PARENTS' ANXIETIES IGNORED OVER AGE SUMMER-BORN PUPILS START SCHOOL

[wotnopulling]

I'm gutted, my august born babe will be forced to start school days after she turns 4.

My dd#1 has started pt school at just 4. There is a huge amount of pressure to start then. I hate that she is a government statistic and her attendance is monitored even though she is under no legal obligation to go to school in the first place!

I saw an article on this yesterday, and assumed the summer born babies miss out from not enough school was a typo. Obviously not. Seems a very odd thing to be saying, when all the evidence suggests that children who start school later are at an advantage throughout life. My September born dd found school very easy, both academically and socially, and still does. Being the eldest boosted her confidence enormously. The only down side was that she got bored at nursery. ds who is a May baby started school in January, and the extra couple of months made a big difference (although he was still fairly socially immature, as many boys are - he narrowly escaped a label of autism as a result).

The idea that children should be in school with strange part time hours is I think poorly thought through. As a working parent I would have found this extremely difficult, whereas the later start worked very well. In my children's school they had the first group start in September, with one teacher, and the second group in January with another. By year two they were mixed up together, and by year three you couldn't tell who had been in which class.

Oh, and only moving up classes when you pass tests or assessments can be very stressful. When we moved to the US ds was very very worried he would be held down a year (which is how everyone interprets this) as can, but rarely happens there. Plus moving up early can be a big problem later, when you have (for example) 17 and 15 year olds in the same class. There is a big difference emotionally, and younger children who are pushed up can find it very hard.

have the same experience as changer22 really. ds started at the school nursery at 3.5 and he was referred pretty much straight away for speech therapy, then OT then something else. i feel like he has been pushed when he just isn't ready and it didn't help that he had a nqc for reception who left after just one year.

nooka I wasn't proposing ridgid set classes. A child could be in Yr 8 for maths, Yr 6 for English, Year 7 for Music. It is only stresssful if you are defining 'norms' to which they are or are not adhering.

My DS1 did start school the day after his 4th birthday - it stressed me out at the time but even after one year the difference is far less noticeable.

My Ds is an August born child and although he is of above average intelligence, I did/do feel that him starting school in the January after turning 4 was too early. They are just not mature enough at that age to go to school IMO.

I'm another worried about my dd. She was due the end of october and was born beginning of august. I really don't feel she will be able to cope but I don't like the idea of holding her back either only for her to rejoin her peers without having been taught the things they have. Horrible parenting dilemma.

Starlight that would work fine if all lessons were at the same time for all years, and there was no interrelation between subjects but in practice that's not how it works. In secondary school there aren't enough specialist teachers unless possibly in a very very large school to make timetabling work. For example in my secondary school there was one RE teacher, one Latin teacher, two history teachers and two geography teachers (as examples). There were seven years, each with two classes. It just wouldn't have been possible to have mixed year group teaching. In primary school children are generally in the same class for all subjects, so if you want to advance them they would have to go up (or down) for the whole time. Many schools have provision for special teaching in say literacy or numeracy (ds had an advanced class for maths and a remedial class for handwriting for example) but this is usually done by additional staff. Otherwise you have to make sure the whole school teaches the same subjects at the same time, and that teachers do not assume preexisting knowledge.

bronze is there no provision for prematurity? I would have thought a case could be made?

Okay nooka I take your point, but perhaps I just envisage a whole shake up where children (particularly at secondary level) don't even have to be present to complete their individual curriculum, or even study soley the subjects offered by their school.

What about " homeschooling" for the first year and then " changing your mind" ?

Sounds nice in theory. Not sure how it would work in practice though I think school offers more than learning though, but I know others don't share that view. Nothing to stop any child learning more outside of school in any case.

Dd1 started the day after her 4th birthday and went full time too.I felt it wasn't fair to take her out for half a day when all her friends were staying.She hasn't suffered at all and just flew when it came to reading ect.

A lot depends on the individual child,plus the reception teacher and the attitude of the school.We were lucky with a small school,small class and a lovely teacher.

Don't forget gender too. I know there will always be people who quote their DH being born on August 31 and being the highest paid brain surgeon ever, having gone to Oxbridge and always being top of the class, etc. etc. but boys are younger developmentally and it does seem to be the summer born boys who suffer educationally, socially and emotionally in school.

maybe it would be better if school started age 7.

I'm going through the IFS report that started this all off again. (google "When you are Born Matters"). This is the report that convinced the Government that the August birth penalty never goes away (on a statistical level).

I think I read somewhere that there are more summer birthdays in prison than Autumn too.

Yep.

It's well worth going to the report.

By age 11, 170 girls born in August will be on the special education needs register for every 100 girls born in September on that register.

The authors wanted to do a comparison with other countries - but were unable to find another country with such a rigid and inflexible system.