Primary school delayed entry - clueless parent questions

[schoolapplicant]

Mum to only child who is 3. We will be applying to primary schools for Sept 2024 start. Child is July born.

As first time mum I've only just familiarised myself with the process and had no idea that legal school age is actually 5, and that there is the option to apply for a delayed start. On further enquiry I now discover that my sibling, who is August born, had school start delayed by a year. So they were always the eldest child in their class. Coincidentally (or was it) they achieved very well academically and did engineering at Oxford. They were always "top of the class".

So a few random questions from a newbie up all if this:

• Is it perceived to be usual/common to delay a child's start, or is this usually only done where there are specific concerns or SEN?
• since the research seems to show children are greatly disadvantaged academically by being summer born, is it common for parents of summer borns to delay simply to improve the child's chances of academic success?
• is the above a moral application of the system?

I think it really depends on the child. DD has just gone into Y1, and was 5 just over a month ago. She is absolutely flying at school, and would have been bored for another year at preschool. On the flip side, my friend's DS, who is one month older than my DD, has just started reception. He is slightly developmentally delayed and has mild autism, and he has really benefited from being deferred. A fair bit of reception is also play based, and falls under the Early Years curriculum. The more formal schooling starts in Year 1. It really depends on what your child is like to be honest.

@ShadowPuppets

I'm not the parent, I'm the SENCO, fighting with the LA for exactly that!

Yes and applying both population level - no negatives of being oldest
And individual - no negatives expect paying for another year of nursery - which is still funded 15/30 hours and you would pay if child had been born in sept.
Being so bright that they are ahead is unlikely to mean they are ahead of all children including those 11m older especially when looking at secondary numbers of 200-300.

So the real question is how disadvantaged are children by each birth month apr-aug.

For gcses etc and sats children are directly competing against the others taki g the test - with no age adjustments. The 11+ adjusts by age. But afaik still fewer summer borns get in.

My kid was born august 20. I was relaxed about her being youngest in the year as I thought, she is bright, she will be fine. It hasn’t been fine, I have found it’s been a real nightmare. She has been behind her autumn born contemporaries in so many ways (even though she’d be a top performer in the year below, if she was born ten days later!) and it’s really affected her confidence. I’d send your daughter in her correct cohort and be delighted she will be the oldest and therefore at a huge natural advantage from the beginning. It’ll mean she is be try confident and that has so many positive effects across the board.

I think it depends on the child. DS2 would have benefitted hugely from it - although he did catch up with everyone else socially in about year 9. He did have delayed speech though. He would have enjoyed school more and got more out of it if he had spent another year at nursery.
My friend's July born DS was always miles ahead academically and very sporty. He was bored in reception as it is.

There is also the adhd factor to consider - significantly more summer born children are diagnosed with ADHD. Is that due to the fact that they are just diagnosed too young and they're still developing or is it developmentally damaging to force small children to sit down and concentrate for long periods when they're not ready.

https://www.adhdevidence.org/blog/why-are-children-born-in-august-more-likely-to-be-diagnosed-with-adhd

I'd consider:
Do they enjoy nursery and can you imagine them getting bored with it if they spent another year there.

Are they already advanced physically or academically.

Are there any SEN to contend with.

• Is it perceived to be usual/common to delay a child's start, or is this usually only done where there are specific concerns or SEN?

I think it depends on the area. It seems to be more common in middle class areas. Your child doesn’t have to start until the term after they turn 5 but you need school to agree to them starting reception not year 1.

• since the research seems to show children are greatly disadvantaged academically by being summer born, is it common for parents of summer borns to delay simply to improve the child's chances of academic success?

It’s often a mixture of both. I decided the moment I knew I would be having a summer born baby but she was under SaLT.

• is the above a moral application of the system?

I think it’s moral to do what’s best for your child. I think the whole education system needs an overhaul but that’s not something I can do as a parent. I do other things like write to MPs and volunteer in our local school.

Unfortunately only a right to delay but the school would have to explain why they think it’s in the best interests to skip reception which would be hard to justify unless they’re arguing their reception teaching makes no impact.

You have the right to request a delay, but it's still at the Head teacher's discretion, based on each individual child.

Sorry, I didn't see the previous post when I replied.

My DS was born in July and is being educated out of year. He wasn't deferred initially though; he was moved back a year from year 6 to year 5 due to missing a year of school and learning difficulties. I think it can be a good idea depending on the child, but most summer born children are fine to start school at the usual time. There are a few considerations though: sport is one that has already been raised. I was worried about him going into puberty before his friends but that was more of a problem for his friends than for him as he was so much bigger than them. He tended to get the wrong age on birthday cards - not the biggest concern I'm sure. He's currently in year 12 and will have to leave Explorer Scouts this year as he'll be 18 whereas most of his friends will stay in it until year 13. My biggest problem was that his Child Benefit got cancelled at age 16 because I couldn't process that he was going into post-16 education (because he was still in year 11 doing his GCSEs.) I sent in an explanation of why he was being educated out of year, along with the letters of confirmation from the Council admissions and from the school but it didn't make any difference. So there was a financial hit that I wasn't expecting.