Schools, education and childcare Starting school later

How the decision is made

The admission authority for the schools you have applied to decide whether to grant your request. They consider things like:

  • The needs of your child and how the decision affects them
  • The opinion of the headteacher at the school you have requested
  • Whether delayed social, physical or emotional development is what’s stopping them being ready for school
  • If your child was born premature, whether they would have fallen into the younger age group had they been born on the original due date. We define premature as born before the pregnancy reached 37 weeks
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