Holding my child back a year

[FeelLikeTweedleDee]

I'm due to give birth any day now. When my child is of school-age she will be the youngest in her class and this will be a disadvantage to her.

Would it be possible to hold her back a year?

If you are due to give birth 'any day' it is unlikely that your dc will be the youngest in the year. I can think of 5 in ds's year of 32 who are younger than late July. Some of whom are more mature than the oldest in the year with September birthdays.

Ds should have arrived in August but decided to turn up early in June. He has had issues associated with prematurity but nothing that would make me think of keeping him back a year. Instead I ensured his teachers understood the issues and took account accordingly.

Oh my word - you have better things to be worried about right now!

I have an August birthday so was one of the youngest in my year - the only disadvantage was that I couldn't get into clubs when all my friends turned 18.

I have an August born dd2 and do understand your concerns to some extent. My concerns have been alieviated though by helping out in dd1's reception class and realising that the top achieving group consists of 6 children born in Sept, Oct, Dec, March, May and June and the lowest ability group consists of children born Nov, Jan, Feb, June and August. It does not follow that the oldest children will be in the top groups and the summer borns at the bottom.....

Just one other thing to consider...While its not meant to happen, some children who do start a year late end up working a year behind throughout their school career. They can then leave school at 16 without having completed Year 11. They do not need parental permission to leave school at 16.

So please consider the bigger picture and not just rely on one newspaper article.

Depends on your child. One of mine, August born, has just won a prize for the top academic results of the year. Holding him back a year would have been an utter joke!

Kids can't leave all education until 18 now, there is new legislation.

Anyhow I have a July birthday and was always one of the most advanced in my year, the same is true of my May birthday daughter. My October daughter is not top in her year.

One of the summer born people I know had a summer birthday, and was advanced a year at school. As he was in Scotland he had his qualifications for University at 16, and went to one in England, he graduated at 19. Started a PhD and did it in just 3 years (Viva and all), and managed to graduate the day before his birthday, so when he was still 21.

Just because summer borns are on average a bit behind educationally doesn't mean that your baby will be.

my daughter has a 28 july birthday. she is doing as well as all the ohter children in her class. pls pls dont even think about this until you actually know what your child is like! it is not a disadvantage for all children.

My DD1 is the 30th August and I was worried about her and starting school. But now as an almost 2 year old who speak well, understands more than we give credit for and is beyong confident and opinionated for her age, I have no problems sending her to school the days after she turns 4! She will start nursery at 2 and a bit as there is no way I can keep up with her learning needs at home

Our school deals with this by splitting each cohort into the oldest and youngest half then puts them together in blended year groups.

Eg, dd1 is currently in a Reception/Yr1 group made up of the oldest half of reception and the youngest half of Yr1. The older half of Yr1 have gone on to make up a Yr1/2 group with the youngest Yr 2s.

Hope that makes sense I think it's really beneficial for the younger children as dd1 has spent almost 2yrs in a reception environment, albeit doing Yr 1 work this year.

As a reception teacher, I can understand your pov but as the other posters have said, there is no point worrying about your child until she's here. You may find that as she goes to toddler groups/nursery/preschool she forms good friendship groups and you will realise that holding her back when all of these children begin school may be more upsetting for her.
If you still feel so strongly when she is approaching school age, as others have said, your options include finding a school that does a January intake, starting her straight into Y1, or home-edding.

In my class this year, the 2nd youngest child (July born) has got the 2nd highest EYFS outcome scores (not that this is the be all and end all of the year!).

And another personal story - I was one of the oldest in my year (early September birthday) and my best friend was one of the youngest (late August birthday). And we are still best friends, no issues academically or socially for either of us (and now both teachers too!)

To be honest, I would wait and see how your child develops. If it comes to it, your child doesn't have to start in September, and you can defer the start to January, or even April.
I am a late july child and didn't suffer academically, though I do struggle socially. However, I don't feel my birthday had any impact on my ability to socialise. I think there were three people in my class who were younger (no idea how many in year group) and I don't think any of them struggled academically, or socially.

My dd was born in August and was never disadvantaged at all.She started reception 2 weeks after her 4th birthday.My d-i-l was born August 31st so really was youngest in her year and she has always done extremely well[2:1 from York Uni and HoD of a large English Dept.
Just relax-enjoy your baby-you will be ready for her to go to school when its time.

hi OP, there is a lot of evidence to support the fact that summer-born children are often at a disadvantage when being forced to start school in September just after their 4th birthday. January and later-intakes have mostly been discontinued to suit schools. Although, as a parent, you are allowed to push for a January start even if your school do not offer this option (purely for funding reasons). You are very lucky in 1 respect that by the time your child is ready for school things will have changed. There is currently little flexibility to allow children to start school when they are ready, rather than when the system is. See Cambridge Primary Review findings. The Sir Jim Rose review had many erroneous conclusions based on little and secret evidence. My ds (late Aug bd) loves school but is only really ready now to start his learning, just as we finish Reception year. As other posters have said, enjoy your precious time now.

" January and later-intakes have mostly been discontinued to suit schools"

As a parent, you are still allowed to request that your child starts later in the year even if there is no 'official' intake. Basically, as long as you take the place up before the end of reception year the school still gets full funding so they have no reason to object.

my son got a very good report and it said he was ready for year 1,with 1 week left at school they say they are keeping him back a year along with 8 others.what does this say about the teaching and can they force us to agree? the teacher told another parent it was final,this will really effect his self esteem as also his brother is only 18months older.please any advice welcome

I have two daughters born in August.The eldest is nearly 6 and has got on really well at school. My youngest is going to be 3 on the 30th August and is meant to be going to school next year. I am really worried about sending her because she can say less than 10 words.She already struggles at pre-school joining in with the other children and becomes stressed alot.Do all children who start a year late have to start in year one? plus does anybody now when you have to make the actual decision to hold them back a year and how you go about it.

Can I just point out there is never any legal need to send you child to school? They just have to be getting an education, it doesn't have to be written or timetabled or anything, as long as it is suitable for your child.