To ask any teachers this question please

[Desperatetobeamummyonedaysoon]

Do you believe summer born children.. particularly aug born are at a disadvantage or do you believe it's not an issue.. as in they are all in a class and taught the same and irrespective of age they are either "academic" or not and will do well (or not) irrespective of age. I.e it depends more on of they are academic or not, not their age?

I have an aug born boy and i think hes fairly bright/ average but compared to his peers..not so nuch!

Also what about socially? He seems youngs for his year group... which he is! I worry he will get easily led when hes older? Hes only 6 at the mo lol!

I teach secondary and yes there are more summer borns in my bottom sets and more autumn borns in my top sets, but it's not that cut and dried. I honestly think the reason for the pattern is self-fulfilling prophecy - either they get put in a bottom set and continue to think of themselves as bottom set material, or they get put in a bottom set and teachers continue to see them as bottom-set material. Sometimes.

I have high hopes that this is improving though. About the only silver lining of the obsession with data in recent years is that every kid's progress has to be accounted for and no one should be slipping through the cracks. We move kids up sets all the time (I actually hate sets but that's a whole other thread!).

I am also a parent of an August boy (Year 5). He would definitely be considered more able if he was in Year 4, but he has caught up a lot and the school have been great in helping him do that. It's his organisation that's more of an issue. But no, I don't think a summer birthday is an automatic guarantee of being academically written off.

I am a teacher and a parent of an August born. I’ve found that she picks things up ‘earlier’ that her Sept+ born peers as she copies and learns from them. What I mean is, if her Sept born peer learnt to hold a pen at 4 years 4 months, say, she learnt at the same time as them but was 3 years 5 months with not as much effort due to her copying her peers. Was the same as potty training etc.
Yes she is younger than a lot of her peers but I haven’t thought it has held her back.
I do teach secondary however, but even then, I don’t notice too much of a difference. In fact, the student who has blown my mind the most, in recent years, and was offered a scholarship to pay for him to attend Imperial, is an August 31st born!

I work in reception, our most able child is the youngest!

#houseonahill

I think a good system and I think they have it in Scotland is a may cut off. So if you child is born in April they will start the September date their 4th birthday. If they are 4 in May then bey start the following year. Or something like that anyway.

I have a very late August born who we deferred, she started reception age 5 and is flying. The idea of her doing the stuff she is doing now a year ago is ridiculous, she would have struggled massively. Also, looking at the year above, she would have struggled emotionally too. They are so much bigger, appear so much more mature etc than she is. She fits right in to her delayed cohort. She is confident, popular, happy.

That said, she has a child im her class a whole year younger and you’d never know, physically, smotionallt or academically. So it really does depend o the child. My friend has a child the same age as mine who started school a year younger and she’s constantly on the back foot socially. Academically I think she’s ok but she is always the one who gets outshone, talked over, left out. I know someone has to be the youngest and take thAt place in the pecking order, but it really does affect overall confidence and I’m so glad my child isn’t having to navigate that. She started when she was ready to learn, in every way. I’m so glad for her.

I would advise anyone with a late August child to defer. There are only benefits. If they had been born a few days later, they would be in the next year anyway, with an extra year of maturing, learning, developing. Why wouldn’t you want that head start for your child?

I'm a KS1 teacher and in my current class I have 14 summer borns.

All but 1 of the boys are noticeably behind their peers academically and socially.

Of the 8 'higher attaining' children in my class, 6 are summer born girls.

I'm a secondary teacher, and I think you can still tell some of the August birthdays, especially the boys. If I notice a student is making silly comments, calling out, has poorer social skills, I check on the database and sometimes they have a late summer birthday.

However, I've taught many more completely average or better summer-born boys and girls.

I have a January born boy who is in Reception and although he is doing brilliantly academically (reading fairly fluently, can write in short sentences), he is emotionally immature for 5. He cries most mornings at drop-off and it can take two members of staff to peel him off me He does love school though and is fine when I've gone.

So I'd say it's just as important to focus on emotional maturity with a winter born as a summer born. They're all different.

Oh, have a friend with an August boy who is now 10 and she still says she uses his birthday as a reason for him being slightly behind academically.

