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

[Penny779]

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

Indeed I was saying that. My friend is about 12 hours younger than me. We always used to joke about me being older, despite it making no real difference.

In my year at school, there was a child with a 31st August birthday and one with a 1st Sept birthday! Mad that they were basically a year apart. I think differences would have been more obvious in Reception and Year One than later on in our school career.

So, there might be one or two a couple of weeks younger, but some eleven months older. Yeah, OP, that’s bonkers.

It’s fine and no reason to hold back a year but they will be one of the youngest and the vast majority of the cohort will be older. Both are true.

Of course they’ll be pretty much the youngest in the class. What a strange thing to say.

One local school keep the youngest 8 “back” in reception when they’re in year 1. Intake of 22 and 30 to a class. DS is July born and I asked about this in practice. To get 8 youngsters they have sometimes gone back as early as April borns. We chose a different school.

My ds is 27th Aug currently in reception. I was worried about him being left behind but he’s actually in the top set for phonics and reading.

Of course a kid born 4th August is going to be one of the youngest in the year. Think there’s only 3 others in my son’s year (70 kids in total) who are August born.

My child’s birthday is 15th August. They were second youngest in their year in primary, and the youngest in their year in seniors out of 180 kids until year 10 when a new kid joined who is a few days younger. My dc was quite annoyed about that!

What's important to you about this?

My August born never felt behind or different - and she wasn’t. Brighter than most who were older. We never made an issue of it and school never mentioned it. Why would they? She could do as much as the others and certainly was confident. Never sporty but we aren’t an especially sporty family. Genetics mean something! She’s more musical. DH is late August birthday and he definitely was not a candidate for holding back.

Of course it can be noticeable but now dc start school at the same time (DH and me had 1 term in YR) they can certainly “catch up” quickly. DD was reading well by end of YR after a January start. Some September starts were still struggling. Intelligence has something to do with it. I think lots of “evidence” goes years back when Sept starts for everyone weren’t the norm. Some schools even had their summer borns in as late at Whitsun half term! No wonder they struggled.

Of course they will be one of the youngest? Statistically they are very likely to be in the bottom 5-10% of the year. This is one of the strangest AIBU that I’ve seen.

Why do you feel like this could be an opinion and how are you so invested in countering this fact that you have gone out of your way to pose it to AIBU?

Surely it depends when they start school? They may be the youngest or one of the eldest . Who cares

Lol. My eldest's birthday is in September. She's nearly a full year older than her August classmates.

Well of course they are young, it’s just like saying an end of Sept isn’t that old for the year 😂🙈
My DD is an Aug baby, 28th, however that doesn’t mean that any other August babies are significantly younger than her…. All their peers are still some 11 months older than them!

My son is an early ish August birthday. Both he and my daughter had children (oddly also siblings) with 1/2 Sept birthdays. So very nearly a whole year older.

YABU

My son is 14th August and he is the youngest

my eldest is June and he’s one of the youngest think there’s only 5/6 kids after him

Of course they are!

They are very young. So much so friend who’s dd was similar age had to have the school uniform made for her as non would fit.

Only a couple of weeks before starting school she had been a 3 year old.
You can’t get school uniform for age 3

Even the smallest size skirt was trailing on the floor.
DS had problems getting trousers to fit him. For some reason boys uniform was made for a chunky and very tall 4 year old boy and DS was neither chunky, or tall or 4 years old when we went shopping for his uniform

I was born 16 August…and still consistently performed in the top echelon of my year. I didn’t have tutors (though I did have a bit of helicopter/tiger cross mum 😂). I had friends in the year below and my best friends were in my year, but with Sept/Oct birthdays so nearly a year older than me. None of us really saw a difference, either in academic performance or interpersonal skills. I often think that ‘XYZ is disadvantaged because they’re younger than some of the others in their year’ is a bit of a cop out - it’s an excuse, really. In my year, abilities were spread across all birth months.

Of course they’ll be one of the very youngest. Mine is the 18th and 2nd youngest!

There could be 29 kids younger than them, sure. But it is far, far more likely that there will be 29 older than them

What a nonsense thread

Mine is 28th August. She’s 5 and in year one.

It’s no issue for her academically or socially. But she’s the youngest in her class by 3 months. And she’s the youngest in her year in the borough (dh works for the LA in education and her name came up in a meeting, he was like,” yeah, that one’s mine!” So that’s how we know).

They are objectively very young in the English school year. 3 weeks is hardly a long time.

My dd is the same. Top groups for everything and her reception and now year one teachers have both said you’d never know she was the youngest, you’d think she was one of the oldest.

Being the youngest doesn’t mean much for a lot of children. They are all different.

My son is October born and he struggled.

My DD was born at the end of June and is the youngest and smallest child in her class, out of 30, there’s one other child who doesn’t tower over her.

But she’s happy, thriving and gradually catching up to the barely older kids, some of which are actually behind her in reading and verbal communication (reception year).