Guest post: “A later start can be the best thing for many children.”

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My summer-born daughter Olivia is the oldest child in her school year.

Nearly four years ago I told Mumsnet all about our ‘fight’ to start her in reception at age five.

Olivia is now in Year 3 and enjoying school.

But other parents up and down the country are still fighting for the same right, with their children being made to start at age 4 or enter Year 1 at age 5.

This is despite assurances from the Schools Minister Nick Gibb in 2015, that ‘summer-born children can be admitted to the reception class at the age of five if it is in line with their parents’ wishes’, and the promise ‘to ensure that those children are able to remain with that cohort as they progress through school, including through to secondary school.’

A later start can be the best thing for many children. Olivia enjoyed her reception year, but the jump to Year 1 was a bit of a shock and she found some of Year 2 hard. I’m so glad she had that extra year of development behind her to face those challenges.

No one could pick Olivia out in a crowd; she fits in perfectly well with her class cohort and is thriving in Year 3.

Despite all the warnings that she’d be ‘on the wrong register’, be ‘the odd one out’ or ‘have to take her SATs a year early’, we haven’t encountered any problems along the way (although she did receive a birthday card with the wrong age on one year, but that’s about as tricky as it’s got!).

Olivia even thanks me for what I did.

I have always talked about it openly (and proudly) and explained my reasons to her. She tells me that she couldn’t imagine being in Year 4 right now. ‘I’m right where I belong, mummy,’ she says.

The truth is, Olivia knows more about the law than some staff who work in admission departments, and even some school heads. She often corrects adults who tell her she ‘should’ be in Year 4, saying, ‘I could be in Year 4, not should.’

Of course, every child is different. That’s why choice and flexibility is so important (but only if it’s fair for all). Some summer-born children will enjoy school from age four and do very well, while others won’t. Whatever choice parents make should be without judgement.

Every time I read about the summer-born issue it ends in confused debate, so I wanted to finish by debunking a few myths and ensuring everyone knows the facts.

What is the law? Do you know your rights?

The School Admissions Code requires councils to provide schooling for all children in the September following their fourth birthday, but a child does not reach compulsory school age until the term following their fifth birthday.

So, for a summer-born child (defined as born April 1st - August 31st), that’s a whole year later than when they could first enter school.

Here’s where it gets tricky. Summer-born children are still the only group of children who don’t have automatic right of access to reception at that point (compulsory school age); parents can only request that their child starts in reception.

Some admission authorities have a policy of automatically agreeing all requests while others will only consider requests if parents present very strong evidence of special educational needs or developmental delay.

It’s important to know that it’s your decision when your child starts school, whether prior to compulsory school age or at compulsory school age.

The admission authority for the school has to make a year group decision based on the best interests of your child at that point (i.e. compulsory school age). The discussion should not be about ‘school readiness’ or how they can meet your child’s needs at age four.

The question an admission authority must answer is: ‘What is in this child’s best interests at compulsory school age, reception or Year 1?’ It must then clearly explain the reasons for its decision.

Incredibly, it has been nearly four years since Nick Gibb’s assurances and promises, and in that time many children have been forced to miss reception or start school before their parents wanted them to.

There needs to be a consistent approach across the country, and soon.

For further information regarding the admission of summer-born children, please see the Summer Born Campaign website and join its Facebook group.

Rosie will be returning to the post on Wednesday 22nd May to answer some user questions

To an extent I agree but my August born girl is one of the most co-ordinated in her nursery class and is confident to the point of cockiness. In fact would probably outrun a good proportion of the reception class already.

Sport wise most non school sport is 1st Jan cut off - so she's better off than the autumn borns. My sport has U17 so the September borns have their last season at U17 in GCSE year. Everyone after that has it in the much less pressured L6...

I think the Scottish system with the earlier cut off so none would be younger than 4.5 on starting would be better although transition to this would really mess up numbers when it happened - so would need to move the age back 1 month for 5 years to minimise that effect.

My son turned four this week and won’t be going to school this September. He has speech and developmental delays (possible ASD - waiting for a diagnosis) and the idea of sending him to Reception this year was just out of the question. I was terrified that our school wouldn’t allow it, because I’d heard lots of reports of them refusing applications in previous years.

However, it seems they’re amenable when it comes to SEN which was a huge relief.

The worries don’t end though. I’m worried that he will carry a stigma of being that child who was held back a year. I worry that he’ll be bullied when it becomes apparent that his birthday makes him the “wrong” age for the year. I worry that parents in the playground will judge me for being either pushy (just wanting him to have an academic advantage) or mollycoddling. He’s also showing signs of hyperlexia which is at odds with his social and communication delays.

Having said that, if someone said I could change my mind and send him to Reception this year, I still wouldn’t.

