August Babies -starting school

[notnow86]

My friend has a DD born in Oct, my DD was born in Aug. They'll both be starting school in September.

Friend keeps making comments about how she's worried that my DD will be behind and how she's so little and she won't be achieving great grades etc...

I've never been worried until now when I'm thinking maybe she's right?! AIBU to think she shouldn't be making these comments ? Her mother used to teach and apparently all august born children are dumb and never catch up

However my DH insists August born children aren't lacking at academics and will catch up eventually.

Any experience? Please tell me my DD will be fine! 🙈 I'm really anxious now

Your friend is wrong, and weird tbh.
However, my son is early August, and I do kind of wish I had kept him back a year. He really struggles with the work set for his year group. But then it's possible the time off school during the pandemic may have affected him also.

I am August born. slow ish to start reading my Mum said but I got straight As at GCSE, decent A'levels, a good degree and a professional qualification on top of that. Don't worry, it all shakes down through the years. If you think they aren't ready just keep them out of reception and send them in yr 1.

They would start in Yr1 rather than Recep

Not true!

It used to be, but there was a massive campaign around summer born babies to try to stop this happening, and the then Ed Sec wrote to schools strongly recommending they listened to the parents. It's now far easier to start later if necessary without the mountains of evidence I had to collect for ds. And they should start in Reception and stay with that cohort, although some schools /LAs may try to shift them back up to make the computer happy. But they do NOT miss out Reception or another year to make up!

My daughter has 3 August friends all did very well in their GCSE & Alevels. Only two of them knew each other, interestingly all 3 took a year out - not sure if it was a mix of lockdown & turning 18 so much later in the year. All going this September to go medics, vet & art degrees :)

My worry is you always going to have to have someone the youngest! How this mix could affect things like grade boundaries in GCSE if we don’t have this more even spread. Or access to 11+

I have a September born & I remember back when she turned 4 thinking if she had been born earlier she wouldn’t have been ready for school….but by the November she was bored at nursery and I changed my mind 😂

My child is year 4, born end August, exceeding expectations in all areas. My year 1 child is December born & behind in most areas.

My friend also made me feel shit about this; she deferred her son who was born around the same date as mine in August (just 3 years earlier).

she Was quoting all the stats about impact on summer born boys; I was like “why are you doing this when we have already told you we have chosen not to defer him?”

as a PP said, people like this are competitive nightmares.

I have an August birthday and am naturally academic so I excelled at school. My brother who is September born and isn’t academic struggled immensely.

Your friend’s behaviour isn’t very friendly. I agree that it sounds like she’s insecure and is trying to make you feel the same.

@Lessofallthisunpleasantness you can apply to send any child born April 1st - Aug 31st to school in reception at compulsory school age (aged 5). There's no guarantee that they'll get approval but it's meant to be whatever is in the child's best interests. There's very few children who will benefit from missing reception so I'd definitely recommend a delayed CSA reception start over skipping reception and going straight into Yr1

There is a reason why the government has changed the law to allow summer born children to be deferred. ALL of the statistics show that summer born children are at a disadvantage. Lots or people are focusing on the academic side but actually it's the emotional impact which is more concerning. Summer borns are more likely to have mental health problems, commit suicide or go to prison. These are the factors that have persuaded me to defer my DC. I did a lot of research and came across hardly any disadvantages to deferring. My DC is bright and would probably have coped with school this year but deferring will mean that they are 100% ready and thrive.
My brother was born in August and academically and professionally he has done extremely well however emotionally it was a struggle and thought it was a very good idea for us to defer.
In most countries including Scotland it is very common to defer, or children start later anyway.