Starting school inSeptember 2025

It sounds so strange saying that, however I believe from September we have to start looking for schools for our babies. As this will be my first time. Where's the best place to find out information on what to expect, what to look out for when applying and so on???

Read more on Peanut

The views expressed in community are solely the opinions of participants, and do not reflect those of Peanut.

Learn more about our guidelines.

Add a comment

Following

As a primary school teacher and a mum, I would suggest looking at the local schools websites where you will be able to find most information. Reading their latest Ofsted reports can be useful to see how they are graded and what their areas for developments are. You can then book visits to look around schools during the day too where you can really get a feel for the school.
Can’t believe it won’t be long before we have to start considering this for our August babies!

When should we apply then?

Between September this year and just after the new year I think this year's deadline was 15th Jan.

Is anyone considering holding their kid back a year?

Thank you for replying me back

I checked OFSTED reports for our local schools. I applied in December last year for my daughter who starts in September this year so I would think it will be December this year for my August 21 girl. Can't actually get my head round the fact that my daughter who is 5 in September and she will only be a year apart at school! 😆

@Jo I'm considering delaying my son starting but still undecided

Do you think we can apply and not send them in case we feel they’re not ready yet?

you apply as if they are going then you have till next Easter (ISH) to defer them a year.

thank you again for your reply 🩷
Great advise.
My son was born on 27th of august so I’m not really sure what’s right to do.

You have plenty of time. Is he in nursery? Speak to nursery if he is and find out how they think he is doing and what they recommend doing. Is he delayed in his development at all. Mine are mid august I did think we may end up deferring a year up until 6 months ago and now I don't think we need to.

He goes to nursery only two mornings (9-12). I will ask them what they think of him going to the school.
He reached all his milestones so far but English is his third language.
He speaks very well my language (Farsi) and Italian (dad’s language) but English is only when he’s at nursery.

These posts are really helpful, no idea what to do for the best. I feel so sad my boy will be away from me 5 days a week in a year (we are together most of the time now!)

that is amazing that he has 3 languages at 2.5 years. I would say he would learn English very quickly at school and the 1st year is more about play learning. I would speak to nursery, you also have another year and a bit find a school that you both like and see how he is next Easter. You also get the 15 or 30 hours from September if you don't already so you can always increase nursery hours if that's something you want to do. I'm increasing to 2 days (10hours each day) a week from September and 2.5 days from either Jan or Easter next year to get them ready.

it's so hard, my son's the 29th. They will literally be the youngest in the class

yea it’s hard. But at least we have time to think about it which brings us obviously to overthink about it. Please let us know if you decide anything and why 😊

we aren’t entitled to free hours yet but he’s going to have those 15 hours from September this year so I’m going to send him 2 full days (6 hours each) and a morning.
Is the school usually 15 hours or more? If it’s more should we pay for it?

2 full days and half day sounds good, you still want to spend as much time with them before they start school properly. School is usually 9-3 5 days a week, you can if you don't defer them start them just mornings a week or increase slowly over a few weeks.

I’m not as I personally think my little girl will benefit from being at school and loves her 2 mornings a week at nursery. However I have a friend who’s little boy is also an August baby and she is looking into holding him back but as far as I know it depends from school to school if they will let you just delay him starting reception or if they will just let him join in year 1. She will only do it if he has just fully start a year “later” in sept 26.
I think it’s a very personal choice and really depends on the child and your needs. It does seem soooooo early for them to go to school and they’ll be very little having only just turned 4 however I personally believe it’ll be better in the long run and I would worry my little girl may be thought of as being in the “wrong year” for being not smart enough or anything and would hate that to be a problem down the line.
Good luck with your choice and defo go speak to your local schools and see what their school protocol is

in our community

Is this clever or cruel?

My husband and i were talking and with social media and the internet in general being a terrifying dumpster fire, we are trying to figure out the best way to keep our son safe while still teaching him how to safely be online and moderation.

We landed on the idea of giving him the 90's kid treatment. A computer in the living room for us to keep an eye on what hes doing online, and once we feel hes mature enough to hang with friends without adult supervision he gets a flip phone. When we feel he is responsible enough and he earns and saves up the money for the physical phone, case, and screen cover, then we will be happy to take him to get a smart phone.

I thought this was air tight, but now my brother says its cruel to give a kid a flip phone, and besides he can just use his friends phones at school.

My husband and i remember a time before the internet, and we remember having complete access to something no one understood yet. We saw unspeakable things and are always battling with the urge to put the phone and social media down. I dont want that for my son, especially with his brain so vulnerable still.

Partner no longer wants baby #2

Before our son was born we originally both wanted minimum 2 kids but we were hoping for 3-4. My partner found the birth traumatic to watch and also struggled a lot with the newborn/baby stage. He no longer wants to have any more children and it’s completely breaking my heart. I need another baby. We’ve spoken about it a lot and the options. He said he wasn’t COMPLETELY closed off to it so I asked him to try and work through his feelings and reconsider his decision. He eventually said he definitely doesn’t want another. I know that I will always want one and my feelings will never change. Do we have to break up or does anyone know anything else I can do to help change his mind? Has anyone else’s partner said this and then changed their mind? I don’t want to break up because I adore him and our life together and I’d hate to split up our family for “selfish” reasons and make my son miss out on having both of us together but I just don’t know what to do

Nursery funding

My child turned 9 months last week. I applied for government funded hours nearly 2 months ago and so well within the required timeframe for the April term, however upon receiving my first invoice without the funding applied and having questioned this, I have now been informed that the stretched funding doesn’t start until 4th May.

Has anyone else been told it won’t start until May?

The government site states it should start from April 1st, and so I intentionally set my nursery start and return to work as the start of April for that reason, knowing that I wouldn’t be able to afford the nursery on my sole income without the funding

Jealous of my husband

I’m so jealous of him and it’s making me resentful. We have a ten week old and I’m jealous that he is at work all day. I’m jealous he can leave for lunch and actually eat an uninterrupted lunch. Take a phone call uninterrupted. Chat with a friend he runs in to uninterrupted. Even go to the bathroom when he wants uninterrupted. He comes home from work when he wants. He’s not on a set schedule. Some days are late some are early. It depends on when he’s done. I’m jealous he can come home at 10pm and shower, eat and go right to bed uninterrupted because I already have the baby asleep. He doesn’t have to worry about anything house wise or baby wise because I’ve done it all. Meanwhile I’m covered in puke and crap and smell like rotten milk. When he is home he is VERY active and helpful. So it’s not that. I’m just jealous his world hasn’t changed and mine has I guess. This isn’t something he’s doing wrong so I’m not sure how to get past this. I wish I could keep him home all day because that’s how helpful he is, but I understand he obv needs to work.

NHS job

Anyone work for the NHS and does 12 hour shifts? How do you work around childcare and your partners job?

He has no respect for anything to do with me.

Husband and I decided to separate 3 days ago. I've been sleeping on the floor in the kids room, and we both have to stay in the same apartment for a while. He wont stop pushing little things and I am reaching my limit. Photos in comments