https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/too-you...-date/44138812
what do people do with their kids before this time if you are a working couple or a single working parent?
I saw an article a year ago about parents delaying the start of kindergarten for their kids until they were 5 years old:
If they are both working, then they use a large chunk of one of the salaries to pay for child-care in a "Krippe" or with a day-mother. Or if they feel strongly enough about the issue and cannot find a day-care solution, one of them resigns and stays home with the child or both switch to working part-time.
If they are a single working parent, they will typically not be able to afford to pay for such care. It is then either provided by family members, or else the option to delay the start of kindergarten simply has to be scrapped.
The same as they did the year before and there is not a single answer. Enjoy the kids, keep them in daycare, pottytrain them, teach them to dress themselves, have a nanny, go on holidays, forest walks. Some parents just don't feel their kid is ready so they delay kindergarten which is much more strict than daycare. Or they just like to have the kid around them for another year.
Ours will have reached 4 just a few days before going to kindergarten, we'll just see how it goes. In the end it also derives the kid from another year of pension building and all of such.
Had a discussion with somebody on this topic about kids who are right on the cut-off age and what the pros/cons would be to send them early (young) vs late.
My PoV was why waste time, just send the kids to KG/School and let them get on with it.
Other PoV was, it was too young, esp. for boys who may not develop as early, so maybe better to delay and let them mature a bit more first.
I started school 5 months after I turned 5. I had a very difficult time fitting in with my classmates and I ended up repeating the 10th grade.
Why rush it?
One of my sisters skipped second grade.
One of my daughters started 1st grade at 5.
Tom
I think this is very individual. A small, shy kid - let them delay. A tall, strong and socially skilled kid - throw him in the water to learn to swim. I actually think that it is vital to have school stimuli early, while at home the kid can up the social skills, so I wouldn't hold a kid back, personally. Maybe provide another social group while starting school, so they can compensate possible school set backs and have more social life: soccer, gymnastics, conservatoire (choir), scouts, etc.
maybe it would have been better if you started right after you turned 4?
i guess on average kids will start KG at 4.5 years old. but at the extremes they could be closer to 4 years or 5 years.
My son was 4 a few days after the cut off. We could have pushed him to KG early but we waited a year until the proper time meaning he was the oldest in the class when he started. That gave a lot of advantages in terms of maturity etc.
Later, when in primary school 4th class he was understimulated and the school pushed him ahead a class around the Christmas holiday. That worked too as ne took the Gymi exam a year early and passed.
Thankfully the schools we’ve encountered have been flexible enough to accommodate our son’s needs.
At the end of the day we group children in a class according to their date of birth which takes no account of different abilities in different things at different times of life as if the most important thing about them is date of manufacture.
Cheers,
Nick
Some 4 year olds are barely out of nappies.
Around here, KG starts the day after your 3rd birthday.
My daughter turned three in early November, next day school!
Tom
Depending on where you live - a major concern may be if the child is school-age (legally) and they are in public daycare, the daycare may refuse to keep them another year. I've also been told that age differences don't become apparent until the kids are older - a younger child may struggle to keep up (tiredness or later on emotionally - 12 vs 13 yo). I think it very much depends on the child - and that would be how I would decide.
Does anyone here have experience with the procedure to follow in Lausanne or Canton de Vaud?
Our son is due to start in 2021, he's born just 10 days before the cut off date and we believe it would be far better for him to start school at the age of 5. We heard conflicting information (a doctor exam is necessary vs a letter). Our pediatrician doesn't want to help us, but that's another story
One reason they will probably not want to delay, is language acquisition before 'proper' school starts. Does your child speak French?
It is massively costly, in so many ways, including to the tax payer- if and when a child starts 'big' school without the local language.
However it seems derogations can be made, but only in very specific conditions.
Des dérogations à l'âge d'admission peuvent être accordées aux conditions prévues par la Décision 144 Dérogations à l'âge d'admission à l'école (PDF, 565 Ko) .
Our daughter turned 4, 12 days before the cut off date and started school the next month. Im not sure what you mean by the paediatrician does not want to help you? They have to do the school readiness check before starting school in Vaud. The only person that can do this is the paediatrician. We felt that because language acquisition is so much easier at a young age, it was better to send her now and she is flourishing. They play a lot its not like they spend all day at a desk learning to write etc. If your paediatrician won't do the check, or won't write that your child is not ready to start on the forms sent by the canton, maybe go to a different paediatrician. If you go directly to the school where your child has a place, they can also be very helpful and can point you in the right direction.
Edited to add, have 2 friends whose children were held back. One was not potty trained and the other had some cognitive issues that they felt would be resolved with another year at home. I don't think they allow you to keep your child back just because you want to.
Quick top of head translation
''When there are medical reason or other reasons linked to a situation with a particular child, parents may ask for a one year delay.
This request must be made to the Head of the School here the family resides. Normally, reasons given must be backed by a medical report. When circumstances justify it, the Head will make an appointment with the parents to fully understand the situation. The Head of the School will make the final decision. ,,
Both our kids were on the borderline cutoff months, one we held an extra year before starting and the other is the youngest in school - both are doing well by just about any metric.
Our decision for our first to hold off a year was the belief that there was no rush to start as they will be in school for a great portion of their childhood anyway - plus, was getting so much out of our very good creche at the time. The other, was eager/ready to join the sibling in school despite being so young
No magic formula, you have to go on personality & readiness of the children
This is great info @FCBarca, how did you "hold him off a year"? Did you need a paediatrician recommendation? What "official" procedure did you need to follow?
To answer the other questions, thanks all for your replies! he's going to a (private) kindergarten 3/week. He's started a couple of months ago, so he doesn't speak French yet, but he starts to understand (he hears constantly 3 languages at home, of which he's fluent in 2 .. not the easiest setup by any means so progress is slow) Even if he starts compulsory, we want him to continue in the same place (which does have a school the first 2 years) eventually. So he wouldn't go in the public school that would be assigned to him, which makes me wonder whom to talk to? the school he *would* be going to? the Swissinfo article at the top of the thread cites "parents deciding to keep their kids home another year". That made me think this is a parents decision The paediatrician left a message on our answering machine saying he is against delaying the start of school and he won't support us in this direction. He didn't examine the kid (except the regular 3 y. o. check)
I'm a bit confused. Perhaps, in Vaud, the names and stages of school are different from where I live.
Your son is already at a Kindergarten, but only 3x per week... does this, at some stage, build up to become every day? And then the same place is also a school? What is it, then, that you wish to delay, if he's already there?
What do you think could help you to achieve this delay? In general, in Switzerland, when trying to decide about anything for anything for a child, the central important criterion is whether or not the decision would be in the best interests of the child .
If you have demonstrable, qualitative reasons showing why you (and a pediatrician) feel that this specific child would be much healthier, happier, would develop better physically and psychologically, and would cope with school better, etc. by delaying, then you have a chance.
If, on the other hand, the reasons are deemed to be social or incidental, for example that the family is intending to spend a few months visiting the country of origin, or that the grandmother is coming to stay, that the child and/or the parents does/do not [yet] speak the local language, or that childcare planned around the school timetable would be impractical given the parents' working hours, etc., then the application to delay the child is unlikely to succeed.