Unfair to defer summer borns

Fair enough if they have severe learning delays or were born premature and would of been in the year below anyway but as many have said on this thread in their towns EVERYONE with a kid born past april is doing it so they feel like they have to or their child will be the youngest by 15 months.

It's definitely a pretentious neighborhood thing because like I said no one in my town does this, thank god.

Its funny really as people saying they are so much olfer 0-5m extra makes such a difference and they always win etc. But thats reinforcing that the youngest normally aug are at a disadvantage. Whilst its an occassional child ot makes very little difference to averages in a 30 child class.

the apr onwards it because they have less preschool. Apr to aug are actually funded till sept at 5 as thats when they are school age. They are otherwise losing that funding. Starting at 4 they get 3-4 funded. Whereas a sept would get 3-5. So jan to the following following sept.

re sen that cannot be used as soooo many kids i know ha ve turned out to have sen that wouldnt have been supported as a reason at 3/4. However most of the sen kids dont seem to be summer borns so couldnt delay. But would have struggled even more if they werent on the older side.
i know a jul,jun,may,jul,jun deffered children. Only 3 have sen the others were avoiding disadvantage.

its prwtty ridiculous from the social side in england that sept borns can drink from sept of y13 but aug cant until going to uni. Obviously that has a social effect.

the stats are clear the results as they are scaled.at SATs and gcse go down nationally from sept to aug. Now obviously a summer born can get good sats. My eldest d id and got GD for all (except writing) but perhaps a couple would have been higher a year later. Obvious as y8 she also effectively like the rest of the year group missed a year due to covid. Socially notin a good place. But its likely the sen that wasnt ID younger.

its rather irrelevant.how kids did pre gove as that really changed how hard the curriculum is and whilst its not that hard for primary, it is putting more stresson the kids.
My deferred kid is doing perhaps less well in english than the in cohort child. But overall primary has been so much easier (and better for.the school and classmates) every extra child that struggles.takes away from.the children who actually havelearning difficulties. some.teachers are misdiagnosing the youngestnas adhd as they are less mature

We have August born twins and are considering deferring for one of them. One of our twins is so school ready he is pretty much following his older brother in, banging on the door and practicing his phonics as he goes. Our other twin child is ASD and is delayed in her development at approx 18 months behind cohort for speech. If we defer she will be in a playgroup in the next classroom to her brother, with a play leader she knows and loves, and will have a much longer lead in and transition to school.

I always thought deferring was a bit weird, but it could make a difference to our daughter, where there is nothing we would not do to make her path easier.

Yeah you’re completely correct. Only way to stop extreme unfairness is stick to Sept-Aug. Otherwise you’re only increasing disparities and of course parents conceiving in November at least know what the plan is. Schools pandering to awkward parents and letting the decent ones suffer again for the sake of a quiet life.

Do you have experience of a child just turned 4 not ready developmentally for school? Not yet speaking in full sentences, or toilet trained? Not able to understand instructions? It’s amazing the difference 12 months, or a quarter of their lives can make!

Prematurity is one of the things that meets criteria, it will have been mentioned in your application presumably? We did the same and the preschool teacher and speech therapist wrote up a paragraph each supporting too.

Nobody is saying you have to defer. But the option could be there for those who think it would be best for their child. Of course many summer borns will do well. Children all develop differently, which adds weight to the argument for being able to defer.

Thank god I live in a humble town where no one would consider it. I guarantee most I see online talking about it live in pretentious neighborhoods, sorry but just a gut feeling.

Someone's got to be the youngest and a couple of kids in the class having 11 months between them is definitely preferable to the mess that is kids having up to 18 months between them a la the example in the op.

Many of these parents just can't stand the idea their precious darlings may be a cm shorter than their peers or slightly academically behind in reception 🙄

There are plenty of examples in this thread of summer borns doing very well, and if you also did research you would find many reasons why deferring isn't always the best option. Not that many like to admit it, because 'the statistics' tell you everything you need to know.

I'm going to guess you're Welsh? It seems to be a thing in Wales that nursery is called school, in England we still call it nursery, it doesn't seem to confuse the kids at all.

You roll your eyes at your nephew being happy and thriving at school? Charming.

If you don’t know anyone who has done it; and don’t know anything about why one might; how are you in a position to assume or judge those that did?

Fortunately most of the ‘pretentious’ parents you read about care more about the evidence tells us about summer born disadvantages and what’s best for their own child than what some ignorant stranger feels about them.

As a teacher, this gets on my nerves. I think children born in August who are showing clear signs of not being ready (toileting issues, still napping etc) should be allowed to defer - or those who were premature (so, should really have been in the year below if they were carried to term) - but these early summer children being in classes with children 15 months younger is bonkers. It doubly advantages the well off too, as they are the ones that can afford another year of childcare/part time work. Those with low incomes often need to get kids into school as soon as they can for finance reasons.

