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AIBU?

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Original poster

To think a child born on the 5th august isn’t that young for their school year

208 replies

Penny779 · 15/02/2026 16:36

As there are still three weeks left of the academic year so still could be many children much younher

OP posts:
imnotwhoyouthinkiam · 15/02/2026 16:45

Of course that makes them young in the year. Its unlikely there'll be many children born after them in their year group.

DS1 was born 21st Aug. He was the youngest in his year at primary, and as far as we knew, the 2nd youngest at secondary.

I was born on 31st August. I was the youngest at primary, 2nd youngest at secondary!

Pigletin · 15/02/2026 16:46

Mine was born on 5 August, the youngest in the year group. She started school at CSA at just turned five. Best decision ever.

ThiagoJones · 15/02/2026 16:46

Well statistically there aren’t going to be many out of a standard class of 30 born in the following 3 weeks. In my DS’s current class it would put them 2nd youngest (the youngest has a birthday of August 15th).

QuickBlueKoala · 15/02/2026 16:46

My son us march born and the youngest in tbe year…. pretty much all june/july/August borns are deferred in our area.
Took me a while to figure out tgat all these amazing june/July/august borns in his year are actually quite a bit older than him, not younger….

Ohthatsabitshit · 15/02/2026 16:47

Mines an adult now and was born more than ten days later in august than yours @Penny779 and was never the youngest in year or class.

FrodoBiggins · 15/02/2026 16:48

Not "many children much younger". A handful of children a week or two younger maybe.

5th August is 339 days into the 365 of the school year (starting with Sept), 26 days before the end.
336÷365×100= 92%
So 92% of the year will be born before 5 Aug assuming an even distribution of bdays.
In a class of 30, maybe one will be younger.
In a year of 150, 10-11 pupils will be younger.

But I think actually there's way more born in Sept than Aug cos people plan for babies in Sept/Oct to avoid this very issue so yes, 5 Aug will be one of the youngest if not the youngest.

sunflower85 · 15/02/2026 16:50

Depends where you live, in the part of the U.K. I live in, a child born in August would be one of the oldest in the class.

Drdogooder · 15/02/2026 16:50

They will definitely feel much younger in the year. Seriously consider deferring school for them. It will make a long term difference in school.

SeriousTissues · 15/02/2026 16:50

When my daughter was in primary, there were three August born children in a class of 20.

Smartiepants79 · 15/02/2026 16:51

Of course the August born children will be the youngest in their year, bizarre to think otherwise. There might be one younger but possibly not.

Coffeetimes3 · 15/02/2026 16:51

Don't be silly. They'll obviously be one of the youngest.

gototogo · 15/02/2026 16:52

They are but someone has to be youngest, no big deal. I’m a late august birthday

Nodirectionhome · 15/02/2026 16:52

My DD was born on 4th August. There was a January intake then, so she was 4 years 5 months when she started school. She would have been ready to start in the September though.
My DS was born on 27th August and the January intake was scrapped before he was born.
He was definitely not ready to start school a week after his 4th birthday. The school would not allow us to defer to the next year then.
I was sure he was dyslexic and had learning difficulties but the school were adamant that he was simply lazy and didn't pay attention. (26 years ago). He had an official diagnosis aged 11, soon after starting secondary school. Until then we used coping strategies and I did extra work at home with him to support his literacy. He was supported very well at secondary school.

BananaPeels · 15/02/2026 16:53

My child was early August and out of a class of 27, about 3 were June, 4 were July and 4 were August so 11 out of 27 were summer born babies. Worked out brilliantly for us as the lessons were all skewed to them.

carconcerns · 15/02/2026 16:53

Yabu

QuietLifeNoDrama · 15/02/2026 16:53

The more I read this the more I’m confused by the question. So, you think there could be ‘many children much younger’ born in the last 3 weeks of Aug. This means you consider the age difference of those born in the last 3 weeks of Aug to be pretty significant i.e those DC will be much younger than the one born on 5th Aug but your question seems to imply that age gap between the 5th of Aug and those born in the other 11 months of the year is negligible…?

Barrenfieldoffucks · 15/02/2026 16:53

Wonderknicks · 15/02/2026 16:37

But the vast majority will be older. What an odd thing to say!

Absolutely, my daughter is the 11th August and was the youngest throughout primary...the second youngest now in high school.

There are 12 months in a year, 3 weeks is not that significant!

borntooobewild · 15/02/2026 16:54

I am August born and I cannot remember feeling any different than anyone else in my class.
My son has 2friends both born 31st August and they have sailed through school and Uni . It really isn’t a big deal unless parents make it so.

RandomMice · 15/02/2026 16:54

imnotwhoyouthinkiam · 15/02/2026 16:45

Of course that makes them young in the year. Its unlikely there'll be many children born after them in their year group.

DS1 was born 21st Aug. He was the youngest in his year at primary, and as far as we knew, the 2nd youngest at secondary.

I was born on 31st August. I was the youngest at primary, 2nd youngest at secondary!

Interested - how were you the second youngest with an August 31st birthday?

DirtyGertiefromno30 · 15/02/2026 16:54

Yabu

DontBuyANewMumCashmere · 15/02/2026 16:54

My son and I are both August birthdays.

We may not be the absolute youngest but it's fair to say anyone born in August is 'young for their year' which is what you asked.

imnotwhoyouthinkiam · 15/02/2026 16:55

RandomMice · 15/02/2026 16:54

Interested - how were you the second youngest with an August 31st birthday?

Show quote history

Because my friend was about 12 hours younger Grin

Unpaidviewer · 15/02/2026 16:55

So there's 12 months in a year. I would say that any children who are born in the last 3 month before the cut off are young compared to those born in the first 9 months.

You argue that a child born at the start of August isn't young compared to all the children born in the 11 months before because there could be children even younger. Even though they would only be younger by a few weeks?

I think you need to consider child development here. In the first year especially but really the first 2 years children develop rapidly. You might not see a massive difference in a few weeks. But the difference between 9, 10 or 11 months is huge. When a September born baby has started their lives an August born will not have been conceived. The attainment gap obviously lessens over time but a year is still a massive amount of time in a 4-5 year olds life. 2-3 weeks not so much.

SemperIdem · 15/02/2026 16:58

You surely cannot be this pedantic?

SwishMyCape · 15/02/2026 16:58

You have rolled two questions into one. (Sneaky)

Your first: Is is young for the year? Yes. Obviously.

I asked the AI:

A 4 August baby in the UK has a very high, near-certain probability of being the youngest or among the youngest in their class, as 31 August is the cutoff date for the academic year. In a class of 30, it is highly likely that this child is in the bottom three youngest, often younger by 11–12 months than peers born in September.

Your second question: are they likely to be the youngest? No, apparently only 10.65% likelihood of that.When I pushed the AI to give me the actual probability

The odds (probability) of an August 4 baby being the youngest in a class of 30 is approximately 10.65%.