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?!

Dd is an August baby and we didn’t defer.

As she was already in nursery she would be following the eyfs curriculum either way. So it made sense for her to just start school.

Shorter days for her (9.00 - 3.15 instead of 8-6) and a huge financial saving for us.

Why did they stop the January intake for summer born? My sisters birthday is the 18th August and she started in January

I deferred my late Dec child, should've been born January, he's now nearly finished high school and it was the best decision we made.

I feel like January intake was even worse though because the younger ones got less time in Reception and less time to get used to school before starting Year 1 and the different curriculum.

Hi Op,

Could you give me some more info, eg. How long do you defer them for? What happens when they do start school? I.e do they start in the youngest class or in a class of children their own age?

My daughter is a June baby but she was premature, and this isn't something that I even knew was possible?

(Sorry for jumping on your post and asking loadsa questions, I will do my own research just don't know where to start lol)

I’m planning to home ed through primary but if I wasn’t I would definitely look into it for my June born 2 year old. She’s decidedly average and closer in ability/development to the toddlers I know who turned 2 this September than the ones I know that turned 3 this September. Yet from next September she should be in the same nursery class, and then through primary school, with the older ones. I’m probably going to send her to school for secondary so I’m not sure what will happen then. Will I be able to defer her a year then and send her at 12, or can deferral only be requested for starting primary?

I’ve worked in primary schools and in most infant classes the ‘lowest ability’ group is made up of summer born children. Not to sound sexist but in my experience summer born boys tend to take longer to catch up than summer born girls. Obviously there are exceptions to this.

It wasn’t around with my eldest two. ( one June and July so no choice ). But my little one now is August and two. I am not going to as when it comes to sport and outside clubs etc. They will go by age. So u6 football will be as per age group and I don’t want him not with his class peers. My other two struggled at first but to be honest it had its benefits. They pushed themselves. They are now both doing fab. There has to be an age cutoff and a youngest and oldest. The teachers are well equipped for this.

@Mulhollandmagoo everything I know (and all the caveats in between) I learnt from an EXCELLENT Facebook group called flexible school admissions for summerborns! :)

i did and he repeated reception as well

i sent him to school with a grudge as i didnt want him going as ive always been against the school system so he didnt do nursery her stayed with me but i thought then you had to by law, i didnt know home ed existed then,special schools dont exists here,im in a very small village in the valleys of south wales and you have to go to the school in the village,the next school over is for their village
and the nearest SS is mile away(im talking a hour or more in a taxi) and you have to be severely disabled to ever be considered

hes a end of juy baby but has,asd,gdd,spd,pda and was non verbal at the time

he did a year there and showed no progress so the reception teacher suggested we try and apply to stay there another year,we did and he did,still non verbal but she tried but nothing sunk in so i was sending him because i though i "had" to, he wasnt getting anything out of it but wasnt unhappy so i let it be

he got to y1 and they put him in a y2-y3 class despite still being semi verbal and still on nursery level as they said his birthday matched that year group

no explanation from me of the reception teacher would work so i gave it a few months and in the october i found out home ed existed(this was 2015 and home ed wasnt as well known then) and i found out he was being left to play all day in the corner so i took him out,the reception teacher at least tried to learn him and included him

9 and quarter now and still semi verbal and on nursery level

My August born has just turned three. She's chomping at the bit to start 'big school'. My older winter born daughter has just started and is asking to go back to pre school. I think it's really individual

I think it's ridiculous!

It's a school year, someone needs to be a year younger that's how a year work.

I also think it's soft parenting and being unable to let your child go.

There has to be an age cutoff and a youngest and oldest. The teachers are well equipped for this.

I'm a teacher. I agree there has to be a cutoff. I would not agree the teachers are well equipped for it, especially not with the constant budget cuts, reducing LSA hours, and expecting schools to do more with less, year on year. Some classes basically end up being composites but with no extra resourcing.

Some kids will cope fine. The top pupil in my subject (exam wise) last year was the second youngest in the year. Some won't. I can think of many who just simply can't keep up once the GCSE content kicks in, however with another year of maturity and development would have a much better chance. There is a correlation between age within a year group and attainment, it's just a fact. We see that trend right through to A Level results. Of course there are outliers but the overall pattern is there. If I had a summer born I would seriously consider deferral, it would take a very good reason to persuade me otherwise.

@Dandelion1993 do you have a summerborn?

