Unfair to defer summer borns

[ifyoudont]

Dd was born late august, is the youngest in her year but instead of rest of her class being just under a year older than her , there’s 4 children who are nearly a year and a half older because they were born April -august the year above and deferred.

Somebody has to be the youngest and somebody the oldest but surely the fairest way is to keep the age difference within a year.

Dd is doing well academically and socially and only really struggling during playtime and PE as she is smaller. A boy in her class has early May birthday but because he was deferred instead of being 3+ months older than her is 15+ months older and the biggest and strongest in the class leading to several incidents where he has injured her.

A family member has a baby due in June and is already mentioned deferring them without knowing how advanced or behind they are going to be.

I definitely do think there are a few exceptions where it can be necessary but it seems to to be often done just because it can. Maybe there should be be stricter guidelines and some sort of test required?

AIBU? If so what am I missing?
I don’t hear people share this opinion often and haven’t shared it with family member

But I don't think the school friends follow. If you are u9 on say 31st August or whatever, that's your team for the year.

Actually, I think that I have it back to front. The May born deferred kid would be playing with the year above their school year.

All very confusing (for me)

My DD was born on the very last day of the intake month, if she’d been born 12 hrs later she would have started school a year later. We decided before she was born we would defer as we would prefer she was one of the oldest rather than the youngest in the class. All my teacher friends recommended deferring with some sharing experiences of knowing teens who had struggled due to being younger than their peers. Parents should be able to make the decision regarding their children

The option to defer is there (and rightly so) because children develop at different rates.

If your child was born in summer and you feel they are ready to start school the September after they turn 4, then you can start them.

Some children take a bit longer to develop and need a bit of extra time at home/ nursery.

Some children born in the summer might also have been premature, putting them at an even further disadvantage if they start school too early.

Some children benefit from deferring and it's very individual and needs to be decided for each child by the adults who know them. It's not something you can have 'stricter guidelines' or 'tests' for - that's just not necessary. We test children enough as it is.

A 1.5 year age difference between the oldest and youngest child in a class is fine.

If another child is hurting your child for whatever reason, including accidentally, then you need to speak to the school about what they are doing about it.

That depends on the sport. My daughter’s sport is based on year of birth, so her current category is 2013 and 2014 so it would make a difference.

Teacher friends of mine were due their second child at the end of August so she basically lay down ( except to wash and use the loo) for all of the School Summer holidays and on September 1st got up and promptly gave birth that night.
I don’t think it’s scientific but it worked. She said there was no way she’d have an August child.

I held off one extra day to avoid a Wednesday birth which was about as much as I could manage.

Out of interest looked at Scottish stats and it mirrors USA that more wealthy more likely to defer, boys more likely to be held back.
www.gov.scot/publications/deferred-entry-primary-school-statistics/pages/2/

My son’s an August baby, so he was nearly a year younger than some of the children in his class. Academically it didn’t really affect him, he’s always done really well, but socially it was tougher. It knocked his confidence, especially in things like sport. I remember his first sports day he just couldn’t keep up. Things did improve over time of course, but the early hit to his confidence had a lasting impact. If I’d had the chance to defer him, I definitely would have.

My husband is a teacher why is another reason we were so adamant we’d defer. He could easily see the difference between the summer borns in the class and the rest of the children.

As I said upthread, GCSE stats for core subjects are based on the number of Y11 age students in the school, so a child who had deferred into a lower year would count as ungraded (a fail). Sometimes when it does happen schools put the student with their ‘correct’ cohort for those subjects which is a sort of solution but problematic for maths due to the way skills build on each other - it can result in the student getting a lower grade than they otherwise would have. This sometimes has a knock on as even if they resit and get a better grade some universities and courses want GCSE grades from first attempt.
If the school doesn’t try to enter the student with their ’correct’ cohort their results don’t count anyway as they aren’t a GCSE eligible age again.
If it’s going to become commonplace then the rules about league table stats will need to change. I’d ban league tables personally, but I don’t see it happening. I’m not sure what right of push back a school would have if they didn’t want to take deferred students, but an oversubscribed school could probably find grounds if they really wanted to.

The twins in my DCs class are most definitely not behind…

I am July born and never struggled academically at school or university. I think you assess you child on how well you think they'll do going into the correct year group. I was the youngest in a large family so lots of older siblings prepared me for bigger kids and I was reading before I started school so it was right for me.

Behind her peers? Children are not compared to other children. There are standards/expectations to meet set by the National Curriculum.

More able (often older children) bring a lot of benefits to a class.

DD is 19th August, and is the youngest in her class by quite a chunk. She's not academic, and is emotionally immature as well. Deferral was discussed, but ultimately the school and I felt it best for her to move up with her peers for a variety of reasons. She's now in year 2, struggling badly and I bitterly regret the decision not to defer. She's on the assessment pathway for autism and PDA, it would have given her an extra year to progress academically and emotionally. The gap between DD and her peers is getting bigger, and she's noticing which is causing frustration and more emotional outbursts. It's horrible.

I can understand why people choose to defer, but then I can also see the pitfalls that you highlight in your OP. It's not a decision to be taken lightly, nor is it an easy one to make without a crystal ball!

YANBU

I’m summer born (August) and so is one of my DC

It was never a thing when I was at infant school in the 80s

There’s an August born boy in DC’s class and so he’s practically a year older than her

I don’t really ‘get’ this holding back- unless there are specific issues- it just seems pointless

Anyhow you need to speak to the teacher regarding your child being hurt by another

That's utterly bonkers.

Especially when you can still start them at school in the same year anyway regardless of whether they are born in August or September.

I teach in a mixed age class.
I teach nursery and reception. We have children aged 3 starting now with children just coming up to 6 in September. It works great and all of the children in my reception will meet their ELG this year (and do most years unless SEND is a barrier)

I think what should have happened is that children need to be 4 1/2 at a minimum to start school on 1st September, and worked the birthdays backwards to get them to that point. That would have solved so many problems. Yes, there will always be a youngest, but the 'youngest' needs to be 'older' and more school ready.

Agree
Thats what my friends said

Oh great - no need for children to be deferred then!

Are you in the UK? I didn’t know this was a thing. I thought children had to go to school when they were a certain age whatever.

This is the Scottish system. Runs March to Feb and school starts in August so youngest are approaching 4.5 when they start

Thank you for your detailed response. I think you’re right in saying things need to change, clearly it’s not been thought through and with the number of deferred pupils increasing it’s likely to become more of an issue.

Agree with league table sentiment.

No they don't go into year one they apply to go into reception. Parent of a July born child for whom deferral was the right decision.

And me in the 1970s. My mum said I wasn’t going until I had to (after turning 5 - I am summer born), and that was that.

I kind of know what you mean, my older one is August born, youngest in the year and if she’d been a week late she would be in year 1 instead of 2. Unlike OPs child she is struggling a little bit socially and is emotionally immature. She’s doing very very well academically in one area and very behind in another (teacher suspects mild sen). I am sick of the competitive parenting, and have a lot of guilt over not deferring because I wonder if she might have been better off (breaks my heart to hear her say she’s stupid). I’m at home with her sibling anyway and could have managed but somehow it didn’t feel right. I wouldn’t judge a parent whose child is behind deferring, but “just because” must be quite hard on teachers who are trying to manage a varied group as it is :(