defer P1 admission due to age?

[Portia]

@Portia - Really? Coz the kids at my son's school who repeated had to go through the interview process all over again.

The thing I learnt this year is that there is no guarantee with ESF. Unless you have it formally written, I wouldn't take whoever said whatever lightly. Too many kids have gone without a place this year.

Deferred children do have to interview again, but not reapply - at least not at our ESF school. Given that the interview is mainly to test English language ability and readiness for P1, it is highly unlikely that the child would be rejected next year. After all, his/her English skills and other skills will all continue to develop.

I have no reason to distrust what I have been told. The communications with our ESF school have been excellent from the teacher calling me after the kindie observation session as she knew I wanted to defer my son's admission to talking to the principal at the information session to the discussion with the interviewer after my son's interview to the email follow ups. It has all been excellent. Out of prudence though, I will contact the admissions officer again in September to make sure our name remains on the list.

At the information session at our ESF school, parents of end of year born children were specifically told that they should seriously consider whether deferral is right for their child as parents know their child best and not necessarily the teachers who have only seen your child for 45 minutes.

 

[Seb's Dad]

@rani - five years ago! it can't be!! good heavens.

@portia - i really like that you were told that bit about "parents knowing their child best". that's really affirming! again, good luck to you and your family whatever your decision.

 

[alibali]

thanks for your input.

We were told that she would be guaranteed an interview (not a place) if we defer her. Deferred children get top priority for interviews at the ESF schools.

The admissions guy at the primary school said that they will not let a child repeat a grade- they allowed this once with a student and he said it was a disaster- the child acted up in class and had lots of behavior problems b/c he saw his peers move on without him. So repeating is not an option- although they said special ed would be available. However, there is absolutely nothing wrong with my daughter's development-she's just the youngest compared to her peers and personality is a bit on the quiet side.

I think we are now leaning towards deferring her as it's basically now or never. We'd rather she be the oldest in the class (and more confident), than the youngest.

However, I will get her guarantee for interview, etc. in writing just in case there is a change in management at the school or they lose her paperwork. But, yes, it will be up to me to keep track of when the interview letters are sent out and make sure she is included in the process (again)!

Now we have to decide whether to try to put her back into the same kindy or put her somewhere else for a change of scenery.

I know it sounds crazy to turn down a spot at one of these schools, but we think it would be good for her to have one more year to mature- plus all her neighborhood friends will be doing K2 next year. Just because she was born 3 days before the end of the year, she's now in a different grade from all her playmates!


I know there has to be a cutoff, I just wished the ESF kindy had listened to our concerns from the beginning- ie. let her start K1 one year later. Then none of this mess would be happening. Why are they so strict here about the age bands and not letting parents have any say in when the child should start school?

 

[MommyTo3]

My twins are end of November and we have accepted their Y1 spots. Yes, I am worried, but have close contact to the school (sibling and my pt work). A friend of mine just deferred her Dec '06 born child at CWB but we're going ahead. First of all, I don't want them to be in another preschool again for another year (I would have to move them). I've seen with my own eyes (I work at ESF) that even in the later years the differences between children can be huge, regardless of their age. I see young children do just fine, or even excel while some other children don't. ESF tends to put children in different groups for different subjects depending on their ability, so they cater for all sorts of backgrounds. Yes, I do expect Y1 and 2 to be more of a struggle, but they are doing fine, developmentally. I think they're even ahead of what my older one (May born) was doing at that age (she was a very smooth transition into ESF), but the fact is they'll be 6 months younger when they start. Also, we don't expect to be in HK for many many years, so if they transfer at some point, most likely they'll move back a class which we are absolutely fine with. So we're going to give it try. I will be in close contact with the school anyway, and from my experience and the experience from other mothers with "late birthday" children is that by Y3 or so it evens out as it normally would, regardless of their age.

If you won't get a guarantee, I would accept and see first. I expect next year to be even harder. My oldest had a 28 Dec boy in her class (he moved overseas) and he did quite well (they were in Sunshine together), no major concerns.