Plans for legislation to allow the parents of summer-born children to automatically admit them to a Reception class at the age of 5 have been ditched by the government.
Children born from 1 April to 31 August do not need to start school until the September after their 5th birthday, a full year after they could first have started school.
But at the moment, when a parent chooses to do this, it is up to the school admission authority to decide whether to allow them to start in Reception rather than in Year 1.
In 2015, former schools minister Nick Gibb made a commitment to legislate so that summer-born children could automatically be admitted to a Reception class at the age of five if their parents wished.
But in a statement yesterday evening, Department for Education minister Baroness Barran, said she did “not intend to continue to pursue legislation”.
She added that the system was now working “much better” for summer-born children, with data showing that the “majority of requests for delayed entry to Reception are now approved”, with almost 9 in 10 approved annually.
In her statement, she added: “I am reassured that good progress has been made on this issue and that these improvements suggest the system is now working well.
“Taking all of this into account, I do not intend to continue to pursue legislation on this issue at this time but will keep this position under review if the situation changes.”
She also mentioned the current requirement for parents who delayed their child’s start in Reception to apply again for them to be educated out of their normal year group in secondary school.
She added: “However, it can rarely be in the best interests of a child to miss a year of school. I would like to take this opportunity to remind admission authorities of the advice for local authorities and school admission authorities on the admission of summer-born children, which asks them to take into account the fact that the child has been educated in a different year group until that point and, unless there are sound educational reasons to do otherwise, the assumption should be that they will remain outside of their normal year group.
“Children educated out of their year group should not be disadvantaged at secondary transition.”