@AWishForWingsThatWork please don't say you're 'only' a TA

I work in primaries (although not a teacher). If ever a kid is struggling (either accademically or socially) someone will ALWAYS ask "summer born?". It DEF makes a difference in primary, esp (as PPs have said) earlier in the school).

Not every child, of course.

But if you think kids start school at age 3 or 4, then 9 months is practically a quarter of their lives; so of course it makes a difference/shows.

I hate it when people ask this question because people always come out of the woodwork to say I'm X born and I did/didn't do well as if that proves anything. If you want a genuine answer look at the research which shows a persistent disadvantage. People tend to focus on academics (and it's easier to see the disadvantage there as it's obviously recorded) but there's also the issue of sport in which there's a big disadvantage. They are also more likely to be victims of bullying and be less confident socially. They are more likely to experience behavioural issues and be diagnosed with ADHD.

Obviously these are statistics and likelihood and won't apply to each individual child.

Houseonahill I often think this too about deferring. Someone has to be the youngest!

I've got children born in March, June and August. The March baby is on course for A-A* for A levels. My child born in June has the ability but is a little behind at the moment. They will be fine once they get with the programme. The August baby is top or near the top nearly all the time and is one of the schools special achievement children.

So I would say personality has a place too as all my kids have the same father so they have the same genes but intelligence and doing well is also to do with aptitude and the opportunity to have good resources.

My DD1 is the youngest in her year, now in high school and has always been at the top of the class. DD2 one of the oldest in her class and middle of the road, DD3 youngest and started school the year before she should have and at doing brilliantly. It totally depends on the child not when they are born.

It isn't a guarantee of anything, but I am never surprised when immature/silly boys tell me their birthday and it is in July or August.

Not a teacher but TA and mother .I've seen summer born chn be top of the class and Sept chn at the bottom. There is so much more that influences success, such as parental input and life experiences. Any early disadvantage seems to be evened out later on.

Statistically, summer born children do less well than their autumn born peer group. which is why I often think it curious that parents consider delaying their summer born children's entry to school. I always thing they need MORE time in school rather than less!
My youngest is a mid August boy with Aspergers! He certainly found things tough for the first couple of years but he absorbed so much from those older and more mature than himself that he soon caught up academically-even if he never will emotionally!

I'm a PS teacher and can usually guess the summer born children accurately, even though I teach KS2.

My DS is tail end of August and extremely bright but behind socially and, in many ways, physically. I will be deferring his reception place to the following year.

My dd is at least 6 months younger than her peers. She is a late January birth. Some children are almost a year older than her in her year. She is top at everything at high school. Emotionally, that's a different story although she is getting there.

Anecdata I know but..

We lived in another country for some years where the school year cutoff was 1 month different. This made DD the youngest in her year. In school reports she was always a bit behind, slow, a bit immature.

When we moved to UK DD was the oldest in her year. Suddenly she was a high flyer, quick, mature.

@spanieleyes

There are two options; delaying and deferring.
Delaying, where they don't go in to reception then join a year later in Y1 (which I agree, makes no sense AT ALL)

Deferring: Where you apply and accept a place for reception and defer to the following year, ie starting in reception at 5...which is much more beneficial all round. But the school have to agree to it.

I was the eldest in my year and while I did well academically I was bored and coasted most of the way, and I think that was a disadvantage in later life. DS is August-born and currently in reception. He's doing really well academically and socially, though personal care can be a bit of a battle. I'm sure some things will be harder for him, particularly the transition to year 1, but overall I hope it will work out for him.

I am summer born as is DH and both DC. None of us have ever struggled to keep up academically or socially. Quite the opposite in many ways.

But if you defer, then surely you would have to either defer all the way through to end of secondary or miss a year somewhere? I live in an 11+ area, what would happen if you were 12!

The thing that will make the most difference to him is you and whether you priorities education.

Every bottom set I have ever taught is full of boys. Some are Summer born and some aren’t but the single thing they all have in common is coming from very difficult backgrounds where parents either can’t or won’t make their studies the main focus of what they are doing.

In my experience it is rare to find a child of either sex from a supportive, stable background not do fairly well at school.

However, I could write a while other thread about lazy boys who let their parents fight all their battles for them (including the ones about why they haven’t done their homework and why they don’t deserve that detention).