Elisheva you have summed up perfectly why we delayed our son. Why on earth would I choose for him to potentially go through all that when he has the option of being in a cohort better suited to his needs?? My son has no developmental delays but was way behind his peers at preschool. His preschool, HV and speech therapist all agreed he was not ready for school and needed an extra year to mature. His reception teacher and head teacher totally endorse delaying for a child it will benefit.

im glad ive deferred, i dont have to worry dc will struggle just because they are too young to learn xyz.
They already struggle with tiredness, behaviour, sensory issues, impulsivity. Ive experienced a dc being youngest and it is not great if your dc already struggles.
Also i feel people commenting 'you shouldnt be able to do this', but possibly being parents to sept borns who will never have to experience having to give their dc all this extra help, have them not invited to stuff etc. Starting yr 2 only those same 12m older than kids being allowed to just start yr r.

Helix1244 I think there should only be a 12 month age range and I have a summer born child not a September born. My DS was the youngest in his primary school classes with children up to 16 months older (in one class he was the youngest boy by 5 months) and it wasn't always easy for him. Now he has a 12 month age range in his year group he is not having to try to keep up socially with older children all the time.

You have summed up perfectly why we delayed our son.
Yes, and that is great for your son. But the overall problem has not been solved. There will still be a group of children at a disadvantage.

Helix1244 I agree with you, unless you’ve been through it I don’t think anyone can fully appreciate the implications. I had a son with mild learning difficulties, picked up when he was 9, who wasn’t bad enough to qualify as SEN. The schools did the best they could but he was in all the bottom sets and knew he couldn’t grasp a lot of what he was being taught. He eventually gave up trying and lost all motivation despite all our best efforts and the schools. He got some extra help in yr 6 for the SATs which showed he could do much better with one to one help but that all vanished after the SATs were done. At upper school one teacher found he could do exams better if he had the questions read aloud to him but when it came round to doing his GCSE’s they had so many needing that help that were worse than him that he didn’t qualify for it. Ended up with dreadful exam results, which is what we expected. I could just see the same happening with our youngest and wasn’t prepared to go through all that again. If they are struggling but not SEN there is often not enough help as they don’t have the time, staff, money or resources for them.

Elisheva Unfortunately I am not in a position of power to do anything about the overall problem, our whole education system is crap! I only have the power to do the best for my child, which is what I have done. To say no one should be allowed to do it is just wrong when you yourself have highlighted exactly what can happen by starting school when not ready. I couldn’t give a flying about test scores, hitting targets or exam results, my main concern is having a happy, confident, motivated child doing the best he can do academically and socially.

A flying fig 😂

My DS1 is late May born. He absolutely wasn't ready for school. After YR, to He went into the 'pure Y1', not the Y1/2 class. 24 DC, 19 of whom were boys!

At the end of Y1, the lovely teacher asked what I thought about the past year. I said 'The school are doing a good job but I wish he could have repeated Reception'. She said 'Yes, him and 90% of the boys in this class!'

His relative immaturity caused him to get one grade lower than predicted in GCSEs, to flunk his AS levels- but, thank god, at almost 17, a bit of growing up happened; so we transferred him to a Tech to do a 2 year BTEC, now he's at uni doing really well in software engineering. So his 'repeated Year' was Y12. Wish it had been YR!

He tells me in the first year, it's blindingly obvious who are 18, and who are older!

DS2, also May. Rather more conscientious but 'young' for his year. Did really well in exams, but is, mercifully, doing a year's Foundation after his A2s so will also go to uni at 19.

Finally, I sat my 11+ a year early (in 1973!😊). It was fine til I was 14/15 and my peers were 16/17.. I would have been better off 'in year', but I loved the 'clever' accolades!

Hi.
Am returning to England in the Summer.
DS is a June baby and will be 6 years 3 months in September so would ordinarily be going into year 2.
Is there any way I can appeal to the school/LEA citing Summer Born Campaign so that he can go into year 1 instead?
Reason: in Germany they do not start school until 6 so if he goes into year 2 he will effectively be two years behind already. He is verbal but only knows his letters, his fine motor skills are poor, cannot read yet. In Germany he would have been starting writing letters this year.
Given all that, do you think there's a chance he could go to year 1 not year 2?

RageAgainstTheVendingMachine I am pretty sure you can do that as I believe it’s quite common for children coming from abroad. If you join this FB group there are people on there who know far more about it than me x
m.facebook.com/groups/121613774658942?ref=share

RageAgainstTheVendingMachine It will vary by school/LA and is usually on a case-by-case basis, but even prior to the Summer Born Campaign, children who had previously been educated out of year they would be in England elsewhere are often allowed and in some cases be requested by the schools to go into the lower year. I've seen this both with people coming from overseas as well as home educated kids who have been out of the school system for a while. So, there is a somewhat good chance, but not any sort of definitive.

