Enrollment Age Criteria

Frank Anderson

14 September 2001

________________________________________________________________

 

Date:         Fri, 14 Sep 2001 08:35:20 -0400

From: Frank Anderson <fanderson@CIC-VALENCIA.ORG.VE>

Subject:      Responses to outreach for cut-off dates

 

Dear Colleagues,

 

        Thank you to the thirty-one schools who kindly responded to the outreach for the cut off date information re: to the admission of lower primary students.  Subsequent please locate a composite of the results.

 

                        Dates                   _%_

 

                        April 1                 3.22% (1)

                        August 31               3.22% (1)

                        September 1             45.2% (14)

                        September 15            3.22% (1)

                        September 30            16.12% (5)

                        October 1               12.90% (4)

                        October 15              3.22% (1)

                        October 31              3.22% (1)

                        December 31             6.45% (2)

 

        Generic Comments:

 

        a)      Some exceptions are made if a child passed the grade showing

proper records of it, birthday is really close and reviewing progress of

child in each report card, or if child is within 2 weeks of the deadline and

has completed a US style education.

 

        Our special thoughts are directed to you and your colleagues during

these extraordinary and difficult circumstances.

 

Warmest regards,

Frank Anderson, Director

Colegio Internacional de Carabobo

 

 

From: Headmasters List at International Schools      Sent: Donnerstag, 8. Februar 2001

To: HEAD-NET@TC.UMN.EDU          Subject: admissions age

 

Dear Netters:

 

We have moved our admissions criteria so that students must be of a proper age by August 1 for an August 15th school start.  We are now considering moving this to a November 1 birthdate cutoff.  Any opinions or sensible reasoning on why November would be preferable to--or not preferable to--an August 1 cutoff?

 

Thanks for your input.  Sincerely,  Paul Poore

 

 

Date:         Fri, 9 Feb 2001 08:40:29 +0100

From: Stephen Middlebrook <stephen.middlebrook@BPIS.DE>

Subject:      Re: admissions age

 

Hello from Potsdam,

 

I don't think there is a magic age.  If you look through the 50 states in

the U.S., you will find great diversity of starting date ages.  If memory

serves, California and New York are in December, others in July and August.

I was in a private school in Evanston, IL that had a different starting age

for boys than for girls, which makes good developmental sense in the early

childhood years.  Around the world, it is even more varied.  Some countries

(New Zealand, and possibly some states in Australia) take kids in on their

4th or 5th birthday, so that you do not have a whole crowd of new kids all

starting on the first day of school.  It also makes the child's entry into

school a very special occasion.  Not a bad idea.

 

Some international schools try and split the difference by picking a date

somewhere in the middle of the range.  Others say, let's have the youngest

BE the age of the grade by the first day of school, so that in Paul's case,

August 1 or 15 would be appropriate.  But, then you get many parents with

kids slightly younger who would be able to start school in their home

countries lobbying for an exception.

 

My sense is that there must be some compelling reason to look at making the

date later, and that reason may be enough to make the decision.  I have

always been a little way of taking in boys to pre-school who are still

three, not perfectly toilet-trained, and not ready for separation from their

parents.

 

No answers here, just some thoughts, but it is a very interesting issue.

 

Steve Middlebrook

 

PS  We just confirmed yesterday that we will be moving our school site from

our forested, becastled, lake side park north of Potsdam, to a forested,

also becastled lake side park close to the southern border of Berlin 20 km

closer to where most of our kids live!

 

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