Summer born headache.

[Highfivemum]

So my youngest was a prem baby 28weeks and was born on the 30 march. He is due to start school next year. I always knew he would be slightly playing catch up with the September born children. Found out today that in his class he will have 15 !! children who all have deferred to start a year later. (This is their right being summer born.)But all is has done is shift the youngest in class to the march children! I can’t defer due to being March but he is socially nowhere near the level of his peers as it is.
anyone else feel that is sounds a good idea in principle but it doesn’t solve the problem of DC being to young for school. Surely it should be on the individual child.

If everyone in your area is deferring their summer borns then the birthday cut off will start being April to March rather than September to August. So yes, the March children will be the youngest in the class, but they won’t be as disadvantaged as August borns who are not deferred as they are still starting school at nearly 4.5 rather than 4 and a few days which is the issue with August borns. So they will naturally be more ready for school. Obviously there will always be children in a year group with SEN or who take a bit longer to catch up. But if your child doesn’t start until next September he still has a year to gain maturity and be ready for school and they do grow up a lot in a year.

Wow 15 seems so many!

Something many don’t realise is that this doesn’t carry over automatically to secondary school. I’ve had people on here try to argue it does but it is up to the secondary school.

‘If you want your child to remain out of their normal age group when they transfer to a new school, for example if you move house or when they transfer to secondary school, you will need to submit another request for admission out of the normal age group.’ www.gov.uk/government/publications/summer-born-children-school-admission/summer-born-children-starting-school-advice-for-parents

I know parents with DC (now in Yr 8) who were premature and with SEN who had to find out what secondary schools would support the request. Then they had to apply for secondary when in Yr 5 and request a delay the start so the DC could stay at primary for Y6.

I know this has also been an issue for some children when they go to sit entrance exams for secondary places.

You may have already read this but it looks like a good discussion for people in your situation: www.bliss.org.uk/parents/growing-up/starting-primary-school

Wow, that’s a lot of kids deferring. My daughter is end of August, but we didn’t defer. She’s just finished her reception year and she is absolutely flying, you’d never know she was the youngest in her year, she would have been bored shitless at nursery (I am aware it depends on the child).

That is odd. Maybe a high number of them have other issues though? I wouldn't worry too much. I have a March baby, she was a tiny one when she started but now one of the biggest and certainly never been any academic issues. I appreciate some will be 9 months older but presume they have stayed down for a reason - even if it's lack of confidence.

Completely agree with you. I think summer borne should only be deferred for specific reasons like ASD.
Reception is mostly learning through play and good schools are quite flexible in dealing with different maturity levels and abilities.
I am a summer born myself who never struggled and definitely would have been bored and resentful if kept behind a year, so feel like I can say that!

All these snowflake parents deferring. It takes the piss

I don't really get the " defer" business
(unless there is already recognised/suspected SEN)

Just because your kid is one of the youngest in the class it's not a given that they will struggle.
I could give dozens of examples of the
" baby of the class" absolutely thriving by the time they get to Primary and not disadvantaged in any way, social or academic.

I don’t blame any parent for deferring their child, they’re doing what they think is best for them, which is totally reasonable.

But I do think the system as a whole can add the disadvantages certain children face. A child born in August to parents who can’t afford to keep them another year in nursery, or who are unaware of the ability to defer (maybe they’re totally disengaged from the education system, maybe they don’t speak great English) are now not just the youngest by a year, but by potentially 17 months (if April born children defer). That adds to their disadvantage.

I completely disagree with children being deferred mainly for this reason.

So can any DC born from April to August now defer?

Yes

I think its fine for it to be at parents discretion. Extra time at home can be beneficial for reasons other than SEN

I think you’re bang on and this is what we will see. I understand ‘redshirting’ has been a thing in the States for longer and this is what they have found: ‘There is a certain amount of privilege associated with being able to make this decision since it has financial and time implications for the family. Consequently, the majority of kindergarten students redshirted are white males from more highly educated and affluent families’ https://www.oakpark.com/2020/09/16/the-domino-effect-of-wielding-privilege/

I see that where I live.

I moved from a very affluent part of London to a very deprived area of the West Midlands. They are the polar opposite of each other.

In London, so many people deferred summer born children. My older two children were both November, so it wasn’t an issue for me, but I had lots of friends who had summer borns who all chose to hold them back, mostly due to concerns for the 11+ exams.

My 4 year old, born here is an end of August baby. All my friends back in London just expected me to hold her back a year. They were horrified when I said I wasn’t, even though they know her and knew she was already starting to read and write and was socially ready.

When I mentioned that to the school here, the head of KS1 laughed and said no one does it here, I don’t think most know what that is, they can’t wait to get the kids out of the house all day. It’s not a case of not paying nursery for another year, it’s a very deprived area, many parents aren’t in work and the children get free hours from 2 years old.

From what I’ve seen, it’s very much a class thing.

Gosh that seems so many! I have a summer born and of my nct group of 8 summer born kids no one has deffered. We are in an affluent area as well! There are loads of June/ July/ August children in DS class.

There are many different reasons children are deferred, it's not always the right choice. There seems to be a boom in home education and deferring school atm online so I'd imagine it's a mixture of that and people getting more support for children with SEND.

At this age, any effects from your child being born prematurely will be noticed in school and support will be in place. They all even out eventually.

Thanks, I have late May and late August born DC but this wasn’t a thing when they were little.

