August baby at a disadvantage to Sept baby?

[peachytacos]

AIBU to think that having a birthday in spring/summer won’t massively affect how successful your child is in school long term?

I completely understand in the first few years at school the difference is significant, as a year is such a large jump, but surely as they grow older it evens out?
I’m ttc no 2 and was speaking to my close friend about it today who told me its mean to ttc this month in case I end up with an August baby
She’s naturally very blunt and doesn’t mean anything nasty by it but she strongly feels that a baby born in August is at a massive disadvantage throughout. I know it’s highly unlikely to happen anyway but it’s made me think.

Thoughts/opinions please!

I have two summer babies and was one myself.
Sorry to be blunt, but you can't always choose. After 4 miscarriages I didn't really give a damn about such things and still find it a bit irritating the level of planning people do (sorry)

Ds1 is August and had just started reception and is doing really well. There are a handful of autumn borns who are way ahead in many areas but most of the summer borns are doing really nicely, in fact it’s some older children who are struggling a bit.
Socially he’s completely fine though has been going to nursery since he was a baby. I agonised as to whether or not to defer him but in the end he was ready to go.

The way I look at i if you take 1000 september borns and 1000 august borns and look at their progress in the first few years of course overall the september lot will do better. They’re almost a year older! But it evens out massively in time and it’s pretty meaningless in the context of your actual kid.
I really worried about having an August born (it Wasn’t intentional) but actually it’s been fine.
Meanwhile his september born friend is sending his mum round the bend and he is also ready for school yet has to wait another year.

Could I please ask a very ignorant question? Im clueless. Does anyone know is school in take worked out differently in Scotland to England? I went to school in Scotland and it was February babies that were the youngest ones and March the oldest. We now live in England. So curious what the difference is as it will affect dd. Thanks

Like Turquoise said, all very well deferring them for a year but they go straight into year 1, thy don't start reception a year later so overall they're not really gaining much as reception and yr1 are very different in terms of actual work load and curriculum. Correct me if I'm wrong though.

:)

You can't help when children are conceived/born unless you conceive on the first month which doesn't seem to be very common.

My daughter is July and I'm not going to worry about what I can't help x

turquoise88 this is not true. Our city (Liverpool) lets deferred children enter at reception level for exactly that reason now.

I have a July baby who got herself a place at one of the top grammar schools in the county...it doesn't always follow that younger ones suffer but I did feel that she was playing catch up through primary in some areas. Now she is in year 7, I feel the gap is beginning to close. I also have an Autumn baby - it will be interesting to watch for differences as younger one grows.

Merida I believe cut off is 1st (?) September, so Jul/Aug babies are th youngest as opposed to Jan/Feb babies in Scotland x

Is it fairly unusual to hold a child back until they're ready for school then?
I think this was/is fairly common where I'm originally from (rural Ireland) so hadn't even given it any thought. I really need to wrap my head around the English school system...

Not true, betty. Some LAs let them enter reception level nowadays.

Re deferment maybe it depends on the council in the area x

Thanks Anabella- itll be worth investigating x

Depends on the children I think. My dts were supposed to be late September babies but were premature.
They were and are the some of the youngest in their year group.
You can't tell now that they are in year 3, in fact they are doing really well. Our school is quite play focused even in year one, I know not all schools are like that but I think it made a massive difference to them.
They have never mentioned feeling like they are behind their peers in terms of learning.

Ttc'ing for 4 years and 6 miscarriages. Just to put it in perspective that a healthy baby is a little miracle in itself.

I'd also like to add that my brother and I are July babies and our father an august one. We all have an IQ of between 125-130 and both my brother and father have successful careers. I was never ambitious careerwise, more interested in pursuing my creativity.

I was born end of August. Always the youngest in my year. The hard part for me as a kid was always being the smallest. But I did fine academically, in fact, by age 6 my school wanted to move me up a year, but my parents said no as I would then have been in a class with children potentially nearly 2 years older than me.

Got straight A*s and As at GCSE, As at A level and went to Oxford.

All kids are different. If they’re smart, get a good education and you support their learning then birth month isn’t really a big hindrance.

Np. I've researched it quite in depth. Our ds is a may payday baby and we will have the choice to defer if we feels he needs it. We want to home educate though so it may not even matter in the end.

There are always outliers.

I was born mid-August, but started school at 5, as everyone did back then. I was already reading (from 3, according to my mother) and went up to year 2 after a term. I went on to come top out of all the girls in the borough in the 11+ and got a scholarship to an independent school.

DSS was born late July, got a grammar school place, excellent A-levels and 2:1 (probably would have got a first if he'd spent less time partying. Friend born early August, also a grammar school girl, first class degree from Kings (London) and a masters, stellar career. Her daughter (late July) did almost as well, her son, early August, barely got an O-level.

As for physically smaller: I was a bloody giant and in my last year at primary I was taller than all the kids and quite a few of the teachers. (I stopped growing at 12 though, so was ultimately overtaken)

The only time it held me back when was I was going to go to junior school a year early. They then twigged that I would be almost 2 years younger than some classmates instead of 1, and stopped the early transfer. I spent a whole year reading on my own, having already covered the syllabus.

Interesting topic and very relevant for me! We are currently thinking about ttc DC2 and having the same dilemma should we just get on with it or wait a month or so to try to avoid August born and the relative immaturity when they start school.

@peachytacos my “little” brother’s birthday is at the end of August and he was the youngest in his school year. He is a lovely, well-adjusted and diplomatic human being-he did really well at school and went to Oxbridge,

Really interesting R4 series about this (once you get past the slightly annoying “ooh mysterious“ structure).

www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b095c5h5

Dd is beginning of July. In yr 5 (9 yo). She is more emotionally mature than most of her peers. But not all. She is doing well in class. Then there are her friends, one is mid August and doing well academically. The other is 31st August and lagging behind. There is also a girl in their year born 1st September so basically a year older. We are all individuals. It is true that some summer born children are at a disadvantage although I don’t think it’s across the board. Nature/nurture and when a child is ready developmentally will all have an impact.

Ooops posted too soon...meant to say I dont think he was at a disadvantage or suffered for it!

Actually the long term evidence of singular disadvantage to a younger child is not as clear cut as you may think...

www.google.ie/amp/s/www.theatlantic.com/amp/article/401159/

I have a late August born 3 year old. She was due in September but came early. Ability wise we have no worries, she can dress herself, do her shoes, knows numbers and alphabet etc but emotionally we can see a huge difference between her and her 4 year old friends at preschool.

We did a school visit for next year and there was a girl with her parents looking around who was about 360 days older than her and the difference was massive- size, language, demeanour etc.

Also I never bothered learning to drive and I was definitely drinking before I was 18 so didn't make a blind bit of difference to me whether my friends were older.

Late August 7 weeks prem baby - who is in the top 5 for height in his year!!! God did we screw him over!!

First few years at school were hard - year younger, not ready to learn, now 9 and the gap is closing but emotionally there is still a gap.

The teaching staff would annoy me when they said things about what he could not do developmentally and I had to point out on more than one occasion - that if he was in the year below would they be bothered - err No was the answer!!

Emotionally he just was not ready- the academics are evenign themselves out