P-05-832: To Amend the School Admissions Code Relating to Summer-Born Children. Correspondence from Monmouthshire County Council, 11.02.19
Dear colleague
Please find below a response from Monmouthshire to your questions regarding Summer Born children. Please accept my sincere apologies for the delay.
1) Details of your authority’s policy in relation to requests for a deferral of school admission;
The Council is drawn to two areas of its admissions policy when considering the above. Firstly, a request from a parent to defer admission until later in the same school academic year. Secondly, a request from a parent to defer admission for an entire school year and therefore requesting that their child enter a year group below chronological age. Our policy relating to both types of requests is detailed below:
Deferred Entry
The Local Authority will admit a child to a maintained primary/infant school at the start of the academic year in which he/she will turn 5 years old. However, the legal requirements confirm that parents are able to delay the admission of their child until the term following their 5th birthday. The Local Authority is obliged to ensure that any offer of a school place is held for parents who wish for their child’s admission into Reception to be deferred until later in the academic year.
Summer term births
In the case of a child born during the summer term, they too are not legally required to attend School until the term following their fifth birthday / the September after the normal year of entry for a Reception age child. However, in such circumstances the Local Authority will continue to ensure that children continue to follow their chronological year group and therefore the child would be admitted into year 1 and not Reception.
It is only in exceptional circumstances that the Local Authority will authorise the admission of a summer term birth into a year group that is outside the normal year of entry. In such circumstances, there will need to be a suitable evidence base (e.g. report from an Educational Psychologist) that suggests the chronological year group is not suitably able to meet the needs of the child concerned.
The above gives a summary of the council’s position in respect of both types of application requests. However, we also have a policy that considers requests for admission outside of chronological year group, which would apply to both of the above categories should parents wish to delay admission until a different academic year. In brief, the general position of the council is that children are admitted into their chronological year group. However, parents are able to request an out of year group admission and each case will be considered individually by the council, taking account of the parental reasons for the request as well as any supporting documentation.
2) any specific policy you operate in relation to requests for deferrals for summer-born children (those born between 1 April and 31 August);
Please see above.
3) the number of requests for deferral of school admission received
The Council has received two requests for a deferred start but within the same academic year i.e. to start the term following the child’s 5th birthday
The Council has received two formal requests for Reception aged children to be admitted into the academic year following the year that they are eligible to attend.
4) the number of requests that were granted or rejected;
All requests that have been made for a Reception child to defer entry until later in the academic year have been approved where the requested start date is the start of the term following the child’s 5th birthday.
There have been no requests approved for Reception aged children to delay their admission until the follow academic year.
5) the number of requests for deferral of school admission for the reason that a child was ‘summer-born’ (as defined above) or not ready to start fulltime school due to the date of their birth;
For the requests for Reception children to defer admission into the following academic year, both have been summer born children whose parents have felt that their child is not ready to start school
6) the number of these requests that were granted or rejected;
Both application requests were declined, however, the Local Authority has not received sufficient evidence to support the concerns expressed by parents. In some instances, the request has been made following the application for the preferred school being unsuccessful.
7) for any requests granted, whether those children were subsequently admitted within or outside of their normal age group.
All requests for delayed admission but into the same year group have been approved. For those Reception children requesting admission into a year group outside of normal age, 1 child was admitted into the normal age group and the other opted to attend a school in England where their request was approved.
Kind Regards
Matt
Matthew Jones
Access Unit Manager
School and Student Access Unit / Yr Uned Fynediad ar gyfer Ysgolion a Myfyrwyr
Directorate for Children & Young People / Y Gyfarwyddiaeth Plant a Phobl Ifanc
Monmouthshire County Council