Did your young-in-year DC catch up academically?

[Sola123]

I have a DD who has finished her first year of primary. She is one of the younger ones - 2 months from the cut off. For her English she got a "C" at the end of the year.

I know that young-in-year kids have it harder and she is probably doing fine for her age. But the fact is, she will be measured at the level of the older kids. I'm just wondering if anyone can tell me about their young-in-year kids that are a bit further on in their education? If they are doing well, did they start well and continue that way? Or did anyone have the experience of starting off slowly and then catching up?

There are always outliers to data sets and stats. DH and I are both late summer born and work in higher education and have lots of qualifications.

The fact you are interested means your child will have the best advantage, parental input. Parental input, natural ability, income levels and ethnicity are some of the biggest indicator in educational outcomes. Again there are always outliers before people start posting anecdotal evidence.

I'm an August birthday and was always academically bright. Looking back I think the emotional immaturity up until the ages of about 11/12 stands out. I'm also an only child, which I think has some bearing on the latter.

DD has been the absolute youngest in her primary co-hort (late August bday) and is now in a very large secondary school so will be very nearly the youngest.
She is in top set for everything and in all honesty we did nothing special to make this happen. She is also very very grown up for her age and her next youngest sibling is 18 years older than her.
She is her own person and her ability is her own.

Ironically her due date was mid September ......

I also think that for me it was only when I had my own child (also an August baby) that I realised just how big the difference is at 4/5 between a September born child and an August born one.

If you want to up her English ability the best thing you can probably do is instill a love of books in her. Read to her everyday, there are so many lovely books out there and it only needs 10/15 minutes max. If she is bringing home books to read herself then read them with her everyday, there is no substitute for practice. Just for a short time each day though, again 10 minutes or so. If you already do this then I would just keep going as you are and not worry about it.

Academically my summer born has never really struggled, he's top of his year in some things and average in others. But physically and even socially I can see a difference between summer borns and autum borns. Just in terms of little physical skills and strength many autumn children have vs summer ones. It'll even out eventually but by then the children will have been labelled. It does worry me but not unduly.

I was the youngest in my year. I struggled academically when I was in primary because I went to a super competitive hot housing school. It wasn't that I was behind, just that everyone else was so far ahead with their high pressure parents and private tutors. The teachers didn't really have much time for me as I wasn't one of the clear stars. I changed schools for secondary to a much smaller, more personal, less competitive (but still very good) school and it was much better for me. I finished at the top of my class. I'm one of only 2 who went on to get a PhD in my year and the only one still using it. It didn't hold me back at all, but I think I was quite clever and ambitious. But the choice of school probably does matter a lot. I'd want one with a lot of personal attention to support them where they might need it.

Try not to worry. Academically my late July daughter was always fine ( she is a Dr now) but emotionally it took her until year one to settle properly.

Mine was April born, and I don't think it made any academic difference at all really.

Where I would say there is a big advantage in being one of the older ones in a year group is in sports and extra-curricular stuff. The bigger and stronger you are, the more likely you are to be picked for teams etc.

My Year 7 DS is August born. Still not caught up, struggled with reading and writing. Not enough help offered by the school, IMHO, as some summer born children did just click and thrive, but many don't and they seem to just be left to flounder.

I'm a summer born who struggled a lot. I have a summer born boy, in his first year of school and I try to extra work with him after schools and weekends. Not loads, just a bit. Get him to read each night and write a few bits. He really hates it and its very much a painful effort. It gives me stress as I have everywhere toddler too. I just want to try even if it's just this first year to push him a bit so he's not too behind. He really struggles with tiredness and the emotional side. Can't understand why children are horrible to him sometimes, he still thinks they are friends .

My parents said I didn't want to be helped as a child, so they didn't. Personally I think they are quite lazy and love watching TV endlessly, so I actually imagine it was more that. I remember asking for help a lot and them being busy. But I can see it is a big effort to do it.

I have a July and an August born.

The July born was always just where she should have been, not especially stand out at anything but not particularly struggling.
When it came to GCSE's, she surprised everybody with 8's across the board. She was a hard worker and took a pride in her work.

August born is lazy but very bright. Passed her 11+ and has very high GCSE targets. Honestly, I don't think she'll reach them unless she has a shift in attitude.

Don't write her off because she is one of the youngest. Mine changed massively when it came to high school.

So fingers crossed my DS will catch up, he is certainly behind at the moment just as he hasn't been ready to write 😟 His reading is ok.

Btw I did ok exam wise at 16 by uK standards, but struggled once studies got more specialised. I had to put in a lot of work to achieve a C.

statistically there is a difference but its very hard to predict how it will be an an individual level.

One thing I would say is to look at the whole child - not just academic skills.

I have an august boy who did struggle academically. He did fail his phonics test, and do lots of interventions around reading in particular. He had a reader and scribe in his year 2 SATS. He didn't really get into his stride academically until year 7 and now is doing really well and is top set everything.

But he had good social skills and physically he was able to do thinks like ride a bike and use scissors and that helped him fit as these sort of skills are also really important in eyfs and ks1 - he also just seemed to have a 'try again' personality and wasn't demoralised by being last at reading. which is what i mean by looking at the whole child.

Hi, my son was very behind his peers all the way to year 2, somewhere between then and now he's caught up and is now more than meeting the levels expected. Children vary hugely, and do not all progress at the same rate. To avoid becoming stressed out I tried to focus on the fact that he was making progress (if they seem to be stuck that's something than needs addressing) and that it wasn't important to compare him with similar aged children.

And I agree with the previous poster, there are many skills that you need to successful in life and academic skills are not at the top!

Sorry, should have said, he's year 5 now. Just make sure to access all the support that the school offers.

I went to school with two siblings - One was the eldest in the year, the other, one of the youngest.

There was little difference between their achievements academically at school, both very similar at GCSE and A level. Youngest is now a physiotherapist. Eldest runs his own business.

Youngest is probably the most academically minded eldest got all the common sense! Makes no difference in the end.

I'm late August, never did me any harm. Unless there's sn, or prematurity (6+ weeks) there's hardly any difference after the first year, some not even in the first month when they are basically a year younger than the oldest.

If there's delays already then being the youngest doesn't help of course

Thank you all for sharing your experiences! It's really helped.