Summer-born children starting school. Latest parliamentary research briefings.

[Gruach]

I have no personal interest in this - not even an informed opinion.

But this research briefing just appeared in my email inbox so I thought I'd share it.

Apologies if it's been done to death already.

If summer borns are allowed to defer then may/April borns with be disadvantaged instead. I feel that deferral should only be available if an educational psychologist/ community padiatrian think it will help long term. Little Tommy mother objecting to her son being bottom of the class is not a good enough reason to defer. If a child had a significant disablity/ delay then delaying school might not be their best interests. A child with learning difficulties will sink to the bottom of a younger class.

I agree with ReallyTired. Speaking as a dm whose ds would have been better starting a year later too.

I don't think parents are always the best judge, plus what seems right for a child at 4yo may show to be the wrong decision by 7yo.

Also I suspect it will produce a competitive aspect. "well you see little Jonny is so advanced he had to start a year early"

When summer borns were part time for the first term, there were always a couple of parents pushing for full time because "they were so bright they needed to be in school".
And I've heard frequently parents of summer borns stating "they're a year younger". No actually they're not. They might be nearly a year younger than a couple in the form, but generally it is fairly evenly spread.

Some summer born children, often boys, just aren't ready for school at just 4. They lack the concentration, social skills and gross and fine motor skills, and a year more development would make a huge difference. I would like to see admissions on a case by case basis with younger children assessed for school readiness.

Saying that I have an August born boy who was absolutely ready for school and who did fine.

Ii think there are some children who would benefit from spending a little longer in a preschool environment, building up to starting school - but I don't think that necessarily equates to starting school a year later.

Flexi schooling is getting more popular for younger ones here. They go to nursery part of the week and school part of the week, gradually building up school until they are full time. I think it's mandatory for schools to consider it but I am not sure how funding works for pre school. I have a friend whose ds was due in oct but was very prem so was actually born in august so not only was he the youngest in the class he was also months behind due to his prematurity. I think in that situation you should be able to defer

Agree with what Tiggy says in her post.

Re my post, I think what would be beneficial for some (most?) children would be a good years worth of consistent pt preschool education, before they start school at whatever age.

I don't agree that parents would automatically defer if they could. I think a bit of flexibility and listening to both parents and preschools would be a good thing. By any measure Dd is more ready for school at 3.5 than DS was at 4.5. Socially, physically, academically. Given a choice I'd put them with whichever cohort they fitted in with better, possibly a year younger for DS and older for dd.

It's not so much that DS sinks as he's just emotionally younger. He's been scared by stories the teacher reads. He wasn't ready for starting writing, he couldn't even draw. He doesn't really get the social stuff. The other boy who shares his birthday was fine with all those things as were the younger children in the class (DS is only may so not that young calendar wise).

The follow on for starting secondary school clearly needs to be dealt with. I don't know how anyone can argue it's in a child's best interest to skip year 7 (except in exceptional circs maybe), but maybe it will take more explicit guidance from the government for authorities to acknowledge that.

Parents already have this as an option in Scotland, and it's probably about 50:50 with who defers and who doesn't. No agonising and no big deal either way.

I agree totally with tiggy.

Interesting you say that Sliced. I have family in Scotland whose view is much more in line with tiggy. The rich defer and the poor/disadvantaged don't and the gulf is wider (they have two April children who are amongst the oldest non deferred )

It seems daft to think of an April born as being summer born. My April born daughter has as much in common socially with the children in the year above her as the year below. I think there would have been zero benefit in deferring her starting school.

In my experience through gymnastics, swimming and Sunday school lesson children can mix happily with children who are up to a year older or a year younger. My daughter as in a swimming class with much older children and it was an unhappy experience. I imagine that it would be similar in a school situation.

Maybe 5% of children would be better in the year below or the year above at most.

There will always be someone who is youngest but 4 is too young to be in formal education. Boys have a huge surge of testosterone age 4 and should not be sitting still. Also teachers have to deal with children in nappies etc. Ideally wait until 5 years before starting

The point is that reception isn't "formal education" (whatever that means) ...reception is EYFS with the same curriculum as pre school/ nursery/ day care

I think the Scottish system has it about right. Here, the youngest in a class can defer if they want. For the very youngest, the decision is completely in the hands of the parents. For those at the younger end , there has to be a case made that the child would benefit from deferred entry.

Although there are still some difficult decisions to be made, I think it's a good balance.

evidencebasedparent.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/the-myth-of-toddler-testosterone-surge.html

Mmm ... I was born into a world where you started "big" school in the term following your fifth birthday. I still struggle to understand the reasons for the change and have no recollection of the arguments adduced to support it. Surely the difference between winter and summer born children would be marginally less pronounced given another year to mature?

Are children scurried of to school at 4 now for the perceived good of the child or the increased employability of the parent?

You don't even need to speculate on what may or may not happen. Just look at Scotland. Parents of children in the youngest two months have automatic right to wait till the following year and children in the 2-3mo before that can defer with reason.
Not all parents do, many children are ready for school despite being youngest. Year groups are more mixed in age but intakes more even in maturity at starting.
As far as I'm aware there are no documented downsides.

"off" ...

I do think that the current system is too rigid though. There is no allowance made for children who were born prematurely at the end of August as my son was. We were advised that we had little to no chance of delaying his entry to the year of his corrected birth. The only thing we could do is defer his start date until the beginning of year 1 when he was legally required to attend school. We felt that this would put him in an even worse position as he would miss out on the formative year of reception.

He is doing ok but finds it tough and has only taken off at the end of year 1. It is clear he would have been better to delay a year but we couldn't risk the potential of him having to skip a year on entry to secondary school. The system seems overly rigid for the fear of it being abused. Surely there should be some middle ground?

In the days when children started in the term after they were 5, people came to realise that summer-born children only had 2 years in infant school. Then they introduced 2 intakes a year..... Sept and Jan. A few years ago that was changed to 1 intake in Sept.

Have there been any studies on Scotland ' s deferral and social impact?

hinky - I do agree there should be a straightforward system to let premature babies/ children attend in the year they would have been in (not those who are born term but early, pre 37 weeks).

tiggy- the big problem with medical deferrals currently is the fact they won't promise to honour them into senior school isn't it? A friend had that issue.

As a mother of spring and summer born boys who weren't ready for school, I would have liked to see Foundation Stage extended to y1 and Reception parents having the right to choose flexi schooling, part time or full time rather than it being at the Head's discretion.