Number of sets of twins in primary school

[SerialMover]

Was speaking to a teacher friend of mine the other day about the number of sets of twins we have in my children's primary school, and she thought it was a large number, something I'd never really thought about before, so I thought I'd see if our school was unusual or not...

DC 1 - 2 sets of twins (B/G and GG)
DC 2 - 1 set (BB)
DC 3 - 2 sets (B/G and GG)

plus 2 sets that I can think of in reception, and 3 sets in 2 other year groups, there may be more! So at least 10 sets in a 2 form entry primary.

How many sets of twins/multiples does your school have?

That does seem like quite a lot! When my kids were all in primary school there was 2 sets in their school. my b/g set and a set of identical girls.

Is it a well off area? In quite a lot of the leafy primary schools this is common as women tend to be older when they start having kids. This increases need for IVF and that in turn massively increases chances of twins.
In a very middle class primary school I worked in, we not only had lots of twins but also triplets. When I moved to a school in a very deprived area, we didn't have any. This is anecdotal obviously but IVF does increase the chance of twins by a lot.
When my sister was pregnant with her non IVF triplets, the first question the nurse asked was, did you have IVF which made our hearts drop as we assumed it was a miscarriage, but it was actually a multiples pregnancy.

We had quite a lot in our DC's primary school but the demographics are such that each set of twins' parents were in their late 30s / early 40s when their twins were born, so I suspect IVF / fertility treatments skew the numbers somewhat.

Dt first primary of 100 pupils they were the only twins from reception to y4.
There second primary of 140 pupils while in y4-6 one other set in ks1.
In secondary now 7 form entry they have 6 sets of twins. Quite a few in other years.

It's not necessarily that more affluent, older mothers have IVF, the older you are the more likely you are to conceive twins naturally anyway

1 in every 65 pregnancies results in a multiple birth.

So statistically (assuming 30 children per class), if you have 1 form entry, you'd expect roughly one set of twins in every other year. 2 form entry would expect one set of twins each year. 3 form entry 1-2 sets of twins per year.

There has been an upward trend in the numbers over the last 20 years. The rise is attributed to fertility treatments, the survival rates of premature babies and women starting their families later.

Our ds has 3 set of twins in his year of 24 so a quarter of the year are twins!

None in my DC's primary school, but I had 3 sets of identical girl twins in my year at secondary school, as well as a non-identical boy set..

In my school there are 3 sets altogether including my own. I've not noticed it in the school, however generally I have noticed a rise in number of twins I hear about, or identical twins I see out and about.

Dd and ds both have a set each in their year groups, and there’s at least one other set in reception. Don’t think there are any others.

I was trying to remember whether there were any in my primary school and it took me a worryingly long time to remember that my best friend’s siblings were twins 😄

Some areas do have a higher rate of twins than others. The Cheam area had loads.

I'm not sure about how many sets of twins are at my DCs school. There's some that may or may not be twins in my DS's year, but as they have 2 mums and I thought that it would be inappropriate to ask, so they may not may not be actual twins.

Dts are identical, they were the only identical set all the way through primary. There were a couple of sets of non id in different years. Small school.

They're in a huge secondary now and I wouldn't have a clue.

I’m an identical twin now aged 50 and in my school year alone there were 5 sets of twins!
3 sets of identical girls, 1 b/b and 1 g/b
And the 3 sets of girls all had a girl with the same first name - one which is used in a horrible way these days.

In my DD's class at primary school there were 2 sets of siblings born within the same school year. I wondered whether that were rarer or more common than twins.

that were = that was
That'll teach me to edit and then not check the tenses!

Women are having babies later. Older mothers produce more twins.

It's IVF.

3 sets of twins out of 60 kids in DCS reception year! I thought that was quite a lot!

My eldest had 3 sets in her year, all boys when at primary school.
Youngest only has two sets, one set both boys and other boy/girl.

We would be classed as a relatively affluent area I guess, although the age demographic of the twins' parents is really mixed - both older and younger - and I would never dream (unless close) of asking if they were IVF babies! It's likely a mix maybe?

In that case it's definitely IVF and mums over 35. There are the normal rates of twins which will happen but the IVF and older mums will skew that to an above average amount.

In my DD’s three form entry year there are 6 sets of twins - two sets identical the remainder are fraternal. Older mum in most cases.

My dd in primary had 3 sets of twins in her year group, 2 form entry.

When my daughter was in Year 5 the reception class of 18 children has 3sets of twins, but we are in the Basingstoke area which at time was supposed to have the highest level of multiple births in the country.

My dc's primary school has a ridiculous amount of twins! There are at least 2/3 sets in every year group. There are also 2 sets of triplets! My youngest has 2 sets of identical twin boys in his class alone! Most are identical, think there are only 3 or 4 sets of non-identical.