“I’M quite delighted” – that’s the message from the mother of premature twins who will now start reception in September 2020 rather than year one after a dramatic u-turn from council education bosses.
Last year, Wokingham Borough Council (WBC) told Esraa Samaha that her children, who are four-year-old twins and born four weeks before their due date, would start year one in September despite a consultant claiming they would “struggle hugely”.
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But now WBC chiefs have said they can start in reception, as the family had requested, at the start of the next school year.
The original decision, made more than a year ago, was flipped after a local government watchdog rapped the council’s decision-making process.
Esraa told the News: “I’m so happy. I couldn’t believe it.
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“I’m quite delighted. I had to read it [the letter from WBC] three or four times.
“It has taken so long to get to this point.”
Guidance from the Department for Education says parents can ask the school admissions authority to agree to admit their child to reception year at age five.
One of the twins has a speech delay and English is their second language, so the children’s parents asked WBC chiefs if the toddlers could start reception in September 2020, rather than year one at school.
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But in January 2019, the council told the family it would be refusing their request as there was not enough evidence to show this move was in the children’s best interests.
WBC rejected the proposal again after the parents submitted supporting statements from therapists, nursery teachers and school teachers.
Following this, the family then complained to the Local Government Ombudsman (LGO), which found WBC made its decision incorrectly.
The council was ordered to re-visit the decision and to apologise to Esraa and her family.
The family did not receive an apology, but WBC bosses then sent the family a letter revealing they had decided to overturn their original decision, meaning the twins will start reception in September.
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