Applying for primary 2013 re: Horniman

[GinaG3]

Hi

Quick question please. Really should not of left all this so late. Didn't realise until last minute my daughter was eligible for place next year. So much going on right now totally didn't think about it. I know my order of preference from researching online although I never had a chance to visit any of the schools yikes!

I want to apply for horniman their website stipulate ages 4-11 but lewisham council website say 5-11.. Daughter will be 4 when she starts. This is my first choice, can I put it down? Surely the school are right on their own website, they know their intake. Bit confused by this. Also has anyone continued half days for the first primary year? I see you can do this for reception year..

[Helen GV]

Def 4 last year, wouldnt have thought anything had changed since then... good luck! X

[Mrs TP]

There's a weird phrase 'rising 5' and it means the child will have their 5th birthday in the academic year in which they start school. So between 01 September 2013 and 31 August 2014 new primary school starters will turn 5.

As for half days it is standard to do half-days at state school nurseries. However, the first formal year at school, which is called reception year is usually normal school days.

I think the councils are slack sending out their letters reminding parents to register their children for school so late. We got ours a couple of weeks ago. If you are not in the school loop with older children it can all be very confusing.

[GinaG3]

Thank you both.

Mrs TP, I understand it is normal for reception years to do a normal school day but I see on southwark website you can request your child does half days until the term after their fifth birthday or their entry can be deferred until later in that school year. By law they are not at compulsory school age until 5 after all. My daughter has been doing 5 half days a week at preschool since September but took 3 weeks to settle and has had a lot of sickness since starting. We've had, all in, about 6 weeks off since starting..

I just wondered whether any parents actually defer the entry or take up half days until compulsory to do full days?

Filled in all the application now. Never even received any letter from Southwark! Good thing I'm switched on..

[Growlybear]

A very small number of parents defer entry until the spring term in some schools, but it has only been a maximum of one or two in schools where this has happened. Apart from the fact that the children who start in January miss out on a term's education, they also then have to join an established class where friendships have already formed which makes it more difficult for them to settle in. The annual school census is now carried out in the autumn term, so schools suffer financially when children don't start until January as they don't receive any funding for those children for the whole academic year.

At Horniman it used to be the case that children just went in for half days for the first two weeks to get them used to the school. I assume that is still the same. As far as I am aware, no Lewisham schools would allow half days for much longer than this.