Unfair to defer summer borns

It’s not at all exceptional - we just chose a completely ordinary school nursery? And paid for holiday clubs / childminder / took annual leave for the 14 weeks we needed cover for. Childcare is crippling my expensive but paying for 14 weeks while mind child had holidays from school nursery wasn’t any more expensive than paying for 14 weeks while my child had school holidays?

This 👏🏻👏🏻

You really don't seem to understand your exceptional situation regarding nursery costing you nothing do you.

My nearest nursery (not the most expensive) charges £1368 a month for a child aged over 3 and that's WITH the 30 hours free funding applied. It's just over £2000 a month without.

It's £33 a day to put your child in my nearest holiday club from 08:15 - 18:00, and they can go from the age of 4. It's nearly half the price.

No reason except I like to correct misleading information in case it leads anybody reading astray.

You stated there is a two year age range in Irish kids starting school and this is just not true.

You are right about the legal situation, but it does not reflect the reality in Irish schools and the age at which schools actually accept a child starting.

Don’t worry, I’ll say no more about it now.

My daughter is a late August baby. She's also dyslexic and mildly autistic. We thought of deferring her, but she already towered over her peer group, and I didn't want her head and shoulders over the rest. Kids can be cruel, and as 6ft woman myself, I didn't want her to go through the bullying I did. It's a shame that it was a consideration, as she was quite immature for age and may have benefited in the early years.
Now in Yr 8. 5'8" and doing well at school. Socially still struggles, but that's more due to be autistic, and not always reading social clues.

Yes agree I genuinely don't understand why there's so much to say on it. I'm in Ireland and I have never heard any issues or discussion with the age your child starts school. Legally your child has to start before their 6th birthday so parental choice up to that. Schools have different policies on it with most now cutting off in march for 4 year old Sept starters. My two summer babies started at 5 my spring baby started at 4 and 5 months. It's not called deferring your not deferring anything you're choosing the age you would like your child to start their formal education journey.

i remember when i started school, being a May baby, i was allowed to start reception class at Easter instead of the prior September. My school did 3 intakes, september, january, and april, then we all went up to Yr 1 together.

I think that system works better than deferring kids an entire year.

The thing does depend on the kids though, my son was the oldest in his year missed cut off for the previous intake by a couple of days, and his cousin only just scraped in with an august 29th birthday.. he was all bar a week, almost a whole year older than she was... academically it took until yr4 for her to catch up.

Would it have been better for me to be able to start DS in the year before his? Or perhaps for his cousin to have waited a year?

But if they are deferred because their development is slower than normal, they are just slotting in with kids at their level. Those kids might be 18 months or whatever younger but it wouldn't be a problem. In fact, probably less of a problem than for them to really struggle and need lots of extra support if they are put in the previous year.

The extra 14 weeks childcare I needed was the same as the extra 14 weeks childcare I would have needed if my child was in reception.

The cost of a child in a school nursery is the same as the cost of a child in school though? That’s the point I’m making. There is no extra cost.

I just don't really understand why people are getting so pressed about it. It really rubs me the wrong way, this obsession with your child's place in the class and who is ahead of them etc. It's so ugly.

The poster asking for ‘disproof’ of her assumption is embarrassing herself; don’t pander to it.

Whoever said it's about having another year to be a little kid and not have to go to school all day, YES ❤️ The more I read the more I'm convinced I want to defer late June baby 😅

This doesn't answer the question I asked about whether children deferring detriments children that haven't deferred.

@Westernnightlight why do you keep chipping away at this when it’s not even relevant to the thread? The legal position is as I have stated it, twice now.

Why defer a year? This argument has been discussed several times and nothing will change. What date you change it to some child is going to be disadvantaged.
My daughter is late July and has always been the youngest in her friendship group. She has done marvellously. She didn't come out of her shell until year 2 but wasn't disadvantaged at all. All children develop at their own pace and it is up to us as parents to facilitate their social skills.

So your child was in a state nursery and you presumably don't need holiday care to cover the other 14 weeks of the year? Can't you see that you were in an exceptional position?
Deferring a year costs money for most and will be a consideration for some.

https://www.bbc.com/news/education-23435439.amp

https://www.cambridgeassessment.org.uk/Images/693137--happy-birthday-to-you-but-not-if-it-s-summertime.pdf

The official report is behind a paywall from what I can tell now however both those links sum up the report and the findings.

Finally a comment with sense!!

The “my child is fine” line is always so strange to me because why would I want my child to just be “fine” when they could excel?

It’s also not just about starting school, it’s about taking SATS earlier than the rest of the year group, GCSES, A Levels and starting university. Why would I want my child to do that younger when they could have an extra year of life and then do it? Just like majority of the other children have had just because they were born in a different month.

I have two summer born children and they’ll both be starting school at 5 and we are very happy and set in our choice!

I can't prove this. There are no studies that prove it. If Autumn borns do harm the prospects of summer borns then I would be interested to know why extending the age range in a class to include the summer borns from the previous academic year will help the summer borns that have stayed in year.

They do it in a Scotland who consistently have worse educational outcomes than the England. Where does it and has better outcomes?

We are in Scotland so the cut off is the 1st march not august/September time but DD would have been one of the youngest in her year as she is a January birthday. Due to moving house and COVID she ended up not starting nursery until she had just turned 4. Plus she was premature and could easily have been born in march and is physically small for her age. Had we not had the option to defer she would have had just got her settled in to nursery when she would have had to leave for school and she would have been one of the youngest and by far the smallest in the class. Deferral was the best thing for her. She is now average size for her class and she was socially ready when she went.

I agreed with you that deferring 6 months early is too big a cut off but for children born a month or 2 off the cut off with mitigating circumstances absolutely need to be able to.

I’d like you to prove that autumn borns do not negatively impact summer borns.

I’d also like you to explain why it works just fine in countries all over the world as May posters have said but can’t work in England.

Throwing children into a situation they are not developmentally ready for is cruel at best and potentially damaging.

Just a simple link would do it. Go on...prove you're right.

Oh dear 😂

I have googled. There are no studies that prove that deferred children don't negatively impact the non deferred summer borns.