twins born in different school years

[thewalrus]

Does anyone know what actually happens if you have twins born on 31 August and 1 September in terms of school years? Google only offers outraged media speculation that a set of twins born in 2008 might be separated, but no update as to what actually happened in that case or any other. I'm asking on behalf of my son, who is a twin born in early September, and was wondering if he might have got into the year above his sister if he'd been born a few days earlier.

Surely you would just apply to defer the August one for a year, as you can with any summer born child?

But as I understand it, then they start in Y1, not Reception, so they'd still be in different years? I could definitely be wrong about that though, not something I have any experience of.

Never thought of that -be interesting to follow this thread though. My twin cousins were born in seperate years (11.56 31/12/2005 and 12.09 1/1/2006) which is a story in itself but never thought about the academic year!!

Surely as the chances of this happening are so incredibly tiny, speculation is pointless? How many cases of this can there be in the entire country? Surely each would just be handled on a case by case basis.

Midwives might ask if you what to change their birthday and record both twins down with the same day.
I know one person in real life who has done this, because of a leap year and have seen a few mumsnetters that have had their birth times fudged by a few minutes.

If a child is summer born, you can apply to the admissions authority to have their school start delayed.

So in this scenario you would ask for the August 31st twin’s school entry to be delayed so that they could be educated in the same year group as their September 1st twin.

Success isn’t guaranteed though, some admissions authorities are readier to allow delayed school starts than others.

Surely no local authority is so unreasonable as not to agree either to the younger twin starting early or the older twin deferring?!?! Agree though that it must be very, very unusual!!!!

walrus I'm sure that used to be the case but I think it has now changed. Certainly when my summer born 12 year old was young, if I'd deferred him he would have started school in Y1 but I think it changed a few years ago.

We looked into this because my twins were due on 13th September and my ELCS date was originally 1st September at 38+3 (I think). I was concerned that if I went into labour before then (good chance!) we might be in this situation, albeit unlikely. We decided we'd go with whichever was easier - send one at 3y364 days early, or delay the other but with a Reception start not Y1 and go through that process.

In the end I argued NICE guidelines re multiples and got it moved forward by a couple of days so at 29/08 both girls are the very youngest in their year, but doing well so far.

My DSil had twins either side of midnight but in January so didn't affect school years the midwife still asked if she wanted them to put down times to make their birthdays be on the same day.

Apparently “The law says that if you defer your child's school starting date until the term after they turn five, the admission authority (the local authority or the school's governing body, including the headteacher) must take account of the child's individual needs and abilities in making a decision about whether they should be admitted to Reception or Year 1. The decision must be made in the child's best interests.”

Thanks for that biscuit, sounds like it'd work out ok then.

bling, I suppose speculation is pointless; I agree it must only happen in a tiny number of cases (and as I say, I can only find reference to one actual example on google). But as I say, my 10 year old son was speculating about a situation that he actually came closer than many people do to finding himself in and he wanted to know what would have happened. I thought this would be a good place to ask.

Are you looking for state or private?

Oh, I think you are being hypothetical! At my school (prep) we would meet the parents with a view to have them both in the oldest's year group. Parents might prefer to have them both in the youngest's year group, we would probably let them decide which they would rather apply for. We certainly wouldn't want to separate them.

I no nothing about the state system I'm afraid!

Surely no local authority is so unreasonable as not to agree either to the younger twin starting early or the older twin deferring?!

Well being over half a century old, it would come as zero surprise to me ... common sense in bureaucracy ? Grow up !?

Know*

I have a memory of the 2008 case being resolved by a local private school agreeing to take both from the oldest year group. I recall the case as it was a interesting one.

Oh thanks Enko, DS will be pleased to hear what actually happened there (those twins are only a couple of days older than him and his sister, so it's really caught his interest!).

There have been cases of twins being allocated places at different schools. I remember reading about a case where one twin got a place at the local village school and the other was allocated to a school 10 miles away. There were only 30 places at local school and twins were no 30 and 31 on the list !

My brother was at school with twins with August 31st and Sept 1st birthday, both in the younger twins year group. I gather it was a bit of a talking point.

The story goes they were initially only given an application form for the older twin to apply for primary school, but negotiated both starting together. This would be over 20 years ago.

In Ireland you can start your child at school any time between 4 and 6.

UK law seems Draconian as usual on schooling.

I started school for about 2 weeks before the end of last term at the ripe old age of three and a half. Basically, they needed an extra child to bring up the numbers in order to retain an extra teacher. My brother was already in school and they asked all parents with children about to become school age (4) if they'd mind starting me lol. Off I went with one day's notice! They retained the extra teacher.

Actually I lie. I would have been 4 and a half (October birthday). Still three the previous September, but turned 4 in October and then they just started me off in the April/May of the next year at 4 and a half.
Not sure of the legalities of it. Irish are good at finding loopholes!

@Sunlov
Not UK law - English law. Scottish education system is very different.

Apols - not familiar with either system.

Sorry to go on an aside, but the Scottish system of everything seems as different to the English system of everything that I wonder why they remain part of the union. Totally off topic.

OP - I'd ask the school to find a loophole somehow.