August born DS now in Year 3 still way behind. Will he ever catch up?

[lazymaisy]

My DS is a August born child who has always struggled at school not being interested in reading or writing until the last year really.

We've just had a parents evening and he's got IEPs for maths, reading and writing. We've always assumed he will catch up with his peers but are now thinking of the scenario of him being in a bottom stream at secondary school and what that would mean both socially and academically for him.

Just interested in any other people in this position. We are now considering private for secondary and possibly putting him back a year but not sure if this is the best solution.

[sims2fan]

If you can afford it I would definitely recommend getting a tutor for an hour or two a week to help improve his maths and English. They can make a lot of difference through really focused, personalised learning.
It is possible for him to catch up, though you also have to be prepared that he might not. My nephew was a late summer birthday and was behind at the end of Year 2, but came out of Year 6 towards the top of the class and went into all of the top sets at secondary.

[paddingtonbear1]

Hi, we are in a similar position with our dd. She's July born and wasn't really interested in school work (plus she had glue ear which didn't help!), until yr 2. For her KS1 SATS she got all level 1s. Now though, she is trying harder in yr 3, and has gone up 2 book bands since Sept. dh helps her a lot at home with maths. It could be that dd never catches up, but for now she's making progress. So hope is not lost! If she's still a fair way behind in yr 4/5, we will consider getting her a private tutor. Tbh I wish our school system was a bit more flexible - dd would probably have been a lot better if she'd just been in the year below.

[charlieliz]

altho the trouble with them being out of year is a social one, and when they get to secondary age some schools wont accept children out of year so then there is the trauma of having to suddenly jump a year and having missed out on a years curricuum content, plus movingout of the class with their friends in.

[maggiethecat]

DD was August born and altho not lagging seriously behind I often wonder how things would have turned out had she been born 17 days later. For a long time she would not read willingly but this year (yr 3) she's become quite keen on reading to herself. Her number work is not great and I think she lacks confidence, often referring to the mathematicians (herself excluded) in her class. She's also physically small and will always be relative to classmates.

I am working on building her confidence and have lots of lovely chats with her (chatting is her bestest ever!)

I believe she'll do well but it wont be effortless.

[sunnydelight]

DS1 has an August birthday and we were constantly fobbed off by the "young boy" thing. We moved him in Y5 when he came home saying "the teacher has put all us thick kids on the same table" to a school with 12 in a class and to start with they still said there wasn't a problem and he just needed a bit more attention, I eventually insisted on an assessment in Y6 and he was found to be dyslexic

When he hit high school (local comp as I couldn't afford any more private) they dumped him in the lowest ability group with little help, I tried (again) to have him put back a year with no joy. Halfway through Y9 we moved to Australia where the cut off date is 31st July so he went back a year. From there he has come on in leaps and bounds and when he did his School Cert last year (GCSE equiv) did MILES better than expected - he also got a scribe for his exams for the first time in his life. I feel really strongly that I failed him in his primary education, through in reality there wasn't much more I could do. Please, please, DO look at private schooling and see if they will let your child repeat a year. DS2 is also dyslexic, he was Y4 when we arrived in Oz, I put him back a year - in that year he learnt to read fluently and is now doing well. Some kids really benefit from an extra year and I just don't understand why UK schools refuse to acknowledge this. Repeating a year has made such a huge difference to both my boys - sometimes that is all they need to thrive.

[claig]

agree with sims2fan and paddingtonbear1, get a tutor. I think the 1 to 1 attention will help him improve and make him more interested in doing well

[munstersmum]

Hi

DS is a late Aug. birthday and we were told by a friend in education his starting point would be several months behind the boys & 18 months behind the girls because they 'develop' earlier. So that's a lot of catching up to do. He's not keen on homework (!) so pushing more reading/writing wasn't generally productive.

We went for the strategy of building confidence in another area to buffer never coming top in school. DS loves his weekly tennis group. A bit of competition is good & that can be carried over into motivation in class.