Children born on 31st August

[SoozQ]

Hi! My youngest son was born early on 31st August which as many of you will know is the cut off date for school applications. He will be the absolute youngest in his year and we have applied to the local authority to ask if he could start his school career in reception just after his 5th birthday, ie he would be the oldest rather than the youngest. They have not been very helpful and have said he could start then, but he would have to join year 1 which defeats the whole purpose and would put him at a further disadvantage, not just as the youngest in the class but also having missed the first year of school! He is simply not ready for school this year and we are convinced it would be in his long term best interests for him to start next September...Does anyone have any examples of education authorities who have allowed this? If he was born literally a few hours later he would have been starting next year anyway!!! Any advice most welcome, thank you!

My DS birthday is the 21st of August and will be starting school this September.
I am also in Ireland Margot and my DS will start school the week after his fourth birthday....he wont be anywhere near 4 years and 4 months that you mentioned.
I think he's ready. To keep him back would be unfair to him as he loves learning and is very capable academically. It will also save me the fortune that I pay out in pre school fees every month!

There was a long thread on this started by Lingle, because until recently (this year, I think) Bradford LEA was allowing deferrals for summer-born children. I'm rushing out so can't look for it now.

I think lots of children would benefit from the chance to start in the year below or indeed the year above, and I think flexibility around the cut-off would be great. My Y3 31st August son is in absolutely the right year group for him academically, but physically and emotionally it has been tough at times; I have a Y6 August-born boy too, who has really only started performing to his ability in the last couple of years.

That's great if he's ready Kidcreole! I know what you mean because my dc1 was the same, in her case it would have been UNfair to keep her back. I know what you mean about the money issue too. In a perfect world my son would start school at 4 and a half and I could get on with my own plans. Oh well....

All the schools I know of insist children have turned four by the June of the year they are due to start, so you are lucky in your school. Funny how it varies.

There doesn't have to be a cut off.

In NZ you usually start on your fifth birthday though can wait until you are six.

At the end of that academic year it is decided who'll stay in that class (usually those who've been in it for six months or less) and who'll go up to the next class (usually those who've been in it for more than six months).

None of the kids are really aware of being "held back" so to speak, as half the class is (some of whom may have only attended for a few weeks before the summer holidays). Equally younger kids who are very advanced or mature can move up "ahead" of schedule.

I am sure there are downsides to the NZ system too (such as a constant flow of newcomers perhaps?) but it does seem gentler than the system here.

DD1 is 31st August, and in Ireland she started the day after her 5th birthday rather than her 4th birthday. At one point we were in England for a term and she wasn't allowed to stay in the class she would have been in in Ireland, the rule was enforced so that she was with an older year group. I can see the benefit of 'the rule' as there is a lot of hassle in Ireland, childrn kept back a year, and the syllabus is 'too young' for them when they are well over 5 starting school. (Ds came off worse with the English experience, he had to do SATS!)

I doubt the syllabus will be too young for my son!!

He gets automatic exemption from learning gaelic, which I'm pleased about because it makes sense, he hasn't got to grips with English yet!! But I remember from school myself, if a child was excused Irish, it was like a beacon over their head, flashing; advertising the fact they weren't very clever. Or this was what we thought. This was before we were all familiar with the correct labels. In about 1979 a child wasn't able to say "fuck off you wanxer I am not stupid I have dyspraxia!!" becuase he didn't know it himself very likely.

I should stop worrying about this though. I need to slow down and take things one step at a time.

Sorry I've hi-jacked this thread so far off course.

The Irish syllabus was redesigned for children aged 5 in the year they start school. I found it 'babyish', nursery rhyme books and extra colouring when dd2 went through it. The age for starting seemed to be getting older every year as my 3 went to school. DD2 had a boy in her class who was a year and a day older than her - December birthdays!

I'm an August baby too and was always the youngest. I never felt at a disadvantage throughout any of my educataion, it all irons itself out in the end. Send him at 4, he will be fine.

You could always have him do just mornings for the year. Then it wouldnt be so different to pre-school but he wont have missed out on making friends.

As someone working in the education system, as a primary school teacher for 8 years then as a deputy head and soon to be a head ? I don?t think anyone has the right to say ?prepare him, he will be fine?. Pushing a child into read or writing too early has been proved over and over again to be detrimental in the long run, and can, in itself, create emotional problems. Time and time again I have seen children thinking of themselves as a failure because they have (subconsciously) compared themselves to their peers, found themselves wanting (at that time) which has created a cycle of negative feedback. Simply advising someone to ?teach him self help skills? is simplistic, somewhat patronising and completely misses the point. Some children ? particularly ?right brained? boys ? need longer to play and explore ? it?s a biological fact - without being ?forced? into learning this skill or that skill ? and that includes getting his coat on!It is also not a matter of just doing morning or a bit here and a bit there - the fact of the matter is, some kids just need to stay OUT of formal education for a bit longer. They need to stay out of unrealistic expectations - nobody would judge a 2 year old who was not yet able to sit on a chair and listen passively, because many would accept that he is not ready for this. Why can ANYONE in the make the same assumptions about 4 year olds? children are individuals! Most of the rest of the world seems to agree. I offer my sincere congratulations all those mums-netters born in august who have flourished, I wonder what the results of a proper survey would be on a ?dad?s net? site?.? I?d suggest you fight the LA tooth and nail, and wish you all the luck ? LAs vary in their ability to cave into parental choice ? it?s a lottery, I?m afraid.

