To be shocked deferring by a year has become this common?

I thin 28 is a bit older than the OP was suggesting...

Then tell me @SunriseMonsters why is there a clear demographic difference between people who choose to defer school start according to socioeconomic status?? If everyone one can do it and it’s a free choice, why why why the difference??

“Using children as pawnsxin [sic] in [my] attempted class war” LOL

I have held back my youngest. He is absolutely not ready. That being said, my eldest's best mate is Aug 31st and is 100% as mature and able as the other kids.

It's totally individual and if your LO is happy and enjoying school then you've made the right choice. If they aren't, then discuss with the head teacher about taking them out and trying next year.

I'm in Germany and they start school at 6/7 years old here. It's so much better and has really opened my eyes to how young we start in the UK. If we ever move back, I'd defer my second born (January birthday...Scotland is slightly different).

I think the way they do it in Ireland is so much more sensible.

Kids have to start school in the September by the time they are 6, but they can start from 4.

The vast majority start at 5 and the decision point is usually when the child is spring born - ie should they start at 4.5 or 5.5? It is extremely rare for kids to start at just turned 4 as summer borns do by default in England. And contrary to the comments on this thread, having kids of different ages (up to 2 years) isn’t an issue at all.

It is a parental decision based on the readiness of the individual child, as it should be.

Compulsory school is until the last Friday in June in the year you turn 16. So yes, they certainly can leave school before their exams if they so choose.

Young people are required to stay in education, training or employment until they are 18, however this is a duty on the local authority to provide education, training and employment opportunities, not a compulsion on the child or their parents themselves. In reality you can walk out of school on the last Friday of June with not a single GCSE to your name and literally no-one will bat an eyelid.

It’s risky because children could potentially drop out of school in year 10 before sitting their GCSEs, if they want to. Many parents think the benefits outweigh the risks though.

On a population-wide scale, there is an attainment gap for summer borns.

On an individual basis it doesn’t necessarily make a difference. My friend’s birthday is 30th August and she got straight As and is now a consultant. I don’t think she’s have done any better if she’d hung back a year, and her 18th birthday party would’ve sucked! As the youngest the advantage was we could all go on a night out round the pubs and clubs with her to celebrate 😁 A small advantage, granted, but she enjoyed it at the time!!

Oh god. What illogical logic. Such a poor sensationalist extrapolation. Can you explain the “logical” steps for me again between 1) I don’t try to game the system to benefit myself at the expense of other people and 2) some children experience neglect and abuse (a criminal act) so I must do the same to my children?

Honestly, tell yourself whatever you like to make yourself feel better. That’s what cognitive dissonance does to you I guess.

Again, you are really over-egging the pudding here. There is absolutely no evidence showing that starting school at just turned 4 is likely to cause anyone 'harm'. It does show it gives them a statistically higher chance of performing less well academically than their peers. For most children this will be one small part of a range of factors that can predict but not determine their educational outcomes. The evidence is mixed on how long this effect persists.

Given only 1.5% of parents of summer born in England defer, it really isn't, as you imply, some sort of neglectful or abusive thing to not do it.

There's a lot of dc who differred and should have started reception in 2023. They are the 2019 summer borns. Their parents have chosen to do this due to the pandemic.
I only know of 1 2020 born who has differred.

It’s not “dragging everyone down”, it’s not allowing a group of people who have wealth, resources, education, to benefit in an unfair way (unfair because the benefit is not equally spread out amongst all people

Everybody has the choice to defer if they have a child born in summer. It's not a "benefit" or only available to "wealthy people". 🙄 Stop using children as pawnsxin your attempted class war.

US here and my daughter's birthday was October. She went to preschool for 3 years because the school had a cut off of September 1. She was more than ready and she was very mature all through school and no struggles. I think 4 is too young for school.

My August-born son is 19 now, and I'd have deferred if it was allowed back then. There were some years when the Autumn term started before he'd even had his birthday. He was still only 10 when he started secondary school, due to the term starting late August in our area.

Academically he caught up with his peers by year 1, but emotionally it took much longer. It was probably about year 9 or 10 before the ages seemed to even out.

