age for starting nursery/school

**beachgirl29** · 18-03-2012, 07:25 PM

Hi, i dont understand the 3year old 15hours a week nursery place...my daughter is 3 in july so can start in sept but when would her mindee friend start? as her birthday is nov for turning 3 yrs old. Does that mean mindee friend cant start sept but will start later but in same class? And will they be in same class at school ? Mindee mum and i would also like to see them together.

**blue bear** · 18-03-2012, 07:36 PM

In most areas children get their free 15 hours the term after they are 3. So mindee would get free hours in January 2013. Mum could probably pay to send mindee earlier.
Your child will start school a year earlier than mindee as the cut off is 31st august after 4th birthday.

**Stapleton83** · 18-03-2012, 07:37 PM

Originally Posted by beachgirl29

Hi, i dont understand the 3year old 15hours a week nursery place...my daughter is 3 in july so can start in sept but when would her mindee friend start? as her birthday is nov for turning 3 yrs old. Does that mean mindee friend cant start sept but will start later but in same class? And will they be in same class at school ? Mindee mum and i would also like to see them together.

Ok let's see if I can get this right; once your child turns three they become entitled to 15 hours free childcare, at an accredited location. It only kicks in during the academic term after they turned 3. Hence the reason that your daughter will be eligible in September but her friend will not be eligible until the January term. In terms of them being in the same class it depends on how the setting is laid out as in if there is more than one class, you can always ask the setting the question and request that they are together if possible.

In terms of starting school they will not be in the same academic year as your daughter will start in Reception next Sept 2013 but her friend misses the cut off date of 1st Sept and will not go into Reception until 2014, unless where you are has intakes of children at academic terms, but they do not here.

Hope that helps clarify the situation, if in doubt or you have any concerns I would speak to the setting to get their views and understand their policies on intakes and keeping friends together.

Sam x

**FussyElmo** · 18-03-2012, 08:03 PM

Originally Posted by beachgirl29

Hi, i dont understand the 3year old 15hours a week nursery place...my daughter is 3 in july so can start in sept but when would her mindee friend start? as her birthday is nov for turning 3 yrs old. Does that mean mindee friend cant start sept but will start later but in same class? And will they be in same class at school ? Mindee mum and i would also like to see them together.

Now in our area your daughter would be starting school nursery full time from sept to christmas. This is NOT the 15hours totally different. Your mindee would be entitled to the nef after christmas but not in a school. She would start nursery next sept whereas you daughter will be moving into reception.

**jumping j** · 19-03-2012, 08:22 AM

In our local schools you get 15hrs free nursery the term after the child's 3rd birthday.
So you're DD would start in september and friends DD would start January, they may be in the same group depending on the lay out of the nursery.
But they would definately not be in the same class when they went into reception.
A few of our schools still do an intake in september and one in January but the children are still in seperate groupd in the class.
It is different in each area and in some areas they do 3 intakes throughout the year, some do 2 and other's only do 1 in September.

**beachgirl29** · 19-03-2012, 01:45 PM

Thanks everyone for advice. so the cut off date for school is end of aug...kind of glad my daughters birthday is july but not good for anyone whos little ones birthday is sept they have to wait a year. am i right ?

**WibbleWobble** · 19-03-2012, 02:18 PM

thats right but being a sept baby does have its advantages too....they are older when they start school and that much bigger and mature- it is said this is a good thing. personally i havent seen any differences

as you know my Emily is a sept baby- she was nearly 5 when she started school. i am an august baby so i started just after i was 4. same with katie who is a june baby.

so your em will be in the school year above the other em...even though they are both born in the same year. Your em will be one of the youngest and the other em will be one of the eldest..

lovely playing today by the way....K is zonked out! all that tigerness!

mandy xxxx

**gigglinggoblin** · 19-03-2012, 03:29 PM

My friends daughter has 2 friends whose birthdays are all within 4 days of each other. Daughters birthday is end of August so she is inthe same school year as a girl nearly a whole year older than her but a year above her other friend who is only a couple of days younger than her. My ds was an August birthday and would have been much better starting the following year, however he would have then missed reception class so felt I had no choice but it took him until Easter to click. Depends on the child whether its good or bad.