What are your opinions on the best age to start school? My daughter is a July baby, she is 3 now. She was born 4 weeks early. The cut off here in NSW is 30 July (I think), which she makes. She will either start school next year at 4.5yrs or in 2017 at 5.5yrs. She currently goes to daycare 2 days per week.
12 Replies
In my opinion eight (and there's research to support that) but in lieu of that, every extra year of childhood freedom you can give your child is worth its weight in gold.
Ive worked as a teachers assistant in schools and kindy. A lot depends on the child's emotional development, social development etc. The best age will depend on where your child is at as a person. I'd ask your child's daycare as they will have a really good idea about where your child is at.
As a parent with a May baby in NSW. I waited till my DD was 5 turning 6 starting kindy. Best thing I ever did ??
I'm a teacher.
I'd wait. She will probably be fine if you start her next year, depending on how she is socially of course.
When she gets to high school however, that's when girls in particular really struggle.
If you can wait, do it. It's worth it in the long term.
Personally from my expierence wait. Here in Qld the cut off is 30th June and my daughter born 26th and I wish that I had waited to start her a year later.
Original poster here. Thank you all for your replies. My husband and I are leaning more towards starting at 5.5yrs. Daycare want to know what's happening so they start preparing her, but if she goes next year I want her going all this year 3 days per week.
If only she wasn't premature! Then there would be no decision to make because she'd be over the cut off. I feel like I might have to deal with guilt in future and always wondering if we'd make the right decision.
Wait. I waited with mine and was the best decision ever. I was sent younger and struggled all the way through school. But if you feel she is emotionally read then she may be fine
Mine is 4.5 years now (in Vic), a June baby, and in 4 yo kinder, which is not compulsory. She will do Prep next year (age 5 turning 6) and while she is very mature for her age and can already read and write some things and adds and subtracts small numbers etc, I don't feel like she'd be emotionally ready for Prep if she had the opportunity. I would always err on the side of waiting, it is far less likely you will regret that decision
Unless you truly believe her to be smart and very social for her age, keep her back. From helping in my daughters classroom without a doubt, majority of the kids who struggle in the early years are the 4 yr Olds. My son is nearly the same age as your daughter and could start next year. But I'm holding him back
The cut off in WA is the 30/6 my daughter is born in May. She'll start kindy next year in 2017 as long as she is toilet trained and prep in 2018. I'm excited we are working on knowing the sounds and letters and the numbers and what they look like. She doesn't talk very much yet but she will start talking when she is ready. She already does 3 days of daycare and I'm definitely excited for her to start real school next year. She is my third going to school and both my boys have survived the early years very well.
I was questioning if I should send my son at 4.5 or wait until he was 5.5.
Majority of people said to wait not so much for now but it makes a huge difference in high school.
The best advise I got was off a family friend who's a school principal.
He said that in the 25 yrs he's been teaching he has never had anyone regret holding them off until closer to 6.
But he's had so many parents regret sending them at 4.5 because although they might seem ready they generally aren't
My son is 18, we waited and don't regret it at all. She's not going to miss anything by waiting, she's not going to be picked on for being fractionally older, she'll have another full year of social interactions under her belt and if you're like us she'll have a full year head start on reading before heading into school.