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EMBARGO: For immediate release Monday 14th January 2019

 

A Hackney resident has launched a Facebook campaign to ensure parents are aware of their rights when registering their children for their first schools.

 

Jules Kirby, from Homerton, believes many people aren’t aware that their child doesn’t have to start school until the term after their 5th birthday. For “summer born” children born between April 1st and August 31st 2015, parents also have the right to request that their child delay entry into Reception class by a year so they would start in September 2020.

 

Kirby says that many children and their parents are very happy with starting school aged 4 but for some younger ones in particular it is too soon. He says this is why official government guidance states that parents of summer born children have the right to ask for later entry to Reception class if they believe it is in the best interests of their child. The guidance is also clear that parents do not have to prove a special educational need or show a medical need for their child to enter Reception Class at age 5.

 

But he also warns that to make sure your summer born child doesn't miss out on their critical Reception class year, you need to contact your preferred schools and check their admissions procedures.

 

Kirby, who has two summer born daughters, says he was motivated to launch the campaign by the very the difficult experiences he and other parents had trying to persuade Hackney Learning Trust (HLT) to accept their requests last summer.

 

“When we requested a delayed Reception start for our older daughter everything went smoothly but it couldn’t have been more different second time round, despite an even stronger case” said Kirby.

 

“We and more than a dozen other parents were refused on completely unfounded grounds, in complete contradiction of the official government guidance and even though our schools supported us.

 

“After months of fighting HLT reviewed its decision and agreed to our requests but its own webpage advice on starting reception class badly misrepresents the national guidance and misinforms parents. That’s why I’ve launched this campaign: I hope more parents will know their rights and don’t have to go through the same fights we did, and that HLT will correct its misleading guidance. ”

 

Kirby has set up a webpage at www.hackneysummerborns.com with basic information and links to the national Summer Born Campaign and its 12,000-strong Facebook page.  

 

ENDS

 

Notes for editors:

1. Hackney Learning Trust’s (HLT) page on starting reception class (https://www.learningtrust.co.uk/content/starting-reception-class) states parents should “… provide evidence to support your request from relevant professionals working with your child/family that clearly demonstrate why it is in your child’s best interest to be placed outside their normal age appropriate cohort. Without evidence Hackney Learning Trust will be unable to assess your child’s individual circumstances.” This contradicts the official Department for Education’s (DfE) most recent ‘Advice on the Admission of Summer Born Children’ (https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/389448/Summer_born_admissions_advice_Dec_2014.pdf) , published in December 2014, which reads: ““there should be no expectation that parents will obtain professional evidence that they do not already have.”  

2. HLT’s webpage also misrepresents the 2014 Advice as follows: “[the Advice] states that ‘in general, children should be educated in their normal age group, with the curriculum differentiated as appropriate, and that they should only be educated out of their normal age group in very limited circumstances.’ In line with this guidance, requests to defer reception until 2020, will normally only be agreed in exceptional circumstances and where the evidence provided demonstrates clearly that it would be in your child’s best interests.” In fact the Advice states on page 6 that applications for summer-born children to be educated out of cohort are an exceptional case, and states that the reason for that is that they are at the beginning of their school career: “Parental requests for summer born children to be admitted to reception rather than year one at the age of five are different to any other parental request for admission out of the normal age group, as it is only in these circumstances that the child is being admitted to school for the first time.”

3. For more information on this campaign in Hackney please contact Jules Kirby via the webform on this site. For more information on the national Summer Born Campaign visit https://summerbornchildren.org