Thanks for all the answers! As a couple of you mentioned, not starting pre-prep would just delay the problem by a year (and probably make it worse as the other kids in his class would have had that preparation). What a pity it seems he can't just start the whole system one year later. Hopefully if his pre-prep or prep teachers think he should be held back on starting the school will listen - it wouldn't be very nice to start school with a particular peer group and then have to change after a couple of years to the year younger