A friend’s son, born in June, was deferred and she now complains he’s bored and not challenged in school.

My nephew was deferred - also June - and now in Y6 he’s winning all the sporting things because he’s loads taller/faster than most. He’s 12 in a few weeks and some in his class are still 10. When his parents send photos on the family whats app of his sporting prowess, I just roll my eyes! Yes, it’s great he’s doing well (and he is) but it’s not an even playing field. I joke that he might be able to pass his driving test before he finishes Y11! 😆

So we wait for them to fail and then do something? Surely being proactive is best.

I have two summer borns. One was ready and started school at correct time. Other is August , developmental delays. I would be setting him up to fail if he started school at 4 years 3 days. I want him to flourish at school, and I think starting at 5, with his full entitlement to a play based curriculum , rather than a year less than autumn borns is exactly what he needs. It is not about him being top of the class because I highly doubt he will be, it’s about not putting him in a situation he is not ready for and allowing him to struggle and fail.

No I don't, they are fine as are all the other summer born kids in my older child's class. Like I said don't know a single person who has done this in real life.
Seems to be an online pretentious thing by people who can't stand the idea that their child might not be top of the class

Better to be the oldest than the youngest. The year older will add to their maturity so they are a year older before going drinking/partying with their younger classmates. Win/win.

The fact you have a July child explains your position; do you feel anxious about not having done it for them? Is that why you’re so judgemental of others?

100% agree with you. Although I've never known a single incident of anyone doing this in real life, only online.
As you say someone needs to be the youngest and beyond early primary it isnt a big deal. "Deferring" just reeks of "my kid must be a head in every single way possible from the very beginning". All seems extremely pretentious and I say this as someone with a July child

No it doesn't mean they are Doctors 😳
But you opted to put your children in an alternative nursery to the one a local school was offering, therefore they weren't going to school they were going to a nursery.
Both mine went to nursery from being a baby until they started in the nursery class of a school at 3 Years old. It was a transition, nobody is going to tell a child at 3 years old they are going to nursery when they've been going to nursery already in a completely different place for the previous 2+ years with different staff, and also tell them a place is called Nursery for a year then change the same place to being called School 12 months later where the child is going to gonto until they are either 7 or 11 depending on if ots split infants and juniors or a primary school. Nobody says you are going to reception today or you're going to Year 3..they're going to school.

I dont agree at all. The govt (over many years) decided that YR in a school was formal education - so into YR they go at compulsory school age, ie age 5. What is odd is that supposedly YR and nursery/pre-school curriculums are identical but clearly they are not. And so, they don't need to "catch up"/ deal with "missed year" - because they haven't. Please remember that these are children that started on time with their correct cohort ie in education at the term following their 5TH birthday.

I see so many of my friends kids who are summer born and started at just 4 really struggling now that the expectations around academics have ramped up; the teacher will often blame them being so young but doesn’t stop them from being expected to meet the required standard. It takes up so much more of the staff’s time and resources trying to bring these kids up to speed which impacts on the rest of the class.

The UK is in the minority starting kids so young; it used to be 5 but moved to 4 when early years funding was introduced and schools realised they could gain some of that ££ if they took kids even younger. It was never about being best for the children, it was a financial decision. Look at the countries where kids do best, they don’t start school until 6 or 7.

For those whose summer borns started young and went on to be astrophysicists, amazing, bravo for them. But there are plenty more who struggled, not just academically, but socially, and why would you not want to allow a system to correct that disadvantage if it could and the parent felt it would help?

I’m in Wales. Maybe I am wrong about England. Teacher with 35 years experience, retired this year.

Well I will tell my child that if I hadn’t have deferred him then it’s very likely he wouldn’t have done as well in his GCSEs.

My child will have the option to move up to the year he “should” be in at any point during his education and if he ever wants to do that then that’s a discussion we will have at the time.

And with regards to sport, deferred children are given the option to either play with their peers (the school year they are in), OR with the team that is alignment with the school year they “should” have been in.

Although my son is in Year 2, when it comes to his football league he plays with the older children (the Year 3 equivalent) as that’s what he wanted to do but he could have played with the Year 2 team if he had wanted.

It is school, it is a classroom in a school and structured as a school day. They wear the same uniform as the rest of the children in that school. Not compulsory as I said earlier but neither is reception. Its early years education and follows the curriculum. Pre school age 3 can be attended in private nurseries too with more flexible hours perhaps but a 3 or 4 year old attending a school for 3 or 6 hours a day, in a uniform is attending school, they are in the nursery class of the school and the majority of schools have them now.

It's not school.

Its nursery. Regardless of uniform or building, it's not school.

No it really doesn't. The Summerborn campaigns probably spend more time dealing with this misinformation than almost any other. Children who defer a year when joining the state education (in YR) are not disadvantaged and certainly not impacting the schools results in Y11 (tables checking). I've been a data manager in education for nearly a decade. Where has your information come from? Because in England it is seriously wrong.