To think a child born on the 5th august isn’t that young for their school year

My daughters were born on August 31st and weren’t actually due until October. They’re in KS2 and thriving.

At that age you’re are talking about September born children having nearly a years more life experience, a years more exposure to language, a years more time to develop gross and fine physical skills, social skills, emotional intelligence. A five year old has a fifth more experience than a four year old. Obviously these are wide margins, some five year olds are immature, some four year olds are mature.

But having taught reception I can tell you that the ones who fall asleep on the carpet and are exhausted at the end of the day are often the younger children who really find those first two terms tough.

Mine is mid-august and has always been the youngest in his year..

It might somewhat depend where you are but in most of the UK August babies will definitely be the youngest in their year by quite some way.

I was a late August baby and was always the youngest in my school year.

Scotland and (I think) Northern Ireland may vary a bit because their school summer holidays start and end at different times to England and Wales but that's it.

My son is early August and not only was he the youngest in his class through various schools, he was also quite immature socially and very small for his age. Were it not for his ability in all the sports that the schools played, and the fact that academically he found school easy, then he would have struggled. Reading, writing, spelling etc he was far in excess of his actual age by several years. Shame he was a lazy bugger and put as little effort into school as he possibly could ... but can't blame that on being an August born!

I worked out about 20% of DDs year were July or August born. There wasn't much difference after a short while.

in younger years that’s a big difference. Imagine being in a class where there is mere weeks before the oldest & youngest. You’re trying to get a 4 yo to read at the same level as 5 yo. My son is a June baby and in early years the difference was very apparent. if anyone has got an August baby I know my sons school would allow them to be held back a year. It’s what I would do especially for a boy

5th August will absolutely be considered young for the school year.

Come on @Penny779 - do you want to come back and explain why you have suggested this ?

Unless you are in Scotland, where they might not be, but it would have been pretty relevant to include this in your post.

There might be one or two bit it’s not many.
In my DD’s school out of 50 children there were none.

Yabu. As a person who’s birthday is in August I felt it a lot at school when other kids were almost a year older than me. Makes a big difference.

Oh don't be silly now, are you on the wind up. Of course an August born child is young for the school year.

It’s one of those threads where the OP says something ridiculous and then never returns.

I’m pretty sure the ONS say that mid-late September and early October are the most popular birthdays.

If you are in the UK, a child turning 5 on 5th August isn’t the same (in school years) as a child turning 6 on the 1st September. That child will be one of the very youngest in their school year. Because a school year starts in September. So those born in September will be classed as the year above and will turn 6 in September rather than 5, so that’s almost a whole year’s difference between them….If that makes sense. So August born children the youngest in their year.

It’s the same as a child turning 5 on 31st December and a child turning 6 on 1st January. It’s just that a school year tends to start in September rather than January.

My eldest was born mid-August.
As a primary teacher I got all sorts of "Oooooh that's bad timing!" comments. I found it quite upsetting tbh considering I'd gone through miscarriages before him.
He absolutely was NOT emotionally ready for school when he was just 4. I was fortunate enough to be only working part-time when he started so kept him only part-time until he started full-time only when he legally had to.
He got his A-Level results just a few days after his 18th and got A star, A star, A star, A so tbh I think we can safely say it didn't make a difference at that point.
The biggest complaint I got from him was that he was the last of his friendship group to be able to legally drink!!

My daughter is very bright and one of the tallest but maturity wise much younger than her friends.

Some people will argue that red is yellow won’t they?!

My son was one of the top achievers in his year group too, despite his mid Aug bday. He was behind a little when he started, as his private daycare didn’t do phonics. DD was also behind, and in year 1 she was in a class of children who needed extra support, and she achieved the highest GCSE grades in the 350 pupil year group (she wasn’t an Aug baby, but just she was a little behind at first too but caught up). I know some parents like to keep Aug babies back, but my DC’s father is an Aug baby too and he has a high profile successful career. I guess it’s more the parents who worry, the kids tend to be fine.

Isn't "that young". What a bonkers post. OP, do you mean to ask how August babies feel versus their peers or how they get on? Of course they are going to be young in their year, unless you hold them back for the year in which case they'd be one of the eldest!

My daughter is on the fourth. I think she is pretty much the youngest in her year.

Of course they will be one of the youngest, they don't even have their birthday during the school term, the last possible month out of 12. What difference does weeks make Vs those born in the first and second term? September and October have consistently been the highest rate of birth months for many years in the UK as well.

Since there are 26 days after her birthday in the school year, there would be 26 / 365 = about 7 in 100 kids who are younger.

Looks like the ONS publish the number of people born on each day, so you could work it out exactly if you had the time or inclination. August doesn’t look particularly low.

https://www.ons.gov.uk/visualisations/dvc2381/heatmap/datadownload.xlsx

When they start in Reception September born children have been alive more than 20% longer than them. 11 months and 1 week is a lot in development terms when you are 4 years old. So of course they are young in terms of the age range on the year. It is very noticeable on terms of maturity.

The impact reduces as they go through school though.

Unless you were a much much older parent you wouldn't have been able to let them be in the year below. My DS is 21 and it wasn't allowed when he was at school. We could delay his start until he was actually 5, but he would have missed reception.