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#

I have spoken to the pre-schools staff about my concerns with DS going to school so young (4 and 5 days!!!) They promised me they will asess him before he is due to go into reception and if they think he is not quite ready, either socially or academically, they will recommend that he does another term (or however much is needed) in pre-shcool.
That should reassure me but it doesn't :(

Thank God that my DD2 born 25th of September, but my best friend DS2 was born 25th of July.

DD1, born in July, is only in Year 1, but tries so hard because she is younger. I don't know if that's a factor or not?

It really is a mixture of feedback.
DS is a July born, excellent accademic record so far, but emotionally immature, is now in year 4, behaviour was a problem at Nursery School, but no complaints whatsoever from School during R - Yr 3; now in current year Teacher is already complaining about behaviour; slight decline in achievement as well. Does not seem to take anything seriously these days, except playing of course.
Should we start worrying and seeking help?

.

Check out this article which suggests the opposite is true...

www.nytimes.com/2011/09/25/opinion/sunday/dont-delay-your-kindergartners-start.html?_r=1

MsBrian - you could move to Scotland, where your child would be one of the oldest in his year.

Hmmm.... all I know about Scotland is that there are castles, Balamory and bad weather. And men in skirts. Not sure I'm prepare to swap Surrey for all that, as much as I adore DS ;)

<a class="break-all" href="http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?q=croydon&num=10&um=1&hl=en&biw=1072&bih=920&tbm=isch&tbnid=lv-lokA9awQZZM:&imgrefurl=daylightgalleries.com/page32.htm&docid=GmEvVQls1l_rBM&imgurl=www.daylightgalleries.com/USERIMAGES/11%252520Croydon.jpg&w=900&h=598&ei=hz2xTv6sI4ba8APc4620AQ&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=544&vpy=391&dur=432&hovh=154&hovw=205&tx=128&ty=78&sig=104953708345223978255&sqi=2&page=1&tbnh=154&tbnw=205&start=0&ndsp=16&ved=1t:429,r:6,s:0" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">compare and <a class="break-all" href="http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?q=edinburgh&num=10&um=1&hl=en&biw=1072&bih=920&tbm=isch&tbnid=2PdHRAI_3h1CkM:&imgrefurl=www.youthmusictheatreuk.org/get_involved/summerskills_detail/super_teen_edinburgh/&docid=4PErYcEfsOe7aM&imgurl=www.youthmusictheatreuk.org/images/uploads/images/Edinburgh_1.jpg&w=652&h=475&ei=pT2xTuf9PJG38gPxrLSlAQ&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=577&vpy=370&dur=536&hovh=192&hovw=263&tx=119&ty=106&sig=104953708345223978255&sqi=2&page=1&tbnh=161&tbnw=215&start=0&ndsp=16&ved=1t:429,r:6,s:0" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">contrast, you crazy woman.

Though having said that, we are contemplating the reverse move, in part because ds2 is a late Jan birthday and thus one of the babies in his class.

OMG Edinburgh is sooooo beautiful! I think I knew that but had forgotten . Must go there next summer.
Thankfully I don't live in Croydon, I live in a really really lovely place in Surrey.
Sorry for the hijack. As you were.

MsBrian - you could go anywhere else in Europe, and he would get another 2 years.

I know, I know.... just seems so drastic.... I do love the UK in some many other respects!

I would'nt worry too much about it. My daughter was born 2 weeks early on 28th Aug, she is now a 5th year medical student at a Russell Group uni and in the top quarter of her year.

Even though I was born at the end of July and excelled at school from the start, I was obsessed with not having an August baby (DD born 7th Sept) which is absurd.

I'm a secondary English teacher and there definitely are a few more summer birthday kids in the KS4 bottom sets in my school (I checked to see if my own experience bore out the theory before I got pg; see, obsessed!)

There are also a lot more kids from deprived backgrounds in the bottom sets and that has much more to do with academic achievement than birth date. Perhaps the high achieving summer DCs on this thread are like me and lucky enough to come from more privileged backgrounds and have parents who are engaged in their education.

