To defer my Summer born daughter’s school start date?

[ThornAmongstRoses]

I have a daughter who should be starting school next September but she will have only turned 4 about a week before the start date.

For the last few months I have seriously been thinking about delaying her starting until the following year when she will have just turned 5.

I have done so much reading up around the subject and it’s quite clear that statistically (because I know there will always be exceptions) starting school after just turning 4 can be very detrimental to their education and achievements through their schooling compared to Autumn, Winter and Spring borns.

My husband is a teacher and is absolutely on board with the deferral.

I mentioned it to my brother a few days ago as his child is summer born (a year behind mine) and he totally laughed me off.

He said it was a pointless thing to do and if the younger kids struggle then it’s down to the parents to do more at home with them.

It was a bit of a black and white attitude I thought.

I told him that if it was as simple as doing some work at home to get the Summer borns to the same level as their peers, then there wouldn’t be so much information out there about the disparities between Summer borns and other children.

I’m not being unreasonable to consider this though am I?

I do understand there will always be exceptions and there will be many stories abouthigh achieving Summer born children, but that doesn’t detract from the fact that overall, Summer Born children do fare worse at school if they start when they have just turned four years old.

My brother has made me doubt myself

I would call your preferred school and check their admission policy and that of your local authority. Our LA lets us defer and start reception yet out closest schools don’t and would make the kid start year 1 and miss reception.

I am late august, started after turning 4, was in advanced classes all the way through school, did my GCSEs early, extra A-level etc... I am not special but it definitely had no impact on me or any of my late summer born friends either and this was just at normal state schools

Following this with interest - I have a summer born (early August) and keep swinging from one side of the fence to the other.

I would do it. Dd was 6 weeks before the cut off but deferring wasn't really a thing back then. She found reception hard and would have benefited from more time in nursery. She was just too young for it. It had a knock on effect socially throughout primary. It wasn't a problem for academics and she did well in gcses, but socially deferring would have been a lot better for her. Things improved socially by secondary school but the primary years are a long time

Admission authorities are not allowed to have blanket policies where the child would be put into year one.

My two summer born children both started at compulsory school age. It’s been a good decision for us.

But why defer? You have another year to decide whether you think she's ready or not. My son is late August so started just after he turned 4. I did think about deferring him but then realised he would go straight in at year 1 rather than go into reception and I didn't want that. Reception is a great year for them, pretty much play based, it's not like its a hard slog or anything. Unless you have definite reasons to defer rather than she's just too young, I would seriously have a re-think.

Is it her that's not ready, or is it you? My son was more than ready and he loved it.

Check the policy first - some operate the policy @OverTheRainbow88 mentions whereby if you defer they start in year 1 rather than reception which seems like it would be more harmful than starting at just turned 4! If you can defer and start reception then I would go for it. Some kids are ready and others just aren't. England starts school earlier than most countries in the world, including Scotland where everyone is at least 4.5 when they start.

I didn’t defer my August born, and I did worry how he would cope. But actually I’m glad I didn’t because although yes we’ve had a few wobbles he’s doing amazingly well. He’s ahead of his age group for reading and maths and I couldn’t be happier with his progress. He was actually ready for school. His group of friends are also all summer born which is really nice.

I'm an August birthday so perhaps that colours my opinion, but unless there's a very specific reason eg the child concerned was also premature (34 weeks or earlier) and/or has learning difficulties that have been identified then I think it's doing them a disservice because it could result in them missing a year later (especially if you move) and sports can be a major issue as the cut off is 31 August to be in teams. I think I would have been very mad at my parents if I had to wait another year to go to university, I went at just 18 and was fine. My dp is also an August birthday and is very successful. I think parents today are overthinking the situation there's far more factors than birth date and I just disagree with gaming the system I suppose. (For full disclosure both my kids are mid year and both have needed extra support for different reasons)

People love to brag in these threads as if their own individual case overrides all the data out there on this.

Do you need to consider finances in this too? Would your daughter stay in nursery an extra year or will she be at home?

But why defer? You have another year to decide whether you think she's ready or not.

School place applications for next year have to be in by January and if I want to defer her start I have to include my request within that application.

Thankfully it seems now that most schools have to have a very strong case as to why they would put a deferred starter into Year 1 as opposed to reception. The Department of Education say that if the school want to send the child straight into Year 1 they have back this up by explaining why they think missing out on Reception is in the child’s best interests.

I am already prepared with research and articles that detail the importance of Reception when it comes to entering formal education

Other than her date of birth, you don't say anything about your daughter herself.
Each summer born child is different.
Like a PP, I am an an August baby who never had any problems in school.
My godson, birthday 31 August, started school aged 4 yrs 3 days and was top of the clas throughout school and uni , winning prizes at medical school etc. He also achieved grade 8 on an instrument, played school and uni rugby and is one of the most social people I know.
Not saying that one or two examples mean all August borns are the same - I am saying the opposite! Do you think YOUR child will struggle in school? Do you think SHE would benefit from another year in nursery? Neither I nor my godson would have benefitted. You need to consider the individual.

Do you need to consider finances in this too? Would your daughter stay in nursery an extra year or will she be at home?

She will still be entitled to her 30 hours free funding.

Before we knew this though (we only found that out 3 days ago) we had decided we’d still defer her start and then just pay for childcare.

