How has your 'July/August' born child found school?

[Summersuncocktails]

Off the back of another recent thread about parents timing their children's birthdays!

Im due a late July baby and reading so many comments from others about wanting to avoid summer babies (particularly july/august) has scared me a little! Main reason is due to being the youngest or one of the youngest in the school system.

So what's the reality? Have they struggled, been ok? Is there anything I can do to help and support them when the time comes?

I was looking forward to celebrating their birthdays when the weather is nice, so trying to be optimistic but would also appreciate some honesty!

Mine are june and July absolutely no problems. Im August didnt have any problems.

They’ve done really well and are ahead of most of their peers. They would have been bored to be a year lower.

I’ve god a mid July boy. He was a bit slow to get going with writing in KS1 but since y2 has been flying. He’s about to do his y6 SATs and is likely to be greater depth in all. I think as long as you think your child is average intellect or above, they will fine even if they’re a little slower to get going in R and y1. Don’t over think it - large swathes of the population have summer birthdays

My August born in now reading computer science at Cambridge. In my experience, they do look and seem young in Reception and Y1, but by about Y2 things even out. I know there is apparently various studies that seem to drag out the disadvantage for years on end, but that doesn't reflect my experience or that of the many people I know who also have summer borns. I would say, though, that it does help if they have older siblings at home.

My summer born child has done absolutely fine at school.

You can defer summer borns in England I think it's getting more straightforward to do so but still not as common as Scotland.

I'm in Scotland and have the equivalent of early August (our school age year is from 4.5 years on the calendar year so Jan/Feb often gets over 50% deferral).

We deferred our eldest, best thing we did from a social, emotional and his learning potential.

It's pretty common here and just seen as a choice parents have.

I've got one mid July girl and one early August boy.

DD has always excelled academically, now at secondary school.

DS is in Reception, perhaps not quite as academic as his sister but is meeting expectations and absolutely loves school.

I am an August baby in the days when there was a Jan intake so I started at 4y 5m. I think i would generally be described as a Type A / over achiever 😆, although i never really had a very good group of friends - i always floated between groups. DD1 is end of June and started in Sept at 4y 2m. It was hard to start with and we had quite a few tricky emotional feelings. She has also taken a while to break into established friendship groups coming up from the school nursery. But seeing how much she has come on in reading, writing, maths etc is amazing and she seems to be taking it in her stride from the academic perspective. We are in London and noone around us was deferring, which is why I didn't consider it - i appreciate it is more common elsewhere.

To support the emotional side, we dialled back after school activities - i went PT so she only needs ASC 2 x per week and no breakfast club, lots of downtime on weekends (not packing them full of activities), only two clubs on an evening (swimming lessons and rainbows). Just lots of time to chill. We are lucky that as a family we can afford to do this, but it has meant some sacrifices in terms of holidays / new car etc. We were happy to make that choice though. She is just now coming home and talking about games she has been playing with various other children, so I think shes getting there with a little group of friends.

I dont think there is one correct way and it really depends on your DC personality too.

My Daughter, who is my second child, is an August born. She’s in yr 11 now. She has dyslexia which herprimary school didn’t really notice until she was about to leave. Secondary school has been really tricky and she was not ready for independent learning.
I wish we’d allowed her to start a year later. She’s wasn’t emotionally ready to start school - she was the crying child being peeled off me at the school door !!

I am an August baby and one of my sons is a mid July baby. I can honestly say I never gave this any thought until I started MN . Cannot remember any disadvantages TBH .

We deferred our August baby and it was the right thing for them, particularly as the first COVID lockdown would have meant missing half of Reception year had we not deferred.

They weren't ready emotionally or socially to go to school at 4 years and 3 weeks. As it was they had to be peeled off us crying on their 1st day in Reception (though having just had 6 months at home with us really didn't help with that).

They're now in Year 5 and thriving. Probably would have been OK had we not deferred but I still stand by our decision as the right one for us.

August born daughter got straight As at GCSE and is predicted the same at A Level. A fortnight before starting school she was still a tiny 3 year old (just turning 4) and probably took longer to get out of ‘play’ mode when she started. She’d caught up by the middle of reception year.

I think too many parents defer entry unnecessarily - there are always going to be some kids who are almost a year younger than others!

DD is a late August baby and she’s flying. In year 3 and at greater depth in reading, writing and grammar and really enjoys school.

Dc3 is an early August birthday, she’s in year 4 now & the youngest of her year/class. She didn’t really talk until she was 3, had a little speech & language therapy in reception year. She’s thrived at school, no issues whatsoever, recent parents evening & working at greater depth in all areas, she’s social, sporty & confident & fab at maths. Never considered delaying school start. I do think she picked a lot up from her siblings during COVID homeschool as they were in reception & yr1. Dc4 is May & he’s thriving too.

My August born has really struggled.... tbh I think he would have been happier academically a year behind but he's got good friends and is settled in his class he just does always seem to be working to the level of the year below him rather than his current year. I suspect he's dyslexic though and am in process of organising an assessment so it may be that.

I've got a July born boy. He's greater depth in everything. He's hyperlexic like his older sister (I was as well) so taught himself to read very young, etc. More importantly he has lots of friends and is very happy at school. He settled in straight away and thrived from the start, depsite being quite shy.

Academically not, she is doing extremely well but like lots of her classmates is struggling with move to more formal learning in year 1. BUT she started reception when she was 5 so she is the oldest in the class. I do believe if she started a year earlier it would have been a struggle academically.

My August born was so little starting school just after turning 4. He had only started to speak properly aged 3. Potty trained 3 and a half. Socially he seemed a very long way behind his peers.

he’s now in y8 and gets fab reports at school. I had pondered deferring him and it was 100% the right decision not to, though it absolutely was not clear at the time

I will say that in the those last six months before getting their school place confirmed and actually starting, they do grow up an awful lot

My dd was late August birthday and 7 weeks premature so shouldn’t of been born until mid October she was fine starting school she had made friends at preschool so I didn’t want to keep her back a year she managed fine and did well at school

she is now 24 with a masters degree