To ask if you did / will you defer your summerborn child?

[Chillisauceboss]

I feel hugely passionate about deferring my summerborn child - research led / emotion led and I just think they have so many years in education / work life that they should have another year 'at home' (nursery play based informal learning)
But... most people around me think I'm absolutely barmy to consider going against the norm.
What did you do / plan to do?!

I was a summer born baby and I think I would of like to of been deferred

Have an August born dd, won't be deferring. I think she'll be more than ready.

I was a summer born and am glad I was not deferred. I wish I’d been in the year above even because I was academic and found school boring and easy. The year above would have been better.
I didn’t make friends easily but I think that was personality rather than being one of the younger ones.

I wouldn’t rule it out for my children if they seemed like they needed more time but equally I would t do it automatically.
As far as I am aware the research seems to show a “sink or swim” type thing. Obviously I don’t want my child to sink or to just “cope” but if I feel they would be challenged and rise to the challenge and end up doing better for it, they will absolutely go in cohort (actually this decision has been made already about 1 who is at that age. 2nd one we’ll see).

So school applications for reception seem to opening now ? Is anyone taking the plunge and decelerating ?

My DH was all for Deceleration of ours July born due to a speech delay, but he has made some great progress. I think it would be great for our July born regardless of recent improvements. He is very young for his age and lacks confidence. But now my DH isn't keen.

My DH is an Oct born, but I'm a summer born myself, so I don't know if I'm projecting some of my school issues into it.

It’s common practice to defer where I live (in Connecticut, where the cut off is December 31st). It’s been an established option for so long, that now you get people with August and September borns who defer for a year. It starts getting a bit ridiculous, as the goal posts shift with each passing year.

I went with the recommendation of nursery and did not defer dd. She is in year 2 now and is doing very well, she exceeded expectations in year r and is on track for greater depth in sats. She has a lovely group of friends and one of the deciding factors for us to not defer was that she would be held back socially as she would be left playing with just turned 3 year olds in nursery when she was 5. She was used to playing with older children already so I felt that this would be the wrong choice for her.

I deferred my August born ds. It has helped him massively. In particular socially as he has found it a lot easier to make friends in his current year group than in the one above.

I think looking at it as parents not wanting their child to be the youngest in the year group is not correct. The point is simply that some parents don't feel their child is ready for full time school at just turned four (and reception is proper school). By law parents currently have the right to not start full time education for their child until after their fifth birthday. The problem is if a Summer born parent doesn't start their child until the child is five or compulsory school age the child misses a whole year of formal schooling. Hence the campaign for children to start school in reception at compulsory school age.

I'm in Scotland so different cut off dates and deferred children never have to skip a year.

I deferred both my DS's meaning they were both 5y 9m when they started. Every teacher has said that it was the right decision as they are more mature and ready for each new challenge that comes along. I’ve never regretted it once.

My DD is born late August. We didn't defer but in hindsight I wish we had. She is autistic and reception was a struggle.

A lot of you have mentioned your summer-born DC struggling socially as a reason to defer. Obviously if deferring is going to give your child an advantage, of course you'll do it and I understand. But, speaking personally, I too struggled socially at school, not really speaking to the other children at all for my first couple of years. Except I'm October born. I think my point is that children can struggle for a variety of reasons and perhaps not be ready, but not all have the option of being defered and therefore the system just shifts the goalposts of disadvantage.