Hi all, We have completed the process for deferral and we are very close to keeping our son back a year. He was born on August the 28th so will be very young if he starts this September. Just to let you know the process is as follows: You must apply for school places as normal. Once you have a place you speak to the school about holding them back and present a case if necessary based on the needs of your child. If they agree you tell the council you don't want the place and the Head/Governors of your chosen school will send a letter to the council confirming that they will let your son/daughter start in reception out of their age group the following year. However, there are some key issues that are concerning us and stopping us from informing the council that we don't want his current place. These are: 1.Once you reject the place with the deferral agreement you have to apply again next year for a place. You are not necessarily guaranteed to get the place at the school you have an agreement with. We are pretty sure this is not a problem for us as we live next door to the school but for others it could be a real problem if you don't get the place. There doesn't seem to be a solution given to this issue or say what you are supposed to do. 2.The council warns that you may have problems when your son/daughter moves onto secondary school. They may have to go straight into the second year and miss the first which would be disastrous. We have contacted some secondary schools in the area to find out their admissions policy and it seems to come down to making a case at the time which is not guaranteed. Hopefully this may change in years to come as the scheme gains popularity but it is a risk/worry for current parents thinking of deferral 3. What happens if you move house to a different borough or different area? Again it all seems to come down to trying to negotiate and put a case forward to whatever school you are trying to get in to, again nothing is guaranteed. Currently the scheme doesn't join up primary and secondary admissions in Southwark. So in a nutshell you can defer your summer born child as long as the school agrees but after that...who knows. I will add that the council have been helpful on the matter, they just don't seem to have the answers or the solutions to the issues stated above. It is all made worse by secondary schools having different admissions policies (academies, state schools, free schools etc) Has anyone else who has done this or is in the same predicament? Our son is due to start this September 2015 when he will be 4 and 3 days. We really don't know which way to go. Cheers Canteen
