Starting school

[christy]

Yeah in QLD the deal is that you are supposed to start prep next year if they turn 5 before June 31st. The thing is if they prove to be too young, they can repeat prep, but if you don't do prep (which is an option) you MUST start grade 1 the next year. If the prep teacher thinks they are too immature socially, they will be able to recommend that the child repeats prep & its heaps easier to do for the "younger" children.

Matilda turns 5 13 days before the cut off date so she will be the youngest. BUT I have found an amazing school in Sydney where we will be moving & she is enrolled for the pre-grade 1 (whatever its called ). They are letting her do 3 days a week for the first 6 months and then evaluating how she is going, whether or not she goes to 4 days or 5 and then how she handles that, she can go to 5 days the next year & take it as an official start then.

The school only has 18 students enrolled for next year K-6. So they are able to treat each child as an individual much easier....

[ll80]

ll80, I think that here in NSW kindergarten is the equivilant of prep.


It would be so much easier if it was standarised between the states wouldn't it.

sure is dachlostar, I was referring to VIC system as thats where I was living when I decided to hold her back,

So now that I am in QLD she starts Prep next year which I gather is the same as Kindergarten roughly except they can go everyday. It's not compulsory here as I think they only introduced Prep last year, I had NFI about it all when I moved, council thought I was nuts when I rang them up to enquire about Kindergarten.

I wish they would standardise it all!!

[Antheia]

Ok i am still having trouble deciding this. She can do everything on that list that Dach gave above except she cant say her address. She asks me every day if she can go to school yet. She pretends to do 'homework' all the time (which i think is so cute!) For their guidelines she is ready socially and academically. It's just her age! And i feel she is missing out. Do you think if i went to the local school and asked about it they might interview her and see? Or even if she did start next year and wasnt ready for year 1 she could repeat kinder, do they do that?

[smiles4u]

To give you an idea, (though we are in regional Victoria)...

My daughter turns 3 on the 6th of May 2009, ... she will be doing two years of 3year old Kinder and then one year of 4year old Kinder.

So she will start 3year old Kinder the term after she turns 3 next year.

The Kindergarten Director said that they 'can' repeat 4year old Kinder if they feel the child is not ready for Prep !!

We decided it would be an advantage for her to start primary school older rather than 'too' young BUT then that's just our opinion.

I turned in 5 in Jan ... and DP 5 in March & our parents started us that year ... through our experience we felt it was a disadvantage for us even though we are Uni educated & had successful careers we felt that the 'older' pupils had an advantage over us when at school, especially in secondary school.

[Antheia]

I wish we had something similar. All we have is Kinder (which is equivallent to prep) but its compulsory and they have to go for 5 days.

[Trillian]

T, I would be holding her back another year and start her in 2010 - that's when Paige will be starting and she is older than Lily. Especially with her speech issues, you really want her to be on top of that as much as she can be when she starts or she may struggle with school and the learning side of it. Plus you've said she is quite shy and I just don't think she is ready for school because of her other behaviour issues you've been having with her and it is not worth repeating them when they will benefit more from having another year at home rather than another year of kindergarten/prep/year 1 (whatever the equivalent is)

[briggsy's girl]

i'm a bit the same - think you should hold her back - though if you can find a child care in the area that runs a kindergarten type program, it might be helpful to get her used to it all

early next year, you're going to have the upheaval of adding another bub to the family - if she's a bit on the shy side, if you then ship her off to school early, she might feel resentment towards the baby as she is being pushed out - esp if you have to send her five days a week

i was only 4 when i started school (may bub) and 17.5 when i finished - i cruised through academically, but socially it was damn hard as so many people were 18 by the time they finished high school. thankfully my parents were ok with me goin out (small town, and really responsible me!) but it was still restrictive cos i couldn't go to the pubs with them kwim? i wouldn't have written myself off like my friends, but it did mean i was excluded a lot simply because i couldn't legally join them...

[Karina]

If it were me, I'd start her in 2010.

If she starts next year she will be way younger than the other kids and they may not even accept her anyway with the age guidelines they have. If you think she is ready though, you could always ring the school or visit and speak to the principal or whoever and get their advice. My birthday is in June and I started the year I turned 5. Even though I was able to do all the things they thought I should be able to do to be in school, they still didnt want me to start that year, purely because of my age... age and Lily would be 6 months younger than I was. In the end my mum pestered them and they took me.