Then he was the last to turn 18, so had to miss out on all the pub/club nights, the last to start driving and so on. He struggled to get insurance for his post A level lads trip as he was still only 17.

The ability to defer is a really good development in my opinion.

I'm from a country where children start school aged 7.

4 is a baby!

My children were born in autumn but I'd have deferred a summer born in a heartbeat.

I don’t think all kids are the same though. One of my kids definitely needed structure and formal learning. They hated preschool and cried all the time. The chaos was too much for them. As soon as they had a desk a chair and a blackboard and structured lessons, they were completely transformed.

Not all children love to learn through play. My child definitely needed to be learning reading, writing and maths!

Coming from a different environment, this is much like term time holidays - I don't understand the angst. Let families do what's best for them.

@TheAlchemy For us, because you get the 30 hours for an extra year, it was sort of a no-brainer because nursery for 3 days was so cheap (and also another year before we had to deal with school holidays and school logistics!). If they're in a quality setting, no 4yos should be bored at nursery anyway. Kids that age don't get bored of playing!

P1 is very play-based here anyway though, DD1 is doing some light stuff with letters but mostly seems to be outdoor play, crafts, and other kinds of play from what she tells me! The classrooms are like a nursery room, no rows of seats or anything like that, all open with different play stations.

I don’t think you understand what is being said here. It’s not “dragging everyone down”, it’s not allowing a group of people who have wealth, resources, education, to benefit in an unfair way (unfair because the benefit is not equally spread out amongst all people). All children staying - for the most part, in their correct age based academic year stops those with money and power from creating a situation in which they doubly benefit themselves.

However, I do agree there is no rush to start the school curriculum. But we don’t have a really good universal early years provision. How long do we have to wait for that whilst the rich get richer/better jobs/better health etc.?

I don’t agree. I think most people want their children to do well at school.

Data shows children who are nearly one year behind their peers are at a disadvantage. If there is an option to hold the child back a year and offer them the best chance to succeed you’d be a fool not to do it.

Obviously if you had a child who was showing every sign of being ready for school that’s different. I’d send them. But many children are starting school still in pull ups and whimpering for their mummy. If I could avoid that I would.

I think it depends on the child. Of my kids’ friends the four August babies all ended up going to Oxbridge! They are also socially mature and very confident.

I had a July baby and did not defer. No regrets whatsoever.

I don’t tend to live my life like that. It wouldn’t sit well with my values and my conscience.

You would struggle with your "conscience" to do something beneficial for your child because others might choose not to take the same action for their own child? You have very strange "values" if they compel you to do something optional that robust research demonstrates is likely to cause your child harm, simply because others are doing the harmful thing and you think it would be "unfair" not to therefore do this to your child, too.

Do you apply the same logic when you see parents neglecting their kids, or yelling at them? "I must shout at mine tonight, can't have her having an advantage over other children by growing up with a loving parent!". Do you make sure you never drive them anywhere? Some people can't afford a car, after all. I presume you never take your kids on holiday, or give them hugs, or read to them, or play with them because some other parents don't and you wouldn't want to be entrenching inequality.

It's not nonsense. You can't leave school until the last Friday in June of the year you turn 16. You can't leave in Sept if you have a birthday then you have to wait until

I'm not a fan of the 'someone has to be the youngest' argument. Yes someone does have to be the youngest but it should be children who would benefit from being the youngest - confident children, usually girls who develop language skills earlier, those who can wipe their bums, who aren't small for their age, who have the emotional maturity, who aren't still napping in the day, children who like playing with older kids. Really at the cutoff it should be a case of each child being treated as an individual. Numerous studies show that it can be really detrimental to a child's development to be a summer born baby and that's not fair at all, middle, working or upper class.

DS was born at the end of August. I also wish that there had been an option to repeat a year.
DS spent the first three months sleeping in lessons and during assemblies because he had been used to having several naps while at nursery
He was academically able as I had made a concerted effort to help with his phonics and numeracy skills but it wasn’t easy.
However, he was not emotionally ready for school and I almost wished I could have waited until September to have him.

Aside from your deliberately inflammatory phrasing, you have the causation wrong here. If our DC2 had been born five days early (and we hadn't deferred, which we would've in truth), our nursery would've been £12k down.