Good luck.

Thank you to all for your responses, but particularly to 'greyhair' whose message gave me great encouragement. Have to say with all that have read on the subject, all the research seems to totally support the fact that the majority, (there are always the exceptions) of summer born children, particularly boys, do struggle and this goes on for some years....My son, should have been born at the end of September, and I am struggling with the fact that we live in a country where policies are so rigid, yet we hear the government rhetoric, 'every child matters' etc. I will not give up and here's hoping the LEA do finally give in to our request, for the sake of a few hours, he would have been starting a whole year later anyway!! Here's hoping....

One of the children I teach is 12, is about 3 ft 10 tall and looks 9 at a pinch. I recently found out that he was born 12 weeks prematurely in August. So he should have been in the year below, but actually forced to keep up with his supposed year group. He is delicate as well as small, and year 7 was a trial for him to put it mildly. His parents unsurprisingly decided to put him in private prep school after a term, where he is in a class of 9-13 yr olds and feels entirely settled.

No, I do not think it necessarily useful to 'compare' experience, however, I was explaining my understanding of the world of education to the lady who posted, with the thought that it may be of use to her.

i can assure you I am more than familiar with the foundation stage profile, however, IMHO this is not what this member was talking about. I am talking about the education system as a whole. The policies that drive it and its inadequacies. If everyone lies down and accepts the status quo, then the world is a sadder, and a more tired place. My staff are more than capable of accommodating an early starter, however, they can see the bigger picture, that is, the inadequecies of the early years system. This poster seems to illustrate these inadequecies. And if you believe that all schools with the pressure of ofsted upon them do NOT 'push' children into reading and writing before they are ready, whether it be in year R, year 1 or year 2 (they've usually failed by year 3), then you are naive in the extreme.

You sound like you have a sound understanding of children and their needs, however, sadly, all teachers - and it worries me how many - are not like you, and lack this awareness. However, I am aware that this is not the place for this discussion, I do not want to take over this thread.

If they do allow your DS to start school when he's five I'd enquire as to what year he would be in as I suspect they'd try to put him in yr1 plus if they do allow him to start a year later in reception will he still have to transfer to High School with the yr6 class he should have been in and so miss out on yr6 work?

My DD is August born to, I remember a conversation with her rec teacher stating that DD showed no inclination to want to learn to read I had to stop myself from saying if she was 2 weeks younger we'd not be having this conversation at all. As it was DD decided she'd do this reading thing with in weeks of being in Yr1 by the end of yr1 she was at a similar level to the others in her class.

Unless we could have some Utopian ideal of children starting when they were "ready" thre will always be a cut-off point. Which is incredibly harsh for those born 31st August, but then surely if there is leniency for the last week of August, will not the same argument be there for children born on 23rd August, and so on?

As an aside, does anyone know what would happen to twins? There was a lady last year in this country who had twins either side of midnight on August 31st - so in theory they should be in 2 different school years!

DH has a 31st August birthday and found being the youngest to achieve certain things to bean advantage in life. DS1's birthday is 1st August and his entire school career was a nightmare of being fobbed off with "never mind, he's young and he's a boy", so much so that he wasn't identified as dyslexic until he was 11. It was only when we arrived in Australia and he went back a year because of the different system that he started to thrive. That was Y8 and he is now doing well in Y10. DD on the other hand started school 6 weeks ago the week before her 6th birthday. She is absolutely thriving and I am so pleased she got the extra time to play at pre-school. Everyone's experience is different and I think it's a disgrace that the UK system overrides parental choice, but in terms of practical advice I'm afraid I can offer little but sympathy. Your child might be one of the ones who copes ok - my best tip would be to keep a very close eye on what is happening and intervene sooner rather than later if it's all going pear shaped. Good luck.

my dcs are both August-borns - and were both premature for that matter.

It is a constant annoyance, as you can see that the older children in the year have a big advantage.

But you just have to get over it. I have beaten my breast and moaned and complained, but you have to have a cut-off point, or else it would be out of control. I heard someone saying that their dd was "one of the young ones" and she was born in April! So if the August children were allowed to start later, then the July ones would insist on doing the same, then the June etc etc etc and it would all be dogs chasing their tails in order to avoid being the youngest.

And they do even out. Like magentadreamer's dd, my dd refused to have anything to do with reading in Reception. Her teacher said that it was fine, not to worry, she'd do it when she was ready. Half way through Year 1 and she's the best reader in the class.

Bradford LEA does allow summer borns to defer and start reception in the Sept after their 5th birthday. My son is 4 on 4th Aug and we are going to defer him to start Sept 2010 when he 5. Bradford have been in consultation to change this however from 2011 in light of the Rose interim report findings.