Elisheva Thank you for those links, it's nice to see data and some of the consideration that's going on. I find the information on social and behavioral issues being higher at both ends of the academic year really thought-provoking.

What happens with school transfer from Y6 to Y7?
To you have to apply with their original cohort and delay entry again?

My boy had to start school just turning 4, 26/08. He was with speech therapist and was below others his age in development and I was refused when applied for him to start age 5. He’s now redoing reception as he was so far behind . I felt very let down by it all but luckily he enjoys school he just needs a lot more help but we are getting there

You have to reapply when changing schools including secondary. But they are then already working outside cohort and they have to prove it's in their best interests to skip a year

It would have been best for my August born DD but I did not have the knowledge or fight in me to do other than start her in reception at 4 years and 2 weeks old.

She struggled all the way through, mainly with friendships

I pulled her out of school in the third week of year 8 due to bullying.

It was the best thing I could have done, she has matured so much being at home with me. She is starting at a 14-16 unit within a college in September and I feel she will now cope. She has lots of friends, most of them older than her.

Thank you so much for this post.

I delayed my youngest son whose birthday is the end of August and I'm so glad I did, it has worked out perfectly. I had to 'insist' though as the head teacher wasn't happy.

I withdrew him from reception after the first term as he was unhappy. He was crying in the mornings getting his uniform on, the final straw was when he woke up one night crying asking if it was school the next day.

He had been to the school nursery so was familiar with the environment and some of the children and his class teacher was genuinely lovely but he just wasn't ready. I was warned that he wouldn't be allowed to re-enter reception and would have to go straight into year one and that he might have to jump a year at high school etc but I got on the phone to the local authority and politely insisted with the head and thought if those things turn out to be true I'll fight those battles then.

My eldest who is now an adult was an August born boy and I did ask his school if it was possible to delay but the school office told me 'no' and (I had no access to the internet then) and also wasn't as confident and have always regretted it, it definitely affected him, my middle child is spring born and was fine at school as she was emotionally ready.

I think the British school system is ridiculous.

Elishiva how did you get that they don't recommend starting later?
"We argue that policy intervention to overcome the disadvantage of being born
later in the academic year is justified, for two reasons. First, these differences
arise purely as a result of the organisation of the educational system: there is
nothing fundamentally different about August-born children; somebody has to be
the youngest in each academic cohort, and in England it happens to be those born
in August. Our view is that this policy ‘accident’ should not be allowed to affect
negatively those born towards the end of the (arbitrarily defined) academic year.
Second, despite the fact that we find little evidence of significant differences
persisting into adulthood, being born at the end of the academic year seems to
have a detrimental effect on children’s well-being: for example, they have lower
self-confidence and are more likely to engage in risky behaviours at younger
ages. There is also a danger that some young people will drop out of school or not
receive the support that they need whilst they are at school, simply because of
the month in which they were born. Policymakers should do as much as they can to remedy these inequities."

I'm pretty worried about my DS starting next year - he will be 4, 5 in the January - am I being silly?

I was born in August. I never had a problem intellectually, but I certainly did physically. The younger children in the cohort are always likely to struggle. My son was also born in August, and he didn't find it easy intellectually.

Clearly somebody HAS to be the youngest, but it isn't; easy.

I'm thinking about deferring, I have no idea what I can do but he seems so small and I it's ages away - I don't know, I can't believe I have to decide about this stuff this year.

I had my twins 11 weeks prem in August. They started school when they were 4 years and 2 weeks old (they were very small compared to the other children and had a few development delays). They came home at lunchtime as a they couldnt cope with a full day as they still needed a nap in the afternoon.
When they started in Year 1 it was obvious that they couldnt cope with the 'formal learning'. Their Headteacher suggested that they repeat their Reception year, which they did and it was definitely the best decision we made!
The school were great and helped to sort their high school applications out as their date of birth meant they should have been in the year above.
Would definitely recommend doing this

@Lillighters85 the part you have cited acknowledges the disadvantage and recommends a policy intervention to overcome the difference. But that intervention does not include allowing children to delay.
On page 71 they argue against allowing parents to delay their child’s entry for three reasons 1. It has not be proved to work 2.It exacerbates the problem by creating an even larger age range in a class and 3. It causes socioeconomic inequalities.
The report then goes on to detail the policy changes they do recommend. Including teacher awareness and education, and age weighting on formal assessments.

That would only help the academic side though.

The friendship/tiredness/sports side is as bad.

I do think they should weight the results though.

It is cost and also ability to understand the data. Most parents wont have looked to see how big the gap is.
Because they all learn the same thing is kind of makes no sense it would affect gcses. But it does because of everything up till then.