours a day to do (here we hardly see homework). If I would have started school as early as here, I probably would've burned out before year 1 :eek:

By the time I finished primary school I was studying 4 languages (Finnish included), maths, physic, science, sports, music, cooking, arts, crafts, history, biology, geography, computers.... just to name a few. Hated it at the time with passion, now eternally grateful!:thumbsup:

Originally Posted by teza (Post 9155643)

Surely not FLYNN??? :blink: Wasn't it just yesterday when BE community was glued to your updates on his dramatic early entry :eek: ?? Wow, time flies! :eek:

Originally Posted by HelenTD (Post 9155688)

Hi teza, do children in Finland, and other Scandinavian countries, also go to daycare and pre-school, which would equate to kindy and pre-primary here? How old were you when you finished primary and went to high school?