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.

15 seems completely insane. There isn't a single deferred child in either of my children's classes.
My son's best friend since reception is a late August born and he's never had any issues.

You know the class has 15 deferred from previous year , but do you now the spread of ages for the other 15? Are there more from the autumn term, or is there a good mix through the year?

That’s very unusual to have such a large number of deferred children. After teaching for 35+ years, I strongly believe that there should be a cut off age and that should be stuck with. A good Early Years unit will have staff that really understand child development and as such can cater for a range of needs within the unit. When parents say ‘my dc isn’t ready for school’ what do they actually mean? What do they think will happen to their dc in Reception? I’ll tell you what usually happens:
-children play alongside and with other children
-children learn to build relationships with other adults
-children sing songs that help them acquire good language skills, practice number sequences, count, acquire rhyme skills
-children get to be creative
-children get to expand the spectrum of gross and fine motor skills
-children practice turn-taking, patience, sharing, problem-solving
-children become confident individuals ready to explore the wider world

In addition to all the above, where a child may have an additional need (speech + language, physical, SEM ect) that need would be identified and steps taken to assess, bring in specialist support and target provision to help with that need.
Early Years units are not awful places where children are left to battle with other children who may well be up to a year older (or younger) than them. They are places where ALL children are nurtured.

In what way? And to what detriment?

Well put, @Soontobe60 .

As regulations stand, deferred children can legally leave school at the end of Yr10. A year before their GCSEs.

All of that is true if they start a year later too.

We're not talking about children being 10 years old and starting reception. At MOST they're starting within a few months - and the vast majority within a few weeks or even days - of children born in the September. Who have all these 'advantages' that no one bats an eyelid about.

The reason I know it is 15 is they all go to the same playgroup my son goes too. From what I heard one was deferring original and the number then went up and up. Two have decided over the last few days they are going to defer. ( we are all on a group chat ). My eldest DC is born August and was more than ready for school. It my youngest who was due end of June but born in March who who I am concerned about.

I didn’t defer my eldest as I knew he would be bored.

You can legally hold him out of school until the term after he turns 5 though, so you could send him after Easter. If you don’t think he’s ready I would do that rather than send him in September. My mum did this with me many moons ago and people said I’d never catch up but I did (arrived academically ahead as I could read) and socially my mum knew I wasn’t ready yet so didn’t send me until the summer term.

Unfortunately SEN support is a bit of a mixed bag. I felt I had no choice but to delay my child’s start, for various reasons. It’s not a decision I took lightly.

There were still 2 intakes when DS was little so he was sent at Easter and was very young and had just hit 5. DH and I are Summer born with him being very late. They didn’t have deferrals when we were young at all and we both did very well academically, DH has a PhD. When did people start freaking out about summer borns and when did deferrals start?

This may be an option. The worrying thing is that the ones being deferred mainly seem confident and academically well ahead of my DC. I would prefer if the system went on the individual child not on when they were born. They do that in other European countries.

Social contagion and FOMO - can’t have someone else’s kid getting a benefit mine might not.

This is why it needs a harder rule, not just because middle class mummies think it’s a nice thing to do to ensure their kid is a step ahead.

It doesn’t have to be a formal competition for children to compare themselves to each other, or to notice that some children have more advanced physical or language skills. Sometimes, the difference can be significant even within a year so it makes no sense to increase the gap between the most and least developed within a class more than it already is.

You are correct that parental influences will have the biggest effect on children’s outcomes, but that doesn’t mean state provided services should be contributing to the divide between parents who can play the system and those who can’t.

The knock on effect is some children being over a year older than others when it comes to doing GCSE’s, A levels and applying for university when they are in competition with each other and it is not right for some to be given an advantage by the education system when it does have a detrimental effect on others.

Indeed. I have a June birthday, my best friend at school end of August - and we still topped our respective (different primary schools) classes, got great exam results and went to good universities. I think too many parents wrongly think there will be issues for their children. Deferring wasn't a thing when I was a child, nor for most of my teaching career.

Some children are always going to be the oldest and some the youngest.

As a reception teacher, there’s a real trend for parents to be incredibly over cautious and mollycoddling of their children. Before my new class have even started I’ve noticed at least 4 sets of parents who are going to struggle with their child starting school. I’d be interested to know the reasons for all of these deferrals.

Your son will come on leaps and bounds over the next year though emotionally and the academics aren’t the critical thing here, but his social and emotional readiness for school.

Though invested parents make a world of difference there is the genetic material in the first place.

He’s not summer born! I was born in May, went to grammar school and have got a Masters. At this rate, anyone born after 1st Jan will be held back.

I think it should work both ways. One of mine was Christmas born, very bright and mature with most friends in the year above. I wish they could have moved up a year.

My eldest was late August and absolutely thrived (despite some SEN) - I actually didn't worry about him at all through primary (although it was a close run thing having him toilet trained enough!) - it's later in secondary that I actually see the difference in the youngest and the oldest kids (I live in Ireland, where there can be 2 years between the oldest and the youngest in the class - and he's the very youngest) - especially as he heads into senior cycle, he'll be the last driving, won't be able to go for the celebratory drinks after exams - and whilst yes, my parent head says 'good, those things can be trouble' my other head feels sorry that by the time he reaches all those milestones, all the other young adults will have had that freedom for months.

Yes, I feel the same about my August born.

Shes only just about to turn 5, but I have adult children and she won’t have a much fun after A levels etc.

I had it the other way. I was a year ahead at school (rural school in the 80s, not sure how it happened, I was quite clever and when they school expanded from 2 classes for the whole school to one class per year when I was 6, I was put in the year above for some reason).

I wasn’t allowed to go to secondary school with the rest of my class, so I had to stay at primary and repeat year 6. I went from a really clever kid, to one that was bored shitless, unmotivated, did nothing for a year but help the teacher sort books, hated school and completely disengaged, which continued until I left school.

I know my August born would have got bored if held back. They are all so differnt though. My March born struggled to walk and reach any milestones. I feel for him starting school with all the ones who have been held back . The crazy thing is he was due in June and been born a couple of days later I could have deferred him! One of the ones being defered was born 2. April. I total understand cut off days etc. I just wish they looked at the child and not the DOB

There are statistics showing summer borns do perform more poorly in GCSEs. Hence the option to defer was introduced - it wasn't on a whim.

You can argue around this all day saying 'they catch up', 'I was top of my class', but the data just doesn't reflect that.

If I know this, why would I purposely disadvantage my child by choosing not to defer?

It's down to parental choice right now - so not all are being deffered. Parents are looking at their children and making a choice based on their best interests - surely a good thing.

As PPs have said March children are older when they start anyway. I don't think it's being 'the youngest' that causes the disadvantage, it's being under 4.5 and starting school?