When did your April born DC start school?

[SidneyP]

There is another thread on here about OP wanting a mid year born DC.

My DS was born at the end of April and I'm now starting to wonder when he will start school. I can't work it out. will he be at a disadvantage to those who were born later in the year or will it work out more advantageous?

September for all of mine.

As a teacher though I must say although you can tell the ‘babies’ of the group initially they soon fall into where they fit naturally. Certainly within infants.
Those that defer then have more to catch up on and it can delay the ‘catch up’.

When he is 4 years 5 months (September)

Scotland here and my end of January dd age 4 (my choice as she was ready and parents of January and February children chose and they remain in that school group for the entire school career)
Ds March was age 5

Should say cut off up here is 1st of march

Ds1 is an April baby. He started school when he was supposed to - September after his 4th birthday.
He may have been a bit behind those who were older in the first few years but he did catch up Is doing well.
I always have him extra support at home though. I didn’t want him to feel discouraged or that he wasn’t as good as the other dcs.

Dd turned five in the April and started school that August, DS was five in the June and also started that August. Totally the norm for April born babies to go in the August. The cut off for the year before is the end of February.

April is in the middle of the school year, so m it shouldn’t ve a cause fire worry. DS is an April birthday.
Dd is August birthday so went having just turned 4. This year she’ll do her. GCSEs at 15, and she ll do her A levels at 17.
It’s never been a problem.

Ah, just realised you are talking about the English school system.

My eldest is an April baby and currently in reception. She was ready for school and doing really well - in the top group for phonics and already on the yellow level of the Oxford Tree reading system which is the level they need to hit by the end of the academic year. She would have been at more of a disadvantage if I had deferred.

Both of mine are late February, which is not much different than April. It would have never occurred to me to keep them back. The kids who were left at nursery were really little and dd would have been bored out of her mind not going to school with her friends. I think it would have really held her back developmentally.

I was the youngest in my class, missed the cut off by 9 days, and it was never an issue. I was the top ranked student in my year in secondary school.

A boy in my son's peer group (birthday May) skipped a year and started when he was 5 - I felt sorry for him when his friends from nursery were experiencing big school and he was hanging out with his mum. He never quite fitted in with younger ones either. I know all kids are different so this might have been a one off.

Mine are April and June. April baby now 8 and definitely keeping up with everyone and June baby already doing great in reception.

Apparently half of my daughters reception year are 'summer babies' so they are having to change the way they teach a bit to help them.

The September after turning 4 which was much better than DC2 who was born in August and started school a couple of weeks after.

Surely if you start thinking of April (less than 2/3rds of the way through the school year) as too late in the year then you really need to abandon the idea of a school year at all and just start children at whatever point their parents think is best between 4 and 6 and just accept that you won't end up with a cohort at roughly the same stage? I'm not inherently opposed to that idea (though you'd then get people clamouring that their child should be allowed to start at 3 or 7!) but I do think it's a bit mad to think that a child roughly in the middle of the school year should get special consideration for being young and that it must be the explanation for any problems they encounter.

DD started reception the week after she turned 4! She was fine but really struggled with reading up until year 4 when we really pushed it as she was falling behind reading from the board/worksheets. She also didn't go to nursery due to a mix-up and I don't think that helped either. She's about to go to secondary school this September and is age related or higher in all areas except spelling. She is of course, the youngest in her class and will struggle a bit I think when everyone learns to drive or turns 18. She was born early, was planned for September birth!

I wonder if she would have had a more positive start if she had differed a year and started with the younger cohort (not an option when she started school). However, she's caught up through primary and benefits from social relationship with children her own age/older. There's no reason she can't do well in her GCSEs, she'll need to put in the effort like all children do.

DS is a late June birthday. He went to nursery in the Sept after he was 3 (went for half days at his school) and started reception full-time this year. He has absolutely flourished but definitely benefitted from his year in nursery. He had a good grounding in phonics and counting as well as basic school things like hanging his coat up, lining up, sitting on the carpet and going into assembly.

Your April born child is in the second half of the school year, so there will be plenty of children who have a birthday before him, but a fair few who will still be waiting for their birthday.

Our area only has one nursery intake a year, in September, so no advantage or disadvantage in terms of nursery start date. Where we lived before, children started school nursery the term after they turned 3, so children born Sept-Dec started in the January, and attended nursery for two whole terms before the summer born children started in the September. That seemed totally backwards as you're potentially putting the oldest children even further ahead from the summer born children by giving them more time in school.

I'm in Ireland so completely different and my end of March baby will start the September after she turns five so five years and five months

They all start in September now though don't they? Ds was born May 2006 and the last group to do a January start.

I have a September baby and an April baby. The April one has coped much, much better than the September one. It is so individual dependent. I was a June baby, and a straight A student. All anecdotal examples of how an overall rule does not always line up.

April is not especially late in the school year. Unless he has further needs I can’t really see why you’d hold him back.

My August born DD went to school with her chronological year. There was a fairly obvious gap compared to the September girls for Reception and much of y1 but she has loved school throughout and never seemed to notice. She has more or less caught up now in y2. Meanwhile her closest friend from nursery is a September baby from the year below, and only two weeks younger. She was bored out of her mind for an extra year of nursery and now the difference between them is striking. Some (not all, I know, don’t shout at me) summer-born children just rise to the challenge.

DD2 is April. She started nursery in September when she was 3.5, and we've done her school application so she'll start with everyone else when she's 4.5. She's very excited, and will be fine.

January. I think that was helpful

My late April born boy twins started the September after they turned 4. So, summer born, male and twins. On paper, this might see them disadvantaged.

They were smaller than most and not as advanced (certainly as some of the girls). They had been attending a different school nursery in the Sept after turning 3 and could not articulate as well as others (saw speech therapists).

In reception they caught up and then excelled. They're teenagers now and thriving.

I don’t think April-born children really suffer from starting school in the September they are four. TBH, having watched my older son’s class quote carefully since they started school, there is typically very little noticeable difference between those born October-April/May. Some of the spring-born kids seemed as mature, if not more so, than the older ones, and some we’re doing g better academically. The real difference was with the July/August children who, in most cases, struggled with the school, especially to start with. On this basis, we have delayed our late-August born child, but had they been born in June or before, I wouldn’t have really considered it.

My late March DS started Reception in the September when he was pretty much exactly 4 1/2.