do you think summer born children are really disadvantaged??

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just thinking wholly from the point of view of my ds (selfish i know). He is May born, i only work part time 3 days a week so my mum provided childcare as she is retired. When he was 2 i sent him a local playschool a couple of mornings a week but he couldn't go to the preschool attached to the school he will be going to until he got his funding term after he was 3, then he went there for the three terms. Anyway best decision i ever made to send him there, amazing preschool but if he had been born in autumn term he would have got 5 terms at his preschool instead of only 3.

DS didn't get on too well at his first playschool (won't go into details) but loved his 2nd preschool and has come on in leaps and bounds, i just wish he'd been allowed to stay for extra two terms so he'd got 5 terms same as autumn born children, school there is going to be so many more children

Where I am from, sept/oct children can move up a year, and July/august children a year down.

Things in the UK can be so rigid. Shame really.

I have 3 summer born sons and I would say yes they were at a disadvantage compared to my other 3 DC. For our family it has been very noticeable. All six have the same mum and dad and had basically the same upbringing. They went to the same schools. At primary school they even had the same teachers (mostly).

It wasn't just the academic side that was a problem. Eventually that does even itself out but not until end of primary years for us

Lots of out of school stuff has an age dependant element to it. If they go to beavers/cubs/scouts the older ones in the year all move up first and are doing more exciting camps and activities while the younger ones in the year are left behind do stuff with younger DC. They are at a disadvantage in sports to begin with too simply because others are u full year older.

It is also very noticeable in the teen years the older ones all get jobs, learn to drive etc before the younger ones. Some DC who want to celebrate with everyone else post A2s can't get into clubs and bars with the rest because they are still 17. Places are much stricter now with ID.

Having said all that having a summer new born can be wonderful. The days are warmer and longer and you can get out more. It's less hassle somehow than with an autumn/winter new born.

In DD's class, the child who is doing best academically is summer-born. However, all the good all-rounders, the sort who are good at academic stuff and art and sport and music and who are on the school council etc mostly seem to have autumn birthdays (from what I can remember based on party dates).

Research from the US suggests the practice of "red shirting" ( holding children back a year) can be detrimental to long term achievement

Statistically speaking, summer borns do slightly worse.overall.

however, other factors have a bigger impact. One of those factors will be the level of support and encouragement from parents, and the fact that you are posting here suggests you will be doing plenty of this.

also, I wouldn't really call may summer born.

It's down to the child and the parents. My august born is ahead academically and loves school. We read together every night though (except the summer holidays). My May born starts nursery (pre school) and is already on par with a six year old vocally, she's using words her older brother has ask her the meaning of! So no. Just be prepared to support their learning and be patient. Ds gets frustrated if he makes a mistake and I have to tell him it's ok, mistakes are how we learn.

Ds1 was born end of July and has just turned 7. The first few weeks were hard because he was only just four, but he's now on the levels for the year above for reading and maths (sorry if that sounds like a not-stealth boast).

I worried too, but I don't think it's necessarily a long term effect and I do believe children can catch up.

Agreed with it can be a self-fulfilling prophecy if it is constantly harped on about. Every child is different and the range of ability within summer-borns will be huge.

For the record, I am a summer-born and my family always said the opposite - that I was bright from the start. This helped encourage me to keep on making them proud and I over-achieved.

The only disadvantages I can think of is that I was the smallest in my class until puberty and socially I was probably quite immature all the way through. I also didn't have ID in 6th Form until everyone had already turned 18 long before

Academically, it can make little difference, but sports wise younger children can be at a disadvantage (boys in particular). Read Outliers for research on ice hockey players, for eg

Completely depends on the child. My dd was born at end of august and is about to go into yr 2. She's a very happy, content little girl who is rather bright. In her class it seems irrelevant when children are born. The little boy who turns 7 the day they go back is very bright but some of the girls with birthdays in oct struggle. It doesn't seem to make a massive difference. I see some differences with my dd such as if she doesn't get something straightaway she can lose confidence and perhaps concentration but it's hard to know how much is her character.

