Are your summer born children under achievers or high flyers?

[whoknowswho]

An article in the telegraph suggests August born children struggle at school by the age of seven and are more likely to take vocational quals than go to a top uni . My very late august born DD is thriving at school (Y2) top of the class and loving it but she's still very young so this could all change I guess. What are your summer born children like?www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/8860219/Summer-born-children-less-likely-to-attend-top-universities.html#

One of my summer-born dc got 11 A at GCSE and is predicted 4 A/A at AS level, is that the kind of thing you mean?

I wouldn't fret, those sorts of statistics are only meaningful on a population level, they're not predictive at the individual level.

My DD was born end of July. She has got into all the top sets at Secondary School. All the way through Primary she was told she wouldn't do as well as other children, because of when she was born, despite being in top sets there as well!

I think if she is ahead and happy at this stage, you have nothing to worry about. Some kids just don't seem ready for school when they start, and quickly lose confidence and get into bad patterns. Others are ready a year ahead; there's no rule to it. We have two very young in their year, and it has never been a problem because they were early readers and good at maths.

Typical Telegraph scare-mongering journalism.
I have a June-born boy who is quite emotionally immature; he wouldn't be any more mature with a November birthday, though. Quite high ability on the academic front, though.

DH got a first at Uni in an engineering subject, also has a June birthday.

DD1 is an August baby. She is in Y1 and her teacher says she is doing really well. Her reading level us one of the best in the class and she is generally thriving academically. Socially I think she was a bit behind but is catching up. In reception she didn't really get the idea of friends and just liked to play in her own imaginary world.

I am summer born and get a First at uni.

DD is July born and her best friend was born at the end of August. Both got level 5s in their year 6 SATS and have been placed in the top sets in year 7.

I think it depends entirely on the child.

who -don't go looking for trouble!

But a tiny caveat I might slip quietly in: that being almost a year younger than the older DCs in a class can come home to roost in later secondary.

I was Miss Clever Clogs to the extent I was sitting behind the desk of a grammar school aged 10yrs 8 months. My best friend from primary was also there, aged 10.11mo. She bombed badly at 15 after a life, up til then, of glittering prizes. I didn't crash'n'burn to quite that extent but I so recognise that I would have done considerably better at school if I'd had the advantage of that year's maturity. Of course, in your case, we're not talking more than 12 months - your DC is at least 'in year', but even so be aware that the older DCs naturally 'grow up' sooner, on average, than the younger ones. Your DC might be 'lucky' and also mature amongst the fastest, but if they don't, sadly, 'clever' can be a bit eclipsed by 'confused'.

So it's important not be be complacent, or even crow about the August baby who's now top of the school at 10....

both my dcs are summer and a grade gcse students - dd was born nearly 4 weeks early on aug 29th too

summer babies

DD2 is a January baby (Scotland, cut-off is end of Feb, and some kids are held back, so she's one of the youngest) and is now 11. She's definitely a high flyer :) She's also somewhat immature mind you, but I think that's partly her personality.

My 11yo August baby did fine in the earlier years (nursery, kinder, first years of primary) but not so well there after.

It started to feel like he was trying to fit windows in a house that had lumps, bumps and holes in the foundation.

Two years HE sorted out the foundation, but I noticed that concepts "clicking" for him happened a good six to 12 months after they were introduced, lots of revisiting notwithstanding.

He is back in school, but for reasons more complicated than his borthday it is not going well, so next year he is going to Inter High and we'll put him back a year and let him float up a year group if and when needed.

I think being one of them youngest can be A factor to watch out for, but as others have pointed put being one of the oldest is ot wothout its pote tial pitfalls either. And any issues are probably more multifaceted than just age alone when you look at any individual child.

When I was at Oxford it was noticable between those I knew that there was a high predominance of autumn term birthdays. Before conclusions are leapt to though, a significant fraction of those had at some point (or in some cases had started) been moved a year ahead so were even younger than the summer birthdays.

I wonder whether there could be something to do with the time of year when born rather than schooling and maybe we'd find if we moved the start of the year to, say, Easter whether they'd still do better? Perhaps people are more inclined to do "academic stetching" activities with their babies in the winter, spending time outside in the summer, and the fastest learning time coincides with winter for autumn babies or something??? Just a different idea?

DeWe- interesting theory!

I also recall reading somewhere that something huge like 75% of Oxbridge entrants are born between Sept and Dec. To me it stands to reason as these DCs have up to a year's more brain development 'on board' when compared to their late summer born peers. And that's not just 'academic' development, it's maturity and social development which, as I mentioned before, is so important in maintaining 'keeping up'!

