Were you one of the oldest or youngest in your class at school?

[TazzyDrunk]

I was born in May so towards being one of the youngest.

I am a July birthday and remember thinking that so many of my class sounded as if they were a year older than me. For example I sat the 11+ when I was 10. My old report book shows it took me a couple of years to begin to progress to near the top of the class classification. My grandson is an August birthday and had a struggle at the beginning of school but has done well. He produces films and I got a degree so we got there in the end.

I’m July, DH is August and one DD is August and the other is April. DH and DD, August born are high achieving - Chartered Engineer and Barrister. We really didn’t see birth dates as a problem. My MIL said DH was very ready for school and so was DD. They were both reading well before they were 5. Both had bags of confidence though. As did I. But I’m not as academic as them and nor is DD2. That’s nothing to do with when we were born. My sisters are both academic and they are late June babies.

I think there is a tendency now for parents to assume summer borns won’t be able to cope or won’t be academic so the schools see Molly coddled DC in YR which exacerbates any problem. What is the excuse when September borns are not bright and don’t settle?

I was the oldest and my daughter is the youngest

DD was friends and shared birthday parties with a primary classmate 1yr + 2 days younger than her.
Academically there wasn’t much difference but emotionally it was huge. DD used to enjoy “mothering” her and put up with some highly strung behaviour. The girl was obviously being pushed and coached by her parents, which at primary is very sad.

I was the youngest in my secondary school and had no ill effects. I got into University with one day to spare!!

21st off August so was the youngest

@blueemeraldagain I'm a 31 Aug birthday too - I don't think academically it held me back, what I have occasionally wondered though, is how different my life might have been if I had been born 6 hours later than I was - different year group at school, different friends etc.......

mumofftwo I'm August 21st too

So possibly the youngest, but also looked very young too.
Not great when going to pubs and clubs and wanting to be served..
Having to dig out my battered paper driving licence to 'prove' my age.

I loved being the youngest but I was reasonably academic so assume that helped. I don’t ever remember any discussions about the disadvantages of being a summer born when I was at school. I do wonder whether sometimes it becomes a self fulfilling prophecy now.

It was only a few years ago when talking about exams and DH (winter born) was talking about being 16 when taking GCSEs that it did make me think that I would have been one of only a small number of people who took them at 15.

I got my A-level results on my 18th birthday. When at the pub celebrating I did think I was the last one of the group of my friends to be legally drinking there!

Youngest

Academically never caused an issue but socially, particularly through the teenage years, I had issues with not being allowed to join in with others out of school -either from my parents saying you can't get the bus into town until you are 14 etc, or legally (drinking, holidays etc)

That's interesting, HelloDulling - I wonder if schools are better at differentiating work for children at a range of ages and stages now (so less need to move them physically between classes)?

August birthday here so one of the youngest. Apart from struggling to settle in reception (I'd only been to a preschool for a few months prior and was quite shy so it was probably more to do with that) I was fine. Did fairly well academically and was happy socially, don't think by secondary it matters at all, although I'm aware it's slightly different for boys.

I'm a July baby and never noticed. I'm very academic (as in, I later actually became an academic) and tall, both of which helped.

DS (18 months) is also a July baby. I'm hoping he'll have as little issue with it as I did, though aware that all the stats show it's much more pronounced for boys.

I was born in May so in the middle until I repeated year 12 and then I was the 2nd oldest.

Always youngest. Late December and oldest was born January the same year. We start at 7, but I started at 6 and 9 months.

I was born in July, so I was one of the very youngest. I was bright, so I never felt my age was a disadvantage in that respect, but I was definitely a late developer in other ways.

The school year in the UK is 1st Sept to 31st Aug so April Not in Scotland though.

January birthday, so one of the youngest in Scotland and have no recollection of it being an issue. I don't remember deferring being a thing in the way that it is now, In hindsight I was perhaps socially immature but I was geeky and academic, so I'm not sure being older in my cohort would have helped. DS is similar to me in that respect and is the middle of the year.

Sorry, yes, not Scotland!

@JamieFrasersSassenach I often looked at the year below and thanked my lucky stars I wasn’t with them! But I’m sure I’d have looked at my year and thought the same if I was a few hours younger.

I did have two gap years so ended up being one of the older ones at university and then worked two years before starting my PGCE so was one of the oldest there too!

Ha, I didn’t mean dampener drinking-wise, I am also of the non ID checking generation. I meant more with my parents!

Sorry just realised you said Head teacher.

Each maintained school has a size banding for HT pay which they can exceed by 25% with evidence. Last year's started at £41065 to 114060 with the extra I mentioned

Youngest - last week of August. It didn't caused me any problems.

Cause sorry

Sorry wrong post

Youngest. Always.

It was impossible for anyone to be younger! Well, maybe by a few minutes!

So I was 15yo when I took my GCSE’s and when I left school!

Drinking wasn’t a problem as I had fake ID and was barely checked.

Passing my driving test was tense as I had about 5 weeks to do it before leaving for uni but managed to pass first time after 6 lessons.....I’d been driving on the farm and country lanes since I was about 11yo so just needed to get the hang of parallel parking really.

I was one of the youngest. Found it ok as I didn't struggle academically and normally had my birthday on a sunny day: )