Starting age at School

Startingout

My daughter will be 4 in January 2018 and I had previously expected her to start school September 2018. However I am now hearing a lot about of parents are waiting until their child is 5 before starting school. I live in a rural area. What are your thoughts on this? Are children in your area starting school at 4 or 5?
Thanks

byhookorbycrook

No hard and fast rule . As a sweeping generalisation, girls tend to be more socially mature than boys at that age , and with a January birthday , if she is ready in that area , she might be as well to start , but it depends on the individual . I will also add that I've yet to meet a parent who regretted waiting but plenty who were sorry they didn't .

huskerdu

byhookorbycrook is right .

Its more of an issue if the childs birthday is between April and Aug.
A Jan birthday means the child will be 4 and 9 months starting school which means she is unlikely to be one of the youngest in the class.

Moonbeam

I have 3 January babies and 1 April one.
They all did 2 full years of playschool/Na?onra before going to school.
We asked for the playschools advice on the 1st 3 and the little one is only 3 so she has 2 more years of play school.
As #4 is an April baby she will start at 5 after 3 years of play school unless there is a compelling reason to send her earlier.
In my daughters senior infant class the oldest is 7 and the youngest is 5 in June.

Startingout

Thanks all

My concern is that when she gets to secondary school a lot of her class could be so much older than her and therefore the pace of learning in the class so much quicker and harder for her

Moonbeam

Moonbeam wrote: »

I have 3 January babies and 1 April one.
They all did 2 full years of playschool/Na?onra before going to school.
We asked for the playschools advice on the 1st 3 and the little one is only 3 so she has 2 more years of play school.
As #4 is an April baby she will start at 5 after 3 years of play school unless there is a compelling reason to send her earlier.
In my daughters senior infant class the oldest is 7 and the youngest is 5 in June.

6 not 5, I can not edit it.

idayang

Startingout wrote: »

My daughter will be 4 in January 2018 and I had previously expected her to start school September 2018. However I am now hearing a lot about of parents are waiting until their child is 5 before starting school. I live in a rural area. What are your thoughts on this? Are children in your area starting school at 4 or 5?
Thanks

my daughter was the youngest one in her school when she was in junior infants... She is a July baby and started school at the age of 4(just celebrated 4th birthday 2 month before the first semester).No problem at all. As someone said nowadays girls are more mature than boys.

In my opinion, early systematic education will stimulate brain's development properly and benefit the further. However, you need to pay attention to her environment as some bigger kids may be stronger/bold...whenever they are in conflict your daughter may be in a disadvantaged position.

evolving_doors

Startingout wrote: »

My daughter will be 4 in January 2018 and I had previously expected her to start school September 2018. However I am now hearing a lot about of parents are waiting until their child is 5 before starting school. I live in a rural area. What are your thoughts on this? Are children in your area starting school at 4 or 5?
Thanks

AS you mentioned earlier, you have to consider the other end. What age will they be coming out? would you be happy with your daughter heading off to 'the big smoke' for college at 17 (or indeed , happy they take time out to make money or go travel etc!).
Finish at age 17 would also imply that she did a transition year. Have a look around at the secondary schools in your area... do they all offer transition year (a few schools don't). Otherwise she may be out at 16.

Then again it's about maturity and all that. My own niece was a month younger than yours but is reasonably tall, keen academically and fairly socially aware. and she's flying it.

Maybe just get her involved in summer camps/ team activities (local GAA!), Comhaltas . That'll give her confidence and get her to know more peers outside school.

jelly&icecream

Gebgbegb wrote: »

AS you mentioned earlier, you have to consider the other end. What age will they be coming out? would you be happy with your daughter heading off to 'the big smoke' for college at 17 (or indeed , happy they take time out to make money or go travel etc!).
Finish at age 17 would also imply that she did a transition year. Have a look around at the secondary schools in your area... do they all offer transition year (a few schools don't). Otherwise she may be out at 16.

Then again it's about maturity and all that. My own niece was a month younger than yours but is reasonably tall, keen academically and fairly socially aware. and she's flying it.

Your maths is out here. If a child starts school at age 4 and they do transition year they'll be 18 starting college. If they skip transition year they'll be 17.

I was sent to school at 4 (March birthday) and didn't do transition year so was 17 until March of my 1st year in college. It was a minor pain in the arse as I sometimes didn't get into nightclubs and stuff but not the end of the world. I stayed in digs that year but would have been fine in a house share or student accommodation.

I'm glad I started at that age as I was getting pretty fed up with school by the time I finished and was delighted to head to college. I was pretty good academically so never had an issue with that side of school.

Long story short is that it depends on the child! Go with your instincts.

byhookorbycrook

I wouldn't count on transition year, some schools don't offer it all and some limit number and there are rumblings about abolishing it altogether.

izzyflusky

I have an April baby and he will be starting this year at age 4 and 4 months ish. I spoke to his teacher in playschool because he kept asking about "big school" I was told that he was more than ready. Since about January he has been asking about "big school" and telling his teachers that he wanted to go there instead.

In the end we decided to let him go. He is the youngest in his class and that has me a bit nervous but he is extremely social and was over the moon the day he went in to meet his teacher. We shall see how he gets on. In other countries they start at age 3 (they have 3 school years before first class) and do fine though.

thesimpsons

there are more kids leaving school at 19+ now than there are at just 17 yrs. being 19+ in school can be disaster too. They are generally too old for school and its rules, uniforms, etc. In virtually all cases I've come across (I've 4 kids now left school plus their multitude of friends) they are more than ready to hit the world of college at 17+. go with gut instinct now. kids will almost always surprise you.

evolving_doors

izzyflusky wrote: »

I have an April baby and he will be starting this year at age 4 and 4 months ish. I spoke to his teacher in playschool because he kept asking about "big school" I was told that he was more than ready. Since about January he has been asking about "big school" and telling his teachers that he wanted to go there instead.

In the end we decided to let him go. He is the youngest in his class and that has me a bit nervous but he is extremely social and was over the moon the day he went in to meet his teacher. We shall see how he gets on. In other countries they start at age 3 (they have 3 school years before first class) and do fine though.

Our creche also said our kid was 'more than ready' for starting primary bang on 4. There is absolutely no way they are ready, so I'd take their suggestions with some reservation.. That's my assessment though so your child is a different case, my point is they (playschool) only view the kids going out the door but don't see what happens coming in to Junior Infants.

Sadb

Dd was born in January, started school at 4+, has just finished her junior cert and has never had issues in school.
Ds1 was born in February, started school at 4+, is just finished 2nd year. Although he has never had issues with the social side of things (he is mr.popular), never had issues in primary, he is struggling big time in secondary. He is immature and can't keep up in many subjects. Of course this may be to do with his actual intellect and ability rather than his age but I feel he would have had a better standing point if he had started at 5+. For this reason I am sending ds2 at 5+. He is a March baby, is 4 now and going for a second year of playschool in September. This may backfire on me of course as he does seem more intelligent than ds1 but the school cut off is April 1st anyway so there won't be a huge gap between others in the class.