5th birthday admissions (St Leonards primary, Glenelg being considered)

[snifter]

I am doing some reading on the primary schools in the Glenelg area and like what I am reading about St Leonards.

 

Anyone have any experience with St Leonards in any way or know of any cases where a child has gone up after only doing 2 terms in their reception year?

 

This is the one thing that bothers me, the starting age cut off point and those children who start school at 5 having to do a total of 6 terms (so remaining in the same year for 4 terms) for reception. I know why they do this and that its not set hard and fast and each child is assessed on their own merits.

 

Our son has a birthday in May and will miss the cut off point for the second term by a few days (grrrrr) and so won't be able to start till July. And will therefore automatically fall into the 6 terms in the same school year group. I know we can ask to have him move up with the older kids who will have done 3-4 terms and this will be our plan.

 

Our son is a bright kid and seems to be taking after his Daddy in terms of intelligence (he ain't getting it from me that's for sure ). Hubby did only 2 terms in reception and went up straight away into year 1 and coped fine back when he was at school. I'm hoping our son will be the same. Also he'll be due to start school here in Sept 2013 and I am toying with if its worth sending him or not or to just wait and let him have the extra time at home with me. In Europe they start school at 5 or 6 and it seems to me to have far greater benefits than starting them at 4.

 

This is the St Leonards blurb so you can see what I am on about (I am probably making it all sound very confusing above here) Our son will fall into the Term 3 group at this time.

 

Transition Policy Pre-School to School Transition Programme

 

5th Birthday Admission

 

Children will be permitted to start school at St Leonards Primary School from the beginning of the term following their 5th birthday. There will be four intakes throughout the year. Intakes Term 1 first intake: Week 1 Term 2 first intake: Week 1 Term 3 first intake: Week 1 Term 4 first intake: Week 1 Years in Junior Primary Students will normally spend between ten and fourteen terms in Junior Primary classes from Reception to Year 2. The following table summarises the normal progression of students through the early years:

 

Term 1 Start

Terms in Reception: 4

Terms in Year 1: 4

Terms in Year 2: 4

Total Terms: 12

 

Term 2 Start

Terms in Reception: 3

Terms in Year 1: 4

Terms in Year 2: 4

Total Terms: 11

 

Term 3 Start

Terms in Reception: 6

Terms in Year 1: 4

Terms in Year 2: 4

Total Terms: 14

 

Term 4 Start

Terms in Reception: 5

Terms in Year 1: 4

Terms in Year 2: 4

Total Terms: 13

 

The length of time children spend in Junior Primary classes is not always the same. Different children need different lengths of time to complete their early years learning. The decision about the length of time a student spends in Junior Primary classes will be made by the Principal in consultation with parents and teachers.

 

Term times till 2015 are listed here if anyone is interested DECS Customer Information

 

The reception intake year will pretty much be the standard across all the primary schools as far as I can see. So the above St Leonards info would work for other reception starts (unless of course they change the intake system in the meantime )

 

 

If you made it this far Thank you

[Rachiegarlo]

What some people do is hold their child back until term 4 and start them then, that way they have settled into school before the long summer break and had a chance to make friends. My son has a June birthday and started in term 3 before they brought in this 6 term thing for kids who only have 2 terms in rec. Towards the end of yr 2 I had an interview with the principal of the junior school for grade 3s and she told me that boys especially may struggle as they get older, either socially or academically and a lot of the boys ended repeating gr 3. We gave our son another yr in Junior primary where it was seen as just having more time. He was then only 6 weeks older than the oldest of the year below that he joined and benefited from being the one of the oldest in the year, especially as puberty approached, remembering that kids go to high school in yr 8 here. Start him and see how it all goes, there is always the option usually of a composite class, if it is a good school his academic needs should be catered for anyway.

[Guest steph&neil]

I had 2 children at St leonards I will send you a pm