ESC revises school start policy for children born in summer
A CAMPAIGNER for children born in the summer to be allowed to defer starting school said she was delighted that Education, Sport & Culture had revised its policy.
ESC will now automatically approve a child born between 1 July and 31 August being able to start Reception when they are five.
Previously, children in this category were more likely to have had to either start Reception when they had just turned four, or start in Year 1 the following year.
‘Requests which meet the following criteria will be automatically agreed,’ the new policy states.
‘Child born between 1 July and 31 August; child born prematurely (less than 37 weeks gestation) resulting in them being born in a different year group.’
A four-year-old boy’s mother had fought back at ESC’s original decision, which would have forced her child to start school before she felt he was ready.
‘Now he can start in Reception without being disadvantaged,’ she said.
Her son turned four in August and she had fought to prevent him having to start Reception in September.
ESC had agreed to approve the delay, but said that he would have to start in Year 1.
She had accepted this in order to continue fighting for change, which has now happened, and the woman, who has asked not to be named, said she was eager for people to know.
‘After the battle we’ve had I’d quite like to shout about it.’
This cause had also been championed by Deputy Sasha Kazantseva-Miller, who was also happy at ESC’s revision.
‘I am delighted that the Education Committee has updated the admissions policy,’ she said.
The change would help align the island’s policy with current practice in the UK.
‘In fact, the Guernsey policy is going even further, where requests will be accepted automatically when certain criteria is met – such as when the child is born between 1 July-31 August or born prematurely and when the biological due date for birth would have been in the following year of admissions,’ said Deputy Kazantseva-Miller.
She commended ESC and its officers ‘for being very open-minded and listening to the views of the family'.
She said that the family had put in a lot of time and effort looking at best practices elsewhere and after doing all the legwork they shared the information and rationale for a change in the policy.
‘I think this is a great example when islanders can make a real difference and lead to positive change that can affect others for years to come,’ said Deputy Kazantseva-Miller.
‘It has been incredibly rewarding to be a small part of helping facilitate this change in policy and what makes constituency work an important part of a deputy’s role.’
