August born children and starting school

[viagrafalls]

Hi, I have a little girl who's birthday falls at the end of August meaning she will be one of the youngest in her year when she starts school. I have recently heard that you can now request for an August born child to start the following year instead, meaning they would be the oldest in the year. I wondered if any of you had any experiences or words that would help me to decide what to do. She's very confident and bright but I'm worried that she will be lost amongst all the older children i guess (PFB?)
But equally, do I 'hold her back' for a year when i think she is probably ready? Stories, experiences, advice all greatly appreciated!

I understand that you can only defer her start date, so she would start part way through the year but in the same year group. You can't defer her start date so she starts with the next year group.

It has always been legal for a child to be apeducation out of cohort.

The latest "news" is no such thing. All it says is that LEAs must not have a blanket ruling. In practice, this means that a request must be considered individually. But unless there are significant SENs whic will be ameliorated by out-of-cohort education and no other means, it isn't going to happen.

Do not hold you DD back a year until you have cast iron guarantees abot starting reception late.

What to do have however, is the right to a later start within the reception year. So to might want to think about starting in January or even April.

Sorry, I misread this. There was a recent thread on this change. I recall that there is the right to request but that it won't generally be granted unless in very special circumstances. So nothing much has really changed in reality.

I am in the same situation as you, with an August born DD due to start next year.

If you hold them back, do they go into yr1 or EY?
I'm assuming yr1, otherwise they'd miss out on yr6.

My August born child, youngest in year, was quite happy and ready to start school.
As it happens, she hated EY. She disliked nursery and it was just an extension of that in her eyes.
Once she moved into yr1, she came into her own.

I think the only area where she shows herself to be younger than her peers is emotionally, the same can be said for my July born eldest dd.

A friend of mine deferred admission till Easter for her daughter. She hasn't suffered academically or friendship wise.

I am an end of August child! Never had a problem. That said I was a sociable interested little girl who was looking forward to school so that always helps!

Hmm. I will probably let her start in September then as to start her later would she might miss out on those crucial early friendships that form in the terror of those early days! It just got me thinking I guess…

I have an end of July baby and she's doing fine, now in yr1. She is very independent/comfident and there's no difference between her and he older kids but this may be down to her being the youngest DC in the family.

And 2 of my DB'S are Aug babies, haven't ever heard DM saying they had any problems

I don't have personal experience but my friend's little girl is August 25th birthday and started reception last sept. She has had no problems at all, settled in fine and is doing really well. She is a bright little girl and was ready to start in sept despite only just turning four.

I have 2 Aug borns. Started them as normal and no issues so far - teacher said they are holding their own and you wouldn't know they were youngest.

The point you make about joining late and friendships having already been established is a good one. We moved loads when I was a kid and joined several juniors schools a year or so in and never felt I fitted in and hated school. Secondary was different though as everyone was starting afresh and I loved it

I was an august child and by secondary school I was one of the more intelligent children in my class. By gcse I was top set in my year group for everything other than English which was always my weakness.

I have taught reception (now teach year 1) - the effect is variable some of my most able children have been summer born others do find it difficult. However as a mum of a summer born at a time when deferred entry was normal (DD started reception in the summer term as school had 3 entry dates) I would say that it took her about 2 years to catch up academically with peers who had started in Sept. I feel this wasn't due to her age but purely that she had missed so much.

DS is (31st Aug - born 2 weeks early) and now in yr4 and is flying academically.

However in reception there was a more noticeable difference between him and his older classmates. He also took longer for things to "click" academically & was one of the last to be given reading books (with words) when in reception. His reading clicked around June time (in reception) and he flew through quite a few levels in the final half term.

Now in yr4 he is noticeably shorter/thinner than his classmates (he is tiny as is his yr1 sister who has a Jan birthday) but that is about it.

I suppose it really depends on the child. I was this child, and when I started school I didn't even understand what it was or why I had to go. I remember falling to sleep and falling off my chair as I was missing my afternoon nap! I never did well in school, not sure if that had anything to do with it.
But if she's confident and bright she may be just fine.