Both of mine struggled and DD still is in infants but in Year 7 DS now top of top stream. He has caught up and exceeded due to hard work and lots of support. Still lacks confidence in sport and tiny for his age though. Both achieved 2s at the end of Year 2 and DS went on to get 5s at the end of Year 6 and is considered an added value boy although the obvious thing to me is that he just matured.

gybegirl - I don't agree. It's true, children learn an enourmous amount in the first 6 years of their lives, but they learn best by being encouraged in things they show an interest in. Chatting, reading to them, playing ball, board games, building, drawing ... However, I feel a good number of 4 year olds are wasting their time trying to blend letters and add numbers, if they could be enhancing their language skills by being told stories and re-enacting them in play or counting and sharing their sweets/grapes amongst their friends etc... I just don't see why they need to read at that age.

In most scandinavian countries children don't start reading and writing (formal learning) until age 7, although some are taught to read but only if they want to learn. Children there seem to view school more positively than in the UK and are by no means behind by the time they are in secondary education. There used to be a lovely film on TeachersTV about Kindergarten in Sweden (not sure if it's still there).

MsBrian and the person who posted the NY Times article, although the 'summer-born' phenomenon is well-known, people disagree what this means in terms of early/delayed start.

Some people think it's actually better for them go to early, so as to have the same amount of exposure to teaching in the same year as their peers (rather than only have one term in Reception when the others have two). The intervention might be for the teacher to split the class and be aware of the summer-borns and not judge them initially without taking into account their age (e.g. not be so keen to diagnose SN in what is developmentally normal behaviour).

So, you don't have to conclude that if you have a summer-born you would be better off delaying school, but rather schools need to be aware and make compensation for the different levels of maturity and achievement early on and not assume some children are brighter/stronger/more mature when they are just older.

I think most of the parents on these threads have DCs who will not stay at the bottom, even if they are young at infants, because they get support/are pushed along.

But I fear they may lose the love of learning and always have to be 'pushed along' and I can just hope it will come again for my DS (6) who, e.g. will read fine if he must and I make him, but he will not read anything else, he walks off.

Just read back what I wrote and I certainly did NOT mean that any struggling summer born kids are struggling due to lack of parental input. My comment was clumsily put and the only point I was trying to make was that privilege is, statistically speaking, a greater factor in achievement than anything else.

hardgoing - Yes, I think they do in reception and also in Y1 a little bit, but at the end of the day schools/teachers have targets and SATS in Y2, when DCs are only just 6 years old and the pressure is on to get them to achieve. My DS has felt it this term and has played up in school, now after 1/2 term he seems to be fine - so far. I am worried!

feralgirl - yes, but deprivation is another can of worms better not opened here.

I used to work with 16-18 year olds who had dropped out of school/finished school with few or no qualifications, and hadn't gone on to 6th form, college or training. ie the ones destined to be the underclass. Within a short time, I noticed that on average 80% in a group of 12 would be a July/August born. It really shocked me to be honest. BUT I do think that there were always the added factors that these teens on the whole came from poorer or broken families and their parents were generally low educated.

I'm not surprised by the findings. But I think if children have the support of their parents, an expected achievement and also motivated to learn then they will succeed.

I think it is better to assume your child would be an underachiever in the early years and give them support and therefore I completely agree with the report based on my experience but you and the dcs can overcome this. I hope schools also recognise this and do not write kids off who are just young. The work needs to be done in the early years though. By the time they get to secondary school they may have already been turned off.

Having looked at our employee records here. Very sad i know. Most of the higher achievers are April or October. Don't know why. More of the lower paid are July. Sorry this is anecdotal but does back up the report. I am keen to prevent my DCs having a poor outcome due to their birth date and ironically many teachers I know plan their kids to September/October so they obviously have seen it. Hard work counts though!

losingtrust - but do they need to read and write aged 4? I would rather teach good language and social skills at that age.

I used to be a teacher but never ever thought of it when trying for a baby.