If you thought your summer born seemed ready for school

[Sometherusername]

Were they really? Or did they have problems in reception or later down the line?

DD is August born. We've considered deferring her reception place but pretty much dismissed it as she is (so far - she's only 2.5) hitting milestones on time/early, is relatively confident, and has been at nursery from 11 months and loves it.

Any thoughts? I know that statistically she'll be disadvantaged from starting school so young.

My August born DD started reception this year and has absolutely flown. She was doing well at nursery - good at toileting, getting dressed, playing nicely and talking to adults. At school she has really picked up phonics and made a lovely group of friends. I'm definitely happy we made the right decision.

Mine is late August. She was ready. She’s halfway through year 1 now and thriving

My August born was definitely ready, she's now in Y2 and excelling, not had any issues.

My premature summer born (late August, should have been October) was ready. A little nervous at first, but now in secondary and flying academically through school.

May, so only just summer born.
Struggled in R and Y1 with phonics and spelling and writing.
Diagnosed with Dyslexia and dysgraphia - which explains all the above - and has just picked his options for GCSE having been put on a "higher" pathway - ie extra GCSE option in place of extra English and maths lessons.
Socially, he is in the right year group, imo.

Mine is end of July. Now Yr 3 so went through Covid too. Meeting or exceeding all age related expectations so all good.

I have 2 August born dc. Ds was ready to start school and has always done well academically (he's 15 now). Dd, we did consider deferring as she seemed immature compared to how ds was, we didn't defer, she's in year 5 now and we've been told she's actually one of the more mature children in her class and is doing well academically.

DS is an end of August birthday and started at the normal time. He’s always done fine academically (currently at a Russel group Uni) but he was definitely a bit behind socially and physically when he started. Things like riding a bike, using a pen came later for him.

Dts are 30th august. Should have been 30th October.

They did struggle in reception, mainly with tiredness. However they quickly caught up over y1 -y3 and exceed expectations by the end of y6 even though both are dyslexic.

Deferral wasn't really an option then but looking back, I would still have started them with their cohort.

It's nonsense that all summer born children are unready for school or educationally disadvantaged. I somehow managed despite being born on 31st August (Oxford DPhil). My DC (now all at unversity) are all summer born and are all on a similarly academic trajectory. There are so many other things that come into play. My DC (and I) would have been bored rigid if we'd been put in the year below.

My oldest was born end of August and is now in year 6. She's never had any issues and has exceeded expectation of her others her age.

My dd is July born. Now y6. Academically she’s very able, was reading before she started school etc and that side has never been a challenge. Early on there were some things that were just harder for her than her older peers - motor skill type stuff like cutting etc, she could still do it with the same outcome but it was very obvious (to me) that she was having to work a lot harder at it than others. Emotionally maybe some things were a bit harder too. She’s in a small school with very strong nurture and a real value placed on each individual so that has helped enormously.

So in short, she’s fine. I think she would also have been fine had we deferred her though.

DD20, born end July, now at uni. No problems at all.She was my second though, and I think that made a difference in her social confidence levels.

DD22, born December, had a less happy reception year as not so socially minded, but got there in the end.. she's finishing uni now.

Academically I think they all get there, so long as there is support and input from a home where education is valued.

Socially... depends on your child, not their birthday.

Nope. But deferral wasn't an option then. He could only skip reception completely and go straight into year 1. The older he got the more obvious it became. Rather than the "gap" between him and his peers closing it got wider and wider.
He eventually changed schools and repeated year 10.

Having said that we also strongly suspect some combination of asd/adhd/ocd/processing disorder. (We don't know which and getting an appointment for diagnosis is impossible).

I'm also an August baby, and it's never held me back.

From a different perspective, I have a September born. They found everything 100x easier than their sibling who is a spring birthday. If I ever had a summer born, I would defer as a matter of course.

My August born DS seemed very ready and was bored at nursery, so we had no doubts about sending him with his cohort. He loved school during reception, but once things stopped being play-based in y1 he really struggled. I would say he’s only just caught up now (y6) and probably would still benefit from being in the year below in some ways. Not in others though (eg he’s already the tallest in the class!) and I think overall it’s difficult to know whether we made the right call.

DS is late summer born and I thought he was ready to start reception - he'd been in nursery from 8am - 5.30pm 3 days per week anyway prior to starting school as I have a job.

I thought well, someone has to be the youngest in the year!

He's about to sit his GCSEs - predicted grades 8s and 9s and has a lovely friendship group.

He'd have been v bored stuck in nursery or with a childminder for an extra year whilst his little pals all went off to school.

My brother is late July and didn't defer (not sure you could then)

Anyway, very intelligent man. Went to Cambridge along with his usual cohort. Some social issues, could have been age, could have just been him. Came into his own at 6th form and uni.

He's in his 40s now. No damage done as far as I can tell or he has said.

I deferred by children and have never regretted it. It is particularly noticeable now that they are young teenagers- many ‘young’ kids struggle to navigate the teenage world so being a little older has been helpful on numerous occasions. It is different for every child… it’s impossible to predict what the future holds but on balance I think deferring allows children not to have to grow up super fast etc

My DC was premature by 10 weeks so was an August intake. However, we moved abroad when DC was 2 and in that country the intake was Jan to Jan. DC doing fine now back in the UK system and has always been in the top sets although does have to work hard to get A’s. I do think learning and going to school in a country with a different language from 3 years old helped. We wanted DC to pick this language for an A level as it would have been easy for them. They didn’t want to though!

My DD is 2.5 and August born too, I am definitely not deferring as she will be ready. Nursery agree and have actually said it would be a detriment to her if she had to wait another year, although she's always hit her cognative milestones very early.
My birthday is the end of Aug and I never struggled and was actually top of my year and went on to study law. I foumd it infuriating that people implied I wouldn't do as well based on being born in Aug.

There's no difference in my opinion. I'm an end of Aug baby and so is my DD and both have done great. Not top of class or bottom, probably slightly above average for me and closer to the top for DD (for now)

Following as we're in the same boat. DD will go to reception this September and being August born (due sept actually) she will be the youngest. It's stressing me out.

I think my summer born DD would have benefited from being held back a year. I think she is emotionally immature and struggled a lot with anxiety in secondary. That extra year of maturing would have made a lot of difference. Intellectually she was fine, but the anxiety held a her back considerably.

My summer born (boy) did seem immature during the first half of reception. He kept up fine with the “work” (its more about gentle fun learning through play in reception) but had a few issues with behaviour such as struggling to share, some silliness etc. He had a few toilet accidents and didn’t really have any interest in writing. However, as the year progressed all these improved and by y1 you really couldn't tell the difference. He’s now y3 and absolutely not boasting here but ahead of expected level In maths and reading and working at expected level with his writing. He has lots of friends and gets on very well with them all. I absolutely cannot tell who are the summer borns now.
You could always apply for the place and then defer if you feel she’s not ready. Ask her nursery/pre school teachers their opinion as well when the time comes as they see hundreds of kids of that age and will know if she’s ready