Would you hold child back a grade in this situation?

[Anonymous]

DS is in 2nd grade and has an august birthday. He’s currently the youngest in the class and turns 8 in August (ie-we didn’t redshirt and sent him on time).

We are moving overseas this summer and will be enrolling him in an international school that follows the British system.

I’m wondering if we should ask the school to let him repeat the equivalent of 2nd grade.

DS has done well in school, but not amazingly. He’s a little behind on reading, but he’s been in a full immersion school since kindergarten and reading is tested in the 2nd language, not English.

He seems to do ok socially but doesn’t have any close friends from school. I don’t know if that’s because he’s younger or if he just hasn’t found his right group yet.

The beauty of all this is with it being a new school and a separate system, I think DS wont realize he’s repeating a grade since I think they have different terminology at the British school.

My motivation is to give him a leg up, and also have an extra year with him at home. As it stands, he will be graduating high school at 17 and leaving for college before he turns 18.

Would you do this?

[Anonymous]

We had the reverse situation - DS started school in the UK then moved to an American school in 2nd grade (so he competed year 2 in the UK). Honestly in your situation I would try to repeat (UK year 3 correct?). The British system is very different, and moves at a much more intense pace in the early years. When he moved to an American school for second grade he had already learned multiplication and used cursive handwriting for example. My child has a June birthday, so was also the youngest in his class, and it was a challenge for him.

[Anonymous]

Also, in the UK you start reception the year you will turn 5 (many children, like mine, start at age 4). So if they are going by age he would probably be placed in Year 3 anyway.

[Anonymous]

No, of course not

[Anonymous]

Sounds like a good idea to me but I wonder if you can't also have the new school evaluate him and make a recommendation.

[Anonymous]

I would ask his current teacher. If you can phrase it is a non-anxious way (“Hey, we have this option, and I’m wondering if you have any thoughts on what would work best”), I think you’re likely to get some good information about your kid as a learner.

[Anonymous]

If the school will go along with it I think it’s a great idea. But repeating grades isn’t don’t at parent request.

Anecdotally this is why a lot of people with mobile careers redshirt— even other states have different cutoffs.

[Anonymous]

I have a summer birthday kid. No I would not. She’s average academically, pretty solid B student now she’s in MS. I thought about repeating a year due to Covid but decided not to. No regrets.

[Anonymous]

My mom kept me one year behind while changing schools and it worked against me in a way. In each class, in each grade, I was a year+ older than everyone else and as we grew up, kids around me made me conscious about my age. That increased as we hit teens. While everyone was taking up a full time job by by age 21, I was almost 23. Just always mad me feel "old".
Academically though, I did great at school.

[Anonymous]

Yes I would

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My mom kept me one year behind while changing schools and it worked against me in a way. In each class, in each grade, I was a year+ older than everyone else and as we grew up, kids around me made me conscious about my age. That increased as we hit teens. While everyone was taking up a full time job by by age 21, I was almost 23. Just always mad me feel "old".
Academically though, I did great at school.

Everyone you know graduated college at 21? Doubt that. I have a summer birthday and was 22 when I graduated, in 4 years, as expected.

[Anonymous]

Wait…your kid is currently in a school in the US and he is NOT being tested on his ability to read in English , but in then “immersion” language?

Sorry, but that is stupid and why would you be ok with this?

[Anonymous]

I think some of posters above are forgetting that you are moving to the British system. This isn’t “repeating a year” as such, it’s a very different curriculum.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wait…your kid is currently in a school in the US and he is NOT being tested on his ability to read in English , but in then “immersion” language?

Sorry, but that is stupid and why would you be ok with this?

Op here. It’s an immersion school. Public. The research they have shared with us is that by the end of elementary, they will be reading in both languages on grade level. The skill set reading in the target language transfers to English.

In our state they do the standardized tests in the target language.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My mom kept me one year behind while changing schools and it worked against me in a way. In each class, in each grade, I was a year+ older than everyone else and as we grew up, kids around me made me conscious about my age. That increased as we hit teens. While everyone was taking up a full time job by by age 21, I was almost 23. Just always mad me feel "old".
Academically though, I did great at school.

Op here. You must not have had a summer birthday then. If I did this, then DS wouldn’t be over a year older than his classmates. Right now he is 7, turning 8 in august, but all of the kids in his class have already turned 8 except for one or two of them. If we held him back, he would be a couple months older than the oldest kid in the class (assuming no one redshirted!) at most.