My second dd is due to be born by section next week making her another young school entrant! I'm not remotely worried.

What does piss me off is the comments I receive like "you didn't plan that very well did you?" Grghhh

No I don't. DS's birthday is in the first week of the academic year. He will be 6 in 2 weeks time, and he really is not particularly more Able of brighter than anyone else in his class.

I can't comment on summer born as I am in Scotland. Here we have a similar thing with our winter born kids as the cut off for school is 1st March. Nowadays those born in January February are given the option of deferring for a year. It used to be the case that these kids were almost always deferred, more recently this does seem to be happening as much.

My DH is a January birthday. He went to school at 4 and a half. He feels he was disadvantaged by this. Not academically, but by being less confident. If DC2 is born before March 1st he will not want them to go until 5.5. My twin brothers are also January birthdays. They suffered academically and received special tuition despite me (July born) sailing through school with good marks. My cousin is February born and has just sent her January born DS at 4.5 so she clearly doesn't think it harmed her.

In summary I agree it depends on the child!

I think it's summer born boys who tend to struggle not the girls. Maybe I just think that because I had sons!

When I was a TA every year the little group I took for extra reading/spelling were almost all summer born boys.

In my last class 2 August born boys were among the most able ( one with 31st Aug birthday) not something unusual IMESSAGE

I agree with those who say it can be a self fulfilling expectation

I think that being older/more mature is beneficial but the two don't always go together- just like being bright isn't to do with age. I've taught young for year group kids who have excelled academically and been happy socially but the older kids do tend to be more confident.

I'm an August baby. My sisters are September and October. I went to university and am now a solicitor. Sisters have low skilled, low paid jobs. I did much better at GcSE's and, dare I say it, believe I am more intelligent than my siblings so I am not convinced about summer babies struggling per se.

No one should get too hung up on the month of their DC birth.

I never planed a birth month for mine. My own DC are doing though. I have 3 October born GC. The parents wanted autumn babies so that they would be the eldest in the school year. If they all do that it could become a very expensive month. A problem for maternity wards too.

Did anyone listen to John Hattiesburg on radio 4 Educationalists prog?

Hattie (predictive text)

My DD is late July and in the infant years it was very apparent that she was young. Now she is about to go into year 6 and the gap has closed. In fact she is the best at spelling and her literacy in general is far in advance of her peers. She is less "grown up" than her friends though....some of them appear very mature.

There can be disadvantages being at either end of the year, but yes I do think summer borns are at a slight disadvantage. In infant school was forever being told DS2 was way behind. When I pointed out he was at exactly the same stage as Bright Child Born In September had been at the same age, the school just blanked the info. But it is relevant. They don't just learn because stuff is put under their noses. Their brains and synapses develop at a certain stage and they cope with what they can, when they can. Same with emotional development. At that age when a year constitutes a quarter or fifth of their entire life, each month makes a huge difference. By their teens, less so.

Sports stars tend to be autumn born in UK apparently, as they are picked for teams more readily, and excel among their year group more easily so grow in confidence and interest.

There are always exceptions. DS1 is summer born and precociously academic so he'd have been disruptive if kept down a year. DS2 would probably have been far happier in the year below as he was smallest, slowest person for years but caught up by Yr5 or 6.

The stats are skewed by expectation and funding disparity. Summer borns are clearly disadvantaged in terms of the funding and opportunity they are offered at the start of their educations, for some (maybe many) this translates into disparity in achievement but that may be a result of the disparity in treatment rather than anything else. There is also a disparity in expectation. DD2 was the youngest in her school year, she was also the highest achieving from her first day in reception till the day she left and yet even at the end of Y6, with SATS and 11+ success behind her she was still regarded as somehow over achieving in possibly a flukeish way when compared to the September born (male) other top table types. A very bright September born boy seems to be regarded as likely to be on the top table, a similarly bright August born girl is regarded as strange if she is at the same level.