Summer babies

[desertmama1]

My son was born at the start of July and is due to start reception next year. I can't help but feel there is a lot of judgment about summer born babies. I wasn't educated in England so this is all new to me. I feel like I have done him a disservice by having him in July!!! AIBU?

Ds1 was a July baby, went to grammar school and was one of the youngest when he started vetmed. Yes they are less mature when they are younger but this equals out as they get older.

I have an August baby, he was still 3 when he did his school visits.

He is doing amazingly well at school, his latest parents evening was glowing and he’s exceeding in reading and maths. I am a proud mum. He does have a good teacher which helps.

There is one intake per yeargroup and thus there is one cutoff date. Regardless where that cutoff is there will be 1 whole year difference between the oldest and youngest in the year. If everyone deferred entry that would just move the cutoff date and you'd have the same situation just with a new date. Unless you are going to change to 6 monthly split yeargroups with a xmas start then a 1 year age differential is just got to be a fact of life.
I'm in scotland so out cutoff is 28thfeb/1st march and i have a mid jan born child who is one of the youngest in her year. Yes there is a huge physical difference between the oldest and youngest (especially of the oldest have deferred entry and are now 14+ months older than the youngest). So far it's not been a problem.
For some children deferred entry will be the right choice, for most its not.

You can apply to start him a year later in reception, OP. Visit the Facebook group called, 'Flexible school admissions for summer borns' for more information.

Dd1 is an August. She has always been in the top sets academically. Never struggled. She is also small in height, but does ok at sports despite this disadvantage.

My D’s is a summer born baby. Academically he is fine but as he gets older (he’s in yr6 now) I’m noticing a bigger gap in terms of maturity between him and the older boys. I don’t think he’s ready, socially, for secondary school and if I could hold him back for a year at this point I would. But, as I said, he’s fine academically. DD is a winter baby friends older and younger than her and I can see the difference. But some of that obviously comes down to personality. I’ve got a couple of friends who deliberately engineered it to have August babies. I’m not sure why they’d do that? But yeah, I wouldn’t judge most people or their children on their position in the academic year. Just crack on and make the most of the opportunities you/your child is offered.

@MissDollyMix

My D’s is a summer born baby. Academically he is fine but as he gets older (he’s in yr6 now) I’m noticing a bigger gap in terms of maturity between him and the older boys. I don’t think he’s ready, socially, for secondary school and if I could hold him back for a year at this point I would. But, as I said, he’s fine academically. DD is a winter baby friends older and younger than her and I can see the difference. But some of that obviously comes down to personality. I’ve got a couple of friends who deliberately engineered it to have August babies. I’m not sure why they’d do that? But yeah, I wouldn’t judge most people or their children on their position in the academic year. Just crack on and make the most of the opportunities you/your child is offered.

I definitely did not engineer to have my august baby! However I have heard people say that getting a summer baby can be better because effectively they go off to school/nursery (or get the funded hours) sooner so in the long run you save money. So I can believe it happens.

Lots of friends I knew engineered an autumn baby so they would be the oldest in the year. Some of them came early - in August!

If I had another I'd definitely go for spring/summer. November born boy definitely has more fun with viruses than his summer born sister, starting with 48h in hospital at 4 weeks with bronchiolitis, chicken pox causing breathing difficulties (resolved spontaneously) and spending the entirity of last winter with viral wheeze and a cough that took 3 lots of antibiotics to clear.

I'm on the fence on the school year thing anyway, my summer born (mid August) enjoyed what she got of reception last year, but she had some impressive tantrums (probably personality, very strong willed) but has thrived in P1 as mid-older in the year, although the fact that she's had much longer in a school environment than her peers and they are repeating material might be an influence on performance.

That said she would not have been easy as one of the oldest in the year - was bossy and confident in her own opinions as the youngest!

Summer born babies can have parties in the garden or anywhere outside.

I'm A winter baby and was so jealous of my June born sister having outdoor parties while I was stuck inside

Both my children are summer born and have coped well with school. It never occurred to me to keep them behind a year.

I was July and was always top of my class. The downer was noone comes to your birthday party, although the worst for that is late December/early January.

I worried about this a lot as DS is a late August baby. He was 4 for less than a week before he started school.

He’s in the first year at secondary now and we’ve not had any bother at all. He was very tired in the first term of reception but he soon got into the swing of things. He went to the nursery attached to the school for the year before reception which really helped I think.

This is only a thing because people make it a thing. Parents keeping their kids home expecting them to do poorly in school because they’re the youngest. As a high achieving 31st of August baby with 2 late spring/early summer children I find the whole thing quite insulting.

My only issues were having birthday parties in the summer so not everyone could come and the year everyone turned 18, not being able to drink. I’m a full year older than most of my best friends now and I love it.

Both of mine are summer babies and both are at the top of their classes. DS was one of the smallest in stature when he started, but in Y3 he is doing very well in sports. It depends on a child, but only you know your child best.