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are schools flexible about joining age?

  • 21-09-2016 10:06pm
    #1
    bittihuduga
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,943 ✭✭✭


    hi,
    my daughter is june born. i see most of the educate together have cut off of 4 years by may 1st.
    few catholic school have july cut off and few june 1st cut off.
    are schools flexible with this age cut off?
    if the school say june 1st or may 1st cut off, would they accept child who turns 4 on june 10th?
    i have emailed the school too but would love to hear personal experience if any.


Comments

  • #2
    lazygal
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 12,644 ✭✭✭✭lazygal


    Every single school sets it's own policy. Only the school can tell you the flexibility.
    I don't think starting school having turned four in May onwards is a good idea generally though.


  • #3
    seamus
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 68,317 ✭✭✭✭seamus


    You can bypass any school enrolment policy by becoming friendly with the principal or secretary.


  • #4
    lazygal
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 12,644 ✭✭✭✭lazygal


    seamus wrote: »
    You can bypass any school enrolment policy by becoming friendly with the principal or secretary.
    This is not true. I'm friendly with the secretary of our local ET, but even she won't tell me if we've got places for our children, we'll get a letter like everyone else.
    Also, schools would be wide open to section 29 appeals if places were allocated outside the published enrolLment process. I'm sure you have anecdotal evidence of the old boys' network for many faith schools, as I do myself, but it is not a generally applied principle and parents would be very foolish to rely on this strategy. I know the granddaughter of a school principal who didn't get a place because she lived outside the stated catchment area.


  • #5
    LegacyUser
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 166,026 ✭✭✭✭LegacyUser


    I would advise you not to let a child start school if they have just turned 4 say in June 2017 for the school year starting in Sep 2017.

    I have a family freind who worked for a long time as an sna. She said that she saw 4 years olds starting school. Some of them were bright children and knew letters and numbers. She said despite this they found the full school day hard. Along with this some of them found it hard to get on with other children.
    She maintained that the closer a child was to 5 or older the better they coped with school as they had a bit of extra maturity.

    I would also take into consideration that a lot of school class now have 20 to 30 pupils. If your child needs extra help this may not be realised for a while. Also in the past a child could be kept back a year. This has got very hard to do as the department of education says once a child is in school they have to move on to the next year. A school would have to fight hard to get a child to be kept back a year now.

    I would also consider that if you child is 5 they have more maturity, can cope with school better and most find it easier to get on with other children. If they are happy they have a better chance of working to the best of their ability and doing well in school long term.


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