Yunger children in reception - catching up - when?

[CocktailQueen]

I go in to read with dd's class each week and have done since Reception - she's year 3. DS has now started in reception and he is a June baby. He is in the lower middle of the class for reading. Do younger children in the class, in your opinion, catch up on reading, numeracy etc with the older children in lower school? Or not? From experience, most the the dc in my dd's class who started at the bottom of the class have stayed at the bottom...

Thanks for any experience.

I think it depends on the child, though I do know a few people with August born children, who say that the differences start becoming less marked by aged 7 or 8, so end of year 2 onwards.

That's interesting what you say about most of the dc in your dd's class have stayed where they started. I was thinking about my primary school the other day, and the children who were on the 'top table' and 'bottom table' in infants were pretty much there at the end of juniors, but I think there may have been more movement in the middle.

I thought things were meant to be more fluid these days - or maybe more differentiation for different topics?

My dd only had one term in reception and no reading books, but caught up by the end of year 1. But I know it took others until the end of year 2.

I help with the reading in the year 3 classes, but don't see an obvious high number of summer borns in the lower groups. However, in my ds y1 class, the top group is exclusively autumn borns.

So from my very limited experience, I think the birth month becomes less apparent as the children move through the school.

Also, I'm under the impression that the ability groupings are very fluid and are different for reading and general literacy. But it's a large intake so can move children around without singling anyone out.

I would say the "slow starters due to age" had caught up by the end of Y2.
In DS's Y1 class the top group children were nearly all autumn born. However in DD's Y1 class their isn't any sort of clear cut correlation with age (top group in DD's class have birthdays in August, May, Feb and October) . Proving that at "local" level you can show anything you want.

I would say they start catching up from Year 2/3 although for some not until Year 5/6. It depends on the child. Mine really kicked into gear in Year 4.

I help out with reading in ds1's class (Y1) and I would say they are catching up now but not quite there yet. The children are grouped by ability in reading and the top group are all Sept-Feb birthdays but the 4 groups below that are all mixed b/w older and younger. The July/August born boys are at the bottom end of the scale but they have all definitely made progress since they started last Jan (I helped out with reading in reception last year).

I have ds June born in top level reading but that may have been because of his good memory he is in year 2 and still top reader. However dd august born in reception now hasn't started reading she just gets books sent home with notes!!! Big diff xx

DD early June - up and running by end of year R
DS late August - on a roll by middle of year 2

Interesting.

Thinking about DD1's class in year 6, the "top" children regarding literacy were all born before Christmas and have been in the top group since reception/start of year 1.

Coincidence?

In Dd1's class the top groups in year 2 were all summer born except her.
In dd's class in year 2, the top groups I think were entirely winter born. One of those things.