Repeating a school year – a big decision!

Deciding whether to repeat a child at school is often difficult for administrators, teachers and parents. A range of social, emotional and learning issues must be addressed as adults endeavour to make the best decision possible for the child concerned. Repeating offers no guarantees, so when is it the best decision?

In some cases, a decision is clear cut. And for many children, repeating a year stands them in good stead as they continue the journey of school life. The second year establishes, builds or consolidates the concepts, skills or knowledges not acquired the first time around.

For other students, the decision is fraught with difficulty. What are the particular skills/knowledges/concepts the child has not acquired? What provision will there be for the child to acquire these over subsequent years, should repeating not be an option? If the child does repeat, are they likely to acquire the skills and knowledge on their second attempt? Will they maintain progress over time? How will the child cope socially and emotionally? What is the best long term strategy for this particular child? If repeating in not an option, what other strategies will be in place to support this child’s individual needs?

Unfortunately, there is no definitive way of knowing how successful the second year will be. However, if intervention programs like Reading Recovery or other powerful models of support are unavailable, educators must consider the appropriateness of options that are available. If the remaining options are to be implemented by ancillary staff, schools need to consider how effective these programs are likely to be, given that the harder to teach students will be supported by personnel with the least amount of (teacher) training?

With this in mind, should schools have a ‘no repeat’ policy or should each child’s case be considered on its own merit? Repeating does not assure success, but it is one of the strategies for intervention and should be considered for review along with the other accessible options when determining the best course of action for a particular student.

What experiences have you witnessed with child repeating a school year? On balance were these experiences positive?

by Angela Ehmer

This entry was posted on Sunday, November 30th, 2008 at 2:33 pm and is filed under School. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.