There have been submissions to Liverpool City Council recently about summer born children and parents’ wishes to request a deferral on the age their children start school.
The Department for Education’s Admissions Code allows parents of summer born children to request that their child is admitted outside of their normal age group, for example by starting reception rather than Year 1 in the September after they become compulsory school age.
Section 2.17A of the current School Admissions Code, says that admissions authorities must make decisions on the basis of the circumstances of each case individually. This means that each individual case must be considered on its own merits, and in Liverpool we also use an expert panel of primary head teachers and education officers to give advice.
Following a review of this section in the current School Admissions Code and mindful of the DfE’s statement of intent to make it a future automatic right for parents of summer born children to defer reception class in an upcoming review of the School Admissions Code , Liverpool Local Authority has taken the decision to adopt a protocol whereby any future requests for reception class deferral for community and voluntary controlled schools from the parents of summer born children will be approved for reception class deferral for the following year.
It is important for parents to note that when a request is granted for deferral, i.e. parents are allowed to apply for reception class the following academic year this does not give a higher priority for admission to the schools of their choice. Parents who formally request reception class deferral will be made aware of this via correspondence from the Admissions Team.
Parents seeking more information regarding reception class deferral for September 2016 can access the Liverpool City Council website at www.liverpool.gov.uk/admissions from 12th September when the next admissions round application window opens or can contact the Admissions Team at admissions@liverpool.gov.uk