Do what's right for your child (not what's right for you as a parent, or what's right for her cousin). You know her best - if she's not really ready, defer.

Mine was prem in August, in the days before any option to defer. If she had been going to struggle, I would have fought for deferral - after all, we'd been told that we should expect her development to relate to due date, not actual DOB. As it happened, she was entirely ready for school, and we were quite relieved that she had been early.

You've obviously done more research than me, but in my experience, bottom sets tend to have a lot of summer birthdays, but there isn't any corresponding skew to the autumn birthdays in the top sets. I think the less academic kids have more of a struggle if they are summer birthdays as well, but the more academic kids thrive whenever their birthday is. So if you have a bright kid who seems ready in other respects (socially, physically - I know one July birthday who napped right up until he went full-time in late September), then there's probably little need to hold back.

This is becoming more common and it's not unreasonable to consider this.

If on facebook, the 'Flexible School Admissions for Summer Borns' group has a lot of information. Obviously the group has a significant bias towards waiting until after compulstory school age/deferring, but the information in their announcement section and files could be worth a look.

I'll just add that it is possible to start and then essentially restart again if it doesn't work and the school is on board. There are several in the group who have done this so you don't need to make an iron-clad choice now.

We're in the process of deferring, just waiting back on the head of the school she'll go to to advise whether she'll support the request. For us it's 2 weeks. No brainer as far as I'm concerned. No-one ever worries a 1 September born will be bored etc.

But is there a specific reason for deferring her, or do you just think she's too young?

When she's a nursery and all her friends go off to big school, she's going to be really fed up. The last year at pre-school, all my son wanted to do was go to "big school" as he called it. He totally switched off from pre-school and my uncle who was a head master said that is very common. If she does start in reception she is going to be a whole year older and as the years go by she's going to be pissed off she wasted a whole year.

Don't defer her just because she's small right now and you're not ready. She's got a whole year to go and she will change massively in that year.

@Di11y
No-one ever worries a 1 September born will be bored etc

DS's best friend was a 1st September baby and was so fed up that all his friends got to go to school and he had another year to wait.

I would say it depends on your child. I have a summer born (July) and where we are they start full time school the September after they are 3, so DS was 3 years and 2 months when he went.

He could have stayed at Nursery for the year, but they advised he was more than ready for school and the structure really helped him.

Does your DD go to Nursery? Can they advise whether delaying would be worthwhile?

Depends on the child, OP.

I think summer born boys are more likely to struggle then girls, generally.

I think most teachers can pick out a summer born boy in any reception/KS1 primary school class with a very high rate of accuracy just based on their behaviour and academic readiness.

The social problems will have to be considered going ahead if you do it, though. Sports teams, sports competitions, scouts, etc are based on age/birthdays. So if your child falls outside the year group age range for a sporting team, they may not be allowed to play on the team with their classmates and have to be on an older team.

I don't think you're being at all unreasonable to consider it, and you're right that the evidence on this is strong (fwiw I'm a July baby who went to Cambridge - but my anecdote doesn't outweigh the clear evidence that summer born children on average do underperform). But I don't think it's surprising that someone with a summer born that they never considered deferring doesn't want to discuss it. Like many parenting decisions people will get defensive if they feel someone else is implying that they're making a 'better' choice for their children than they did; I think we all have this reaction sometimes, even if we think we don't. I don't think your brother is the best sounding board for this.

Do you think YOUR child will struggle in school? Do you think SHE would benefit from another year in nursery?

I’m not sure that as he’s just turned 3 I can make a confident statement about how he will cope academically when he starts school.

A friend of mine had a Summer Born and deferred his start so when he started Reception he had just turned 5. He was really good at maths and about 6 months into the school year he started joining the Year 1 class for math lessons and then went back to his reception class. She said it was really good the school recognised he was able at maths and act in this rather than him just be bored doing maths in Reception.

He’s currently in Year 2 and is doing really well compared to his Peers and his teachers have now asked his mum if come next September would she like him to jump up to Year 4 and miss Year 3.

It is positive they are being fluid about it as it shows that the decision you make at the start doesn’t have to be final and there is the opportunity for the child to move up if the teachers think they are able enough.

I understand your struggle, my DDs birthdate is literally 2 days before the cut off and she was born a couple of weeks early.

We deferred, which in our local authority means delaying your application until the following year and asking for your child to be educated out of year. It did limit our choice of schools because not all schools will automatically accept this.

For us the decision was based on the fact that her peers/friends at nursery would all be staying on whilst she went to school with the 'bigger' kids as it were. She's little for her age which maybe shouldn't matter but she would have been the tiniest and the youngest and it just didn't feel right. I've not regretted it. I know there's another girl in her class who similarly deferred because she has a late August birthday and her mum is a primary school teacher herself so that made me feel better!

Two things would concern me

Is she going straight into year one which will be a shock.

If not, how is she going to feel leaving school at 19 and not 18?

My DS is a mid-June birthday. He would definitely have benefited from a deferred start. It just wasn't a thing then. We were told he was struggling at the end of the reception year and has been on the SEN register ever since. I wish I'd been able to have him repeat reception but it was never presented as an option. Primary was fine but years 7 and 8 were a nightmare. He's year 11 now and doing well, he'd be doing better if he was year 10 though....