Summer-born children

[Researchermummy]

Hi everyone, I am currently researching 9 or 10 year old summer-born children who started school at compulsory school age (CSA) along with one of their parent's. I hope to understand their experiences of the process for the parent and the experiences of the summer-born to help inform other parents who are unsure whether or not to delay school entry for their summer-born child.

If anyone is interested or knows anyone who may be interested please let me know :)

Mine is only 5 so too young a csa start
Have you tried flexible admissions for summerborns facebook
Or maybe summerborn children at school facebook

I have both summer and autumn DC. While we always said the summer was immature earlier in life, my experience was that the gab was closed by that age.

That said, I once overheard a parent mentioning summer born discrepancy at 11+

@HSHorror Hi, thank you for replying. Yes I have posted on the summer borns at school FB page, but I have struggled to find participants and they do not allow researchers to post on the Flexible Admissions for summer borns on FB group which is really unfortuante as their following is high.

I think you may struggle as it was fairly difficult to do it then, I have a 9 year old summer born currently in year 5, and although I looked at it as a possibility one of my factors in not doing it was now hard it was, I think changes that made it slightly easier came in for the school year after him? From googling I think it was September 2015 that things changed, which is when he started school.

www.theguardian.com/education/2015/sep/08/parents-of-summer-born-children-get-right-to-delay-start-of-school

Shame the flexible admissions Facebook page won’t let you post, such a wealth of information and advice on there. As the previous poster said though, it was far less common when children who are now age 10 we’re starting in reception so might not be many cases. Although still not always easy to achieve there is far more information and government guidance available now for summer born children starting reception.

Although i know 2 kids out of year group age 9 they are both asd and repeated yr r rather than csa

Agree with others that there may not be many. And they will have csa more possibly due to prematurity etc rather than the more flexible change as is was just changing then

I think there are more factors than simply older/younger.

One thing I noticed with my summer born boy was that "he's a summer born boy" was used as an excuse-along with "he'll grow out of it."

So when I expressed concern about certain behaviours, I would get the response of "oh, but he's a summer born boy." The January born boy with similar behaviours was assessed and diagnosed before the end of year 1.
I was told "he'll grow out of it-a summer born boy" until last year when I took it into my own hands and referred him directly for assessment. He's 13