If 'every child matters' according to Gordon Brown then how can the preschool policy of accepting children

Question

for pre-school based on their birth date be fair?

As it stands, children born after September 1st in any given year are not eligible for a funded place until January or April, meaning children who will be in the same primary one class will have had different amounts of preschool education.

With the younger children arguably already at a developmental disadvantage, this disadvantage can only be compounded with this anomaly.

How can it be argued at pre-school level that such a child is too young for pre-school yet 2 years later be told this age gap is now irrelevant and they must begin school with older children who have received more pre-school education? Surely the gap either matters or it does not?

If this was the policy in primary 1, the ridiculous situation would be that children would start school some in August, some in January and some in April which is clearly ludicrous. This policy is no less ludicrous 2 years earlier and therefore funded pre-school should purely based on what intake a child will be in for primary 1 with all class mates having equality of opportunity and beginning pre-school at the same time too.

Answer 1

I can see your point.  The date cut offs should be the same all the way through schooling.  It would make most sense to have all children born in the same calendar year to be encorporated at the same time - unless they are willing to have 2 or 3 different sessions of preschool a year which each child will enter as they reach the same point in age.

Answer 2

At our nursery (linked to a school) we bring all children into nursery on their 3rd birthday  -  we do not have set term entries.  I know some kids will still have more time in nursery but we've made the gap as small as possible.  Some schools do have termly intakes for school - my friends school bring in in september and january.

For some kids it doesnt matter - I have a niece born in August (youngest in class) who is heading way past others in her year group, and my sister was Sept birthday and she wasnt ready.

Currently going on around country is some 2year old pilot study to see if this helps their education.  Its ridiculous - else where worldwide they are taking their children into school later and we are going earlier!!!!

Answer 3

It is very simple,it is not something that affects his children because he can buy there education.

I have 3 children who due to birth dates were affected by the intake dates and my youngest is only 2 weeks too young to be in the year below, ( which means his birthday is just before the September term) and he is almost a year younger than his class mates.Yet he is expected to be as capable as they are.Months make a huge difference to a child's development and they should all be given a fair chance .

Answer 4

Gracious, if your child is younger, then just make sure you teach him how to read, and that he retains his love of reading (by your reading to him).  

It's all about how well a kid reads at this age, you know.  A child who loves to read will keep up swimmingly with the older kids, and in fact will pass up older students who don't share his passion of reading, because information and vocabulary are increased the more a child reads.

Answer 5

That's a politician for you, talking through their backsides as usual

Answer 6

No one method can possibly be fair for all. Parents need to be informed so that they can be advocates for their children. I missed the cut off date by 3 days and was youngest in my class. That extra year would have done me a world of good in terms of maturity and skill development. Sometimes that extra time is quite special when thinking about how fast kids grow up today. Here are some sites that might be helpful when making decisions about your child's readiness. Ask about developmental screening if you have concerns.

http://pals.virginia.edu/PALS-Instrument...

http://firststeps.us/parents_schoolreadi...

http://www.essentialskills.net/readiness...

http://www.studyzone.org/testprep/mathpr...

http://www.cfw.tufts.edu/topic/3/69.htm

http://www.aapms.org/aapms/Readiness_Ski...

http://school.familyeducation.com/school...

http://www.childtrendsdatabank.org/indic...

Answer 7

I live in Georgia and we have state funded Pre-K, although there are not enough classrooms and teachers for all the children to attend.  They hold a lottery and my nephew was 159th on a waiting list for one of the schools.

Here you must turn four before the first day of school to attend Pre-K, it gives everyone the same amount of state funded education.

If you are worried about your child's development, they have programs here for Pre-K3 and even younger that the fees are need based and dependant on income.  Check and see if they have a program like that where you live.

Answer 8

That is a very good question. To see why their is a cut-off, we need to look at child development:

The origion of the cut-off policy was that educators where trying to look for a way to ensure that children weren't being pushed in a level of education they are not developmentally ready for.

Someone with a birthday in earily October isn't going to be noticably behind someone with a birthday in July or August developmentally. However the difference between someone born  in September and someone born in March the following year is enormous.

Answer 9

I agree. The simplest solution would be if your 3rd birthday is in between the 1st of September and 30th of August of that year. You should then be entitled to NEG (Nursery education grant, 2.5 hours a day of preschool care) from the 1st of September of that respective year.

This would fall in line with "school years". The fundamentals of managing such a system i haven't though of but it cant be much worse then the way it currently works.

Answer 10

its not fair. life isn't fair. its how the government decided to structure schools according to mass and developmental readiness. some states have an equivalency test that children can take to check for early readiness

Answer 11

Of course it isn't right! When you have government running anything it is almost always a mess. My advise to you is to ;

1. Put your child in private preschool -  suck it up and pay for it. I have found it to be well worth it.

2. Homeschool your child. Yes you can homeschool preschoolers.

I'm taking my very bright 4yr old out of preschool next year and homeschooling her. She is ready for kindergarten but of course is to young.

Take control of your child's education. And if you really feel the laws are unfair then advocate to get them changed.

God Bless!

Answer 12

I agree I own a pre-school when I first took over I thought children as soon as they turned three received their funding.  but not it is in the term after they turn three.

Cut off dates are 31st Aug

                              31st Dec

                               31st March

My son was born on the 3rd Jan which means he won't receive his funding until April and he won't start School until January all for being born 3 days late, how unfair is that!