Op you could have made your point without taking the example to rather ridiculous levels.

So out of your kids class for 2026 50% are deferred from 2025..
Apr to aug is only 5/12 months so at the most 12.5 out of 30. Plus generally more kids born in sept. And would assume 100% of summer borns incl all apr have deferred.
Yes i see it may reach a point where all defer but still doubt its likely 50% of a year group.
Also how would you know for 2026 as its not even applied for till by jan 2026.

Do you mean sept 2025?

Anyway a march born very prem child can i think defer anyway its just under different rule.

I completely disagree on limiting to asd kids etc. As who do you think is diagnosong kids by age 3?
Weve been waiting 2.5yrs already.

If anything its potentially sen diagnosis which is being bought by parents. As some very mildly affected kids have been diagnosed by end of primary (privately) wereas nhs kids still waiting years later.

If your kid is 3.5yo still loads of time to catch up socially. And if he is behind his then perhaps it is asd (as isnt that higher in prem kids?)
My 10yo is deferred and whilst it seemed to help until y4, we are starting to see sen issues now.
I dont think it matters so much if boys are slightly socially behind. ('naughty' behaviour is much worse issue.)

My eldest spent loads of time in reeption out of class and now has severe mh issues.
She actually was very bright at 3yo. Learnt to read chaoter books by 5. Her behaviour nose dived at reception. She actually had no asd signs until school.
Full time at just over 4 is a lot for some kids who would be napping etc especially when ill.

We're seeing alot of severe mh issues in dd yeargroup. 2 have ended up in sen schools or not attending secondary.
Im not sure the cause (covid or new curriculum?)
Also many schools here increased their intakes a lot without much other change.
Even having proper school nursing might have helped and teacher training on sen.

To be honest as someone in my 20s, I think children deferring a year due to being “summer born” is bizarre. My parents are university educated (medical professionals on good income) and I grew up in an affluent area. Yet no one at my primary or secondary school deferred entry, so people in my school year had birthdays in September of that academic year start, through to August the following year.

I was born in April and got maximum GCSE grades. It never held me back to be in class with people ~7 months older than me. I was more than capable. In fact, I think I would hate to be a year behind later in life, eg sitting GCSEs late or graduating university late cause I need to do another year vs my peers! My brother was born in July and was premature, yet he did well academically and went to university “on time” too.

I don’t think there’s a huge difference in child development to really justify holding “summer borns” back. When your children reach 16/17, they’re going to want to be at the same level as their peers and start driving/working/going to university at the same time, not be a year behind cause their parents felt they weren’t ready for the basics at primary school. It’s normal for children to be shy or socially awkward when they start school - school itself is an opportunity for them to build social skills?

As a pp says, think long and hard before doing this. You will have to apply to secondary schools to see if they will accept an out of cohort application, and, speaking from experience as a secondary school governor, not all of them will accept your application. You may be in the situation where no local secondary will accept your child or will insist they go straight into year 8. If you are in an 11+ area you will also need to apply to do an out of cohort exam, and it won’t be advantage to be a year older as scores are standardised for age.
Speaking as a mum of a 28 week premmie (my DS who’s now 19), by the time they’re at school it will make no difference, they will have caught up with the others and it’s not worth the hassle later on when the move up to secondary.

I didn't even know that this was an option unless there was SEN requirements.

I'm a late August baby. The oldest in my year was born in January 1992 and the youngest was March 1993.

I don’t see this as a class thing but I suppose it depends on the people involved. I went to school relatively recently as I’m in my 20s. I grew up in an affluent area to educated parents who are medical professionals.

Affluent families gained an upper hand in the form of tutoring, the upper hand wasn’t in deferring entry to primary school. Instead they paid for their kids to be privately tutored, prepped them for grammar or private schools, put them in extra curricular activities and ensured their kids got their homework etc done. No children deferred a year.

Many people of higher social status went to university themselves and have navigated the education system themselves. It’s going to be more natural for them to want their children to follow the standard education system as opposed to deferring a year, cause they/their families are familiar with the educational system. If that has majorly changed in the last decade, I would be shocked as being successful at a younger age is generally celebrated. Therefore I don’t think not deferring entry is a poverty or working class trait.

You could only do this from around 2014/2015 intake.
obviously there has also been large curriculum change.
obviousky if the parents are really clever it would make less difference.
but sats and gcses and alevels are scaled and clearly show the resluts go down but birth month.
at dd1 school sats results are still being used within setting at y9.

Once you are in top sets less likely to move down. Those moving up will have missed work.

Well, it was just my experience with a particular group. And yes, all the children are also tutored. Home ed has become very popular as well in the area I used to live in in London, especially for the first couple of years of primary.

My children are tutored now we have moved here, but that’s down to the schools here. Not the teaching, but there is a lot of dire behaviour, so the poor teachers spend a lot of time fire fighting when they should be teaching.

My children have done the 11 + here as well. We are 30/40 mins from the grammars in Birmingham, but no one in this area does it. My middle child has just left year 6 and she was the first one to do the 11+ at her school for as long as they could remember (my son is an adult now so we were in a London for his secondary education). I don’t know why more people here don’t try for it.

My youngest August born will also do it when her time comes, the test here is weighted for age, so she won’t be at any disadvantage.

Somebody has to be the youngest. Your DC will be fine, there's lots of support and differentiation so he'll catch up to where he should be