School Starting Age

Mark Williams Excerpts

Wednesday 4th September 2013 Westminster Hall

[Annette Brooke]

I thank my hon. Friend for his intervention. I not only congratulate Bliss, but I am grateful that the DFE has taken a big step forward. I particularly welcome the fact that the new advice states:

“There is no statutory barrier to children being admitted outside their normal year group”,

and that

“flexibilities exist for children whose parents do not feel they are ready to begin school”

in the September following the child’s fourth birthday.

The questions and answers provided in the advice on the DFE website are helpful, on the whole, but I particularly want to draw the Minister’s attention to answer 8, which states:

“Parents who are refused a place at a school for which they have applied have the right of appeal to an independent admission appeal panel. They do not have a right of appeal if they have been offered a place and it is not in the year group they would like.”

Parents may make a complaint, but the advice states that they cannot appeal. Surely, there should be a right of appeal. It seems to me that although there may be no statutory barrier to a child being admitted to a particular year group, there is no statutory right. That means that although some authorities work to help and support parents, others can continue to make it extremely difficult for parents to exercise a justified choice.

The other barriers that I have mentioned will also prevail—financial, in relation to child care costs; and parents’ confidence and empowerment in relation to requesting a different time of entry and possibly a different year group. I would be interested to know the Minister’s plans to monitor local authorities’ actions on the new advice, to promote best practice and to make sure that full information is available to parents.

I was contacted late yesterday—I have not had time to check this material, so I will refer to it only briefly—by someone who has looked at several London local education authorities’ admissions policies, of which 49% apparently did not conform to the new advice. I apologise that this is second-hand material, but it needs to be checked. It states:

“Admission Arrangements For…2014/2015—Request to delay entry to school (known as deferred entry). Parents of children below compulsory school age may defer their child’s entry to a Reception class…until later in the school year. However, a Reception class place must be taken up by the start of the summer term. If entry is deferred beyond the summer term, parents will need to reapply for a Year 1 place”.

That just shows that although the DFE has played its part, there must be follow-through if the system is really going to change.

In the case of premature births, I imagine that it will be possible to involve health visitors, as well as pre-schools and nurseries, and to use the new advice to secure a place in reception for a child aged five. I certainly hope that that will be much easier, but of course it will not be so unless all local authorities operate within the new advice, which is really important.

I want to mention one or two case studies. I need not give too many, because there are just so many and they are very similar. In a case of premature birth, a child born at 32 weeks struggled enormously with the transition to mainstream school after their parents’ application to delay entry to reception by a year was rejected by the local education authority. I also have a story of twins. The tragedy is that the parents felt that they had to put their children into the reception class. Sometimes the whole experience is of a totally broken down system. It is only when the children are withdrawn from school that it is accepted that they have to start reception in another school year. I am sure that everyone will agree that the experience of starting school and then being pulled out must be avoided.

Clearly, a lot of proactive work has to be done to ensure that the advice makes a difference. I repeat the question: how will the Department ensure that the questions and answers are promoted to admissions authorities and parents? That information should be available not just to those parents who are seeking information, but to all parents. Furthermore, there is a need to monitor published admissions policies.

I remain concerned about how a parent can succeed in exercising their choice when we are considering a child who is so immature, but not prematurely born, that he or she is not ready to start school until the age of five and then needs to experience a reception year. I want to hear the Minister’s views on this matter. What information does a parent need to supply to the local authority to provide a convincing case?

The advice given in answer 4 is far more open to individual interpretation than the one on premature births. It is quite likely that such a child does not have special educational needs as such—there is often misclassification. It is just that the child is not developmentally ready or mature enough at the age of four. By the age of five, they have simply had one year’s growth and maturity, and they need the experience in a reception class.

[Mr Mark Williams (Ceredigion) (LD)]

Will my hon. Friend extend what she said earlier about the knock-on effects of not getting this right, and of not matching the learning experience to the child’s stage of development later on? Like her, I used to teach older children in the primary sector. The knock-on effects to a child’s confidence are repeated as they get older, with really damaging effects.

[Annette Brooke]

Absolutely. I thank my hon. Friend for reinforcing the case. It can be seen as an issue just for some middle-class parents who perhaps want to get their children to the top of the class. I want to reiterate that that is not the case. Unfortunately, it is about trying to shoehorn individuals into a one-size-fits-all system, and that is the problem. We must all love and make the most of the individual differences of our children both in our families and in our schools.

We must consider whether some of the issues of summer-born children can be overcome with a play-based curriculum and excellent teaching in the reception class, where the needs of individual children are being taken into account. I would like the answer to be yes, but we have changes in the primary curriculum and assessment and testing regimes, which put constraints and pressures on schools and teachers. Even with an excellent teacher, the individual interests of the child may require a start in reception at the age of five. I do not think that such a move would open floodgates because most parents want their children to fit into the system as it is. Not all summer-born children are adversely affected by being the youngest in their year and there will be variations in any effects. It is difficult to see that age-adjusting test results, as proposed by the Institute for Fiscal Studies, is an entirely valid approach.

Undoubtedly, the early start to formal schooling and the testing regime in this country compound the summer-born problems, which leads me to conclude that, ideally, we need to rethink our approach to the all-important learning settings and experiences for the four to seven-year-olds. The school experience should suit the individual child; the child should not be made to fit the school because of the potential adverse outcomes over their lifetime.

Meanwhile, we have to do the best we can. We must identify the problems and cope with them within the existing system. We must have more flexibility in school starting time, and parents need to be empowered and enabled to make the best choices for their child. Currently, what is in the best interests of the child can be ignored in favour of slotting everybody into an arbitrary 12-month period.

There are so many cases that I could cite, and I am happy to talk about them with the Minister—even those relating to the transfer from primary to secondary school. The whole matter needs to be considered carefully. We must assess the scale of the problem and monitor the impact of the new advice. Having monitored the situation, we must consider whether the schools admission code needs changing in the future.

We also need to consider assessment within the early years foundation stage and how summer-born children are being assessed. This is a huge issue, but my message today is that if parents can demonstrate that they have a strong case that is in the best interests of their children, they should be empowered and enabled to allow their child to start school at the age of five as required, but in reception year.