Two May birthdays here. Not deferred. Academically they were both ready for school, socially possibly not quite but I wasn't prepared to take the risk of them being bored with another year of nursery and also potentially skipping a year later on.

Ds1 is late July and had just started , I didn't defer. The school he goes to, our catchment school , is very small. There was an intake of 11 into reception this year, and 9 are summer born. Already, only a few weeks in, he is thriving. He loves it, so much more than the pre school he went to.

Had our catchment been the much bigger, busier school, I don't think it would have been the same.

I would always defer if it's an option.
Not sure if it's different in Scotland but if you choose to defer you start in primary 1 and aren't expected to go into the age appropriate year group.
I am a February birthday and according to my family I was more than ready to start school. I was the youngest in my year. My cousin was born in January but my aunt decided to defer him. During primary school I was in top set for everything and excelled at school but when I went to secondary I felt like I was always playing catch up with my peers and couldn't cope with the pressure. My cousin did amazing at primary and secondary and went straight on to university while I was having to go to college to try and get the results needed for university.
You might think your child is ready in nursery but by the time they get to secondary the difference in maturity is massive.

DS end of Aug birthday. Didn't defer as doing well at preschool. Reception year was tough & he was very tired. By end of yr2 in top half of class. By end of yr4 doing very well academically & socially. Now yr11 & predicted to do well in GCSEs.

Had we held him back he would have been bored at school. The other consideration is sport especially outside school it goes on DOB so your DC would be ineligible to play in same team as classmates even if only a week in it.

Make sure you have a cast iron guarantee of a place before you defer.

You can't, as far as I know. Once agreement to defer is achieved you enter the admissions round for the year below, but are treated the same as everyone else in that cohort, you can't reserve a place. This is why you must ideally get consent from all the schools that the LA might place you in, in case you don't get a place at your favourite.

Surely it depends on the child? I’m a June baby and I was so ready for school. I was impatient with the pace of learning (can still remember that, what a delight to teach I must have been ). I can only imagine I would have been climbing the walls if I’d been held back.

We didn’t defer our DS (born June but 9 weeks early so should’ve been a mid August baby). It wasn’t an option at the time. But looking back he really wasn’t ready from a social point of view. However, I do wonder if that’s just his character, he was always nervous of any child who wasn’t super gentle. I think he’d have been scared of his own shadow no matter when he started. He’s Y3 now and while he still won’t approach people willingly (ie with his harvest festival offering that he wasn’t sure what to do with this morning. Wouldn’t ask the teacher on the door what he needed to do with it, she gently guessed at his query and he nodded a response), he is becoming much more confident in class. And he’s an absolute star at home (most of the time) and loving learning at the moment. I don’t think I wouldn’t change what we did.

Late August born dd.
Now in Yr 6. No option to defer when she started.
Seemingly very ready when she started school - but some massive maturity issues, as well as academically. Which have showed up more in ks2/juniors than initially. Would I defer now? In a heartbeat - provided I could guarantee deferment followed right through school. Needing to jump a year either into Yr 1 or into Yr 7 or 8 would be horrific!

@Dandelion1993 yes some children will always be the youngest and therefore disadvantaged (backed by lots of research) but I want every advantage I can get for my DS. Who on earth would accept that their child will be performing below what they are capable of throughout school till age 18 just because they're summer-born? Not me!

Did it for DD. She’s Aug 29 and at 3 was on SEN register due to a speech delay. Our nursery/ primary school supported us all the way as they could tell she just needed a bit of extra time to catch up.

Just come back from her year 1 parents evening to hear that she is ‘exceeding expectations’. However she is still really struggling with her emotional immaturity. I would hate to imagine how she would be if she had been forced to school at just 4.

I’ve not had any negative responses really - I dont think many people know she’s deferred - she always has her birthday party in September anyway and she has certainly never seemed any different to her cohort - indeed she is only 6 days older than her next classmate.

IMO we start school far to young in England and its always worth bearing in mond the transition to year one rsther than how they might cope in reception.

Didn't defer mine (July) but she was v obviously ready for school, and had a clutch of summer born friends to start with.

OTOH I would have loved to defer her autumn-born sister, who was later diagnosed with ASD. I guess that wouldn't have been an option though.

My dd was born late august, she started not long after her 4th birthday and took to it really well, no regrets. I think its dependent on the child/family, if you think that's right for her then follow you gut.