I have a mid-late August DS in reception now. He's been fine, is bright and loves school. Downsides are that he's very tired a lot of the time but I think they all are in reception. I did worry initially but now I can't imagine him having been held back a year and not going until this September.

I have an August born and she went to school shortly after she was 4. I didn't notice a huge difference between nursery and reception at school. There is, however, a difference in expectation wrt a childs ability to sit still, queue up and apply themselves in their work in Yr 1, so despite DD struggling, I think she would've struggled more had I deferred for a year, and gone from a relatively free flowing much more child led environment at nursery straight into Yr 1, where she'd have been expected to conform much more straight away.

DD is mid-July born and has been given levels above average in Y2. She has a friend, October born, who really struggles.

I think it very much depends on the child and the birthday is not the only factor how a child progresses in school.

Yes, you see a difference in maturity between the nearly 5s and the just 4s but it evens out.

I think as delaying is very much up to each LEA I wonder how this works when the child moves to secondary and if you move into another LEA, will they honor the admission or move a child to the "correct" year group?

The issue is that at population level, summer born children do worse academically, but you have to put that aside and look at the individual child because there is obviously a whole range of outcomes. I'm very relieved that ds (early September) didn't make the cut for reception 2014 as he is yet to develop any interest in sitting down and learning stuff, but I'm not too worried about dd who is August born because she's very task focused and is set to be a square at school like her mother Also, having an older brother she's used to socialising with older children.

I wouldn't defer. Just because she's August born doesn't mean she will struggle. I work in a nursery and there's children born in July and august who are ahead of children born earlier in the year.my daughter is july born starting reception in sept and she has a slight speech delay and she can only just about write her name.she also has poor concentration and i fear she might struggle but I feel school will be good for her and will help her. Because school isn't compulsory until 5 maybe you could still send her and see how it goes and if anything request that she's taken out and deferred until next year

If you think your child is ready then I wouldn't worry about her being the youngest. Statistically the younger children do less well overall but there are so many variables in this.

I taught a yr 1 class where the 2 brightest kids were girls both born on 27th August. Even then they were well ahead of most of the older children.

My DS will start school this Sept at 4yrs 8 months. One of his best friends at nursery will just be 4 but she is far ahead of him in terms of drawing, writing, reading and wanting to do tasks. The only time you can tell she is 8 months younger is her emotional maturity but even then it's not always obvious especially as she's taller than him.

Very interesting points made - we would like to defer DS3's entry into reception. However, I think we are going to struggle with the school, which is heavily over-subscribed. We would like him to start in the January. I wonder if the school can actually refuse to keep his place?

I do agree that the circumstances largely depend on the child, so if forced, he would start in September, but if we were allowed, we would let him wait until January.

DH will go bananas if we are refused the place at school because we want to defer . I used to be a parent governor at the school when the eldest DCs were there, and the Head did not exactly have sympathy with parents who had this issue. I do not recall 1 parent who actually saw it through successfully.

You are absolutely legally entitled to defer and keep your Reception place, until either the term after they are 5 or the term they are 5 in the case of those born from 1st April. It is written into the Schools Admission Code.

It should be written into the LAs Admissions Policy, so you can quote both of these.

My ds is August born and was able to start the following year in reception. This was many years ago now.
There was no sn and we didn't get any permission, just registered him for that year rather than the previous one where he would have just turned 4.
Far too early for school imo.

A mixed range of answers there, thank-you. I should add that it will only be the nursery attached to the school that she will be starting in September but I'm trying to decide and get a clearer picture in my head now while I have lots of time.

One thing which seemed to help with end of July born DD3 was she went to a nursery where they offered 3 school days instead of 5 mornings or afternoons. DD1 and 2 done 5 mornings and were knackered and they were born the first half of the school year. DD3 coped fine after doing a year of 3 school days, what was confusing to her was doing 2 weeks induction into school on half days.