Keeping a child back

[Miss H]

Has anyone tried to do this? I am thinking of keeping DD back a year and to start Kindy next year. She only makes the cut-off by 1 month. Intellectually she is ready, but emotionally and socially, she acts much younger. How would I get them to agree to do that? Should I try get a psychologist report? What type of psychologist would I see? Would it even work?

I have asked the local intake school and they said they won't do it. The dept. of Edu said it is up to the school.

[~clover~]

Its totally up to you hun. Out of all my friends, most are sending their children at 5 turning 6 instead of 4 turning 5 like I have.
Alot of private schools now even cut them off at the end of March, so they prefer them to be 5 before March. Well most of the ones I've spoken to anyway.
HTH

[Visitor7]

I would think you would need an assessment done for the school to approve. I know in Qld it's not easy to do. I'm not sure what the WA rules are though. Maybe ring around to a couple of different schools and get their advice on it.
Sorry, probably not much help.

[Trillian]

Around where I live it became a trend for a while for children who were going to be sent to the Catholic school to be held back a year so they were turning 7 in kindergarten which was far too old IMO but that trend seems to have passed now. It is up to you really. If you think that she is not ready, then there isn't a lot of point sending her because she may need to repeat a year kwim?

[Miss H]

Around where I live it became a trend for a while for children who were going to be sent to the Catholic school to be held back a year so they were turning 7 in kindergarten which was far too old IMO

She is 3 yrs 8 mnths now and I think she is too young for Kindy but WA's cut-off says she must go. If she does, she will be 16 in year 10! If I keep her back a year, she will be 4yrs 8 months starting Kindy, with PrePrimary the next year and she will be 6 starting Year 1 instead of 5.

[AliBaby]

Is WA Kindy the same as pre-school in NSW?

[Inanna]

I had no problem at all starting my kids later in Qld...

My DS began year 1 the year he turned 7, prep the year he turned 6 and preschool the year he turned 5..

The same with my younger girls... I personally think 3 is too early to begin kindy so I have kept my kids out... As I said earlier I was so passionate about this I accessed independent education for this amongst other reasons... HTH

[mbear]

I found a good way to judge whether a child is ready...its got nothing to do with their intellectual ability - thats why they're going to school. The School principal at my DD's school suggested to us last year, to think about how your child would react if they discovered at school they had forgotton their lunch. What would they do? Cry, go without, go tell a teacher...... I know now, today, my 4 year old would probably cry. Yet in 12 months time, when shes ready for kindergarten, i would hope she would have the initiative, to tell the teacher. I found this a good (yet simple) way to judge a childs readiness....

[Miss H]

My child would just go without!