Apparently summer born children are less likely to be successful sports people (ie professionals) because they get discouraged when they start in reception as at 4 and a bit, however sporty they are they are still not as big, strong, fast etc as the ones who had just turned 5.

They did a survey of top UK sportspeople and it was quite noticeable how many of them had birthdays between Sept and Feb, apparently. Of course there are always going to be exceptions.

Not my DCs, but my birthday is end August.

I was consistently top of my class, got good degree from Russell Group uni, and am qualified chartered accountant.

That is probably a mediocre performance by some standards but at least I didn't end up stacking shelves at Tesco.

Ignore this rubbish, children are individuals, not statistics.

My DD is summer-born as are two of her friends - one a boy, the other a girl. They are all at secondary school. All 3 are high-flyers.

DH was effectively a summer-born (in Dec in NZ system) and acheived well.

I think achievement has a lot more to do with things other than whether the child is summer-born.

OP How do you know your child is top of the class? Have you been told? Or are you assuming?

I was Sept born, put was a year ahead in school, i.e younger than the summer borns...but I did pretty well and went to one of the top unis in the UK. My parents were both academically bright though, so could be genes, or how they helped me with my school work (they were not pushy though).
My DD is end of Aug born, and I hope she won't suffer for it.
My DH is a secondary school science teather and he says he's never noticed any variation on the kids birthdays and none of other collegues have mentioned this issue.

Surely the point of statistics is to show what is happening overall, not to predict what any one child can do. And so the fact that some summer born children excel does not change the fact that August born children acheive less that September born.

As the mum of a september born ds (yr4) and an august born ds (yr3) I have seen a big difference in expectation at school, and how it feeds into the childrens self-image. Ds has never had a problem with anything and is in all the top groups. Ds is top group for maths, but mid groups for literacy. I put this down to slower motor skills for writing, and low teacher expectations ( even by yr1 teacher did not expect legible writing).

He knows he's not a 'star' in school like his sister even when he makes good progress. I'm hoping he can catch up, but don't know how realistic this is.

I wish studies like this gave rise to ideas for school to help the younger children, as they are currently disadvantaged, but Im not aware of any programs to do this.

I was summer born and an academic high-flyer. I made it all the way to my 2:1 from Cambridge and then totally burned out. I now have no idea what to do with myself, but I suspect it has nothing at all to do with being summer born.

The most successful friend I graduated with was December born, the academic year after the rest of us, more than a year younger than the oldest in our year group.

They said on the Beeb this am that the summer babies that do go on to university often outperform the others, as they have to be naturally very bright to have done so well

I am an August child, and did very well at school. Was one of only 2 out of 60 in my primary to pass the 11+. Did my Maths GCSE a year early and got an A, a further 8 A*/As (and B in science!) a year later. Am now a data analyst and very academic.

DS1 is August too. He completed the foundation stage profile at the end of July, and is definitely keeping up with his peers in the classroom. He is very bright with maths (like his mum!) and at 5 can already do a lot of things some of his classmates cant (he often wins the maths games for example). I have no worries with him being August born academically. Emotionally is slightly different - but he is being investigated for Aspergers which could explain that gap.

June born DD 3 A*s and 2As at A level and now at university so I don't think being one of the younger ones in the class has harmed her too much!!

I have a late August born girl and to be honest she does struggle accademically. I think the expectation thing is a big issue and because dd (now 7) was treated as the baby of the school when she started and people let her off things in class because she was so young, she now lives down to expectations. Her response to a difficult task is to say she cannot do it rather than try to work it out. We do not really know how to deal with this either.

The statistics are very telling esp with sporting achievement and I know that three times as many Autumn born kids are diagnosed as G&T than summer born ones.
However, they are only one of so many variables. I'd have thought that anybody with a parent on an education message board who reads reports about achievement has probably got an enormous headstart on the vast majority of kids, whenever they're born. The biggest indicator of academic achievement is the academic qualifications of the mother which I'm guessing far outweighs birth dates.
Second however though - I think this sort of study is really useful in helping educators to examine the way that they label children and to act accordingly. Eg football coaches should compare children against their peers not the ones who may be 11 months older, primaries should resist setting at an early age etc.

And fwiw I'm late August and did as well academically as it's possible to do, but I'm not sure this was evident at 10/11 so I don't think the grammar system would have served me well.
I have a daughter born late summer and I thank god she wasn't born a week later as she's deeply competitive and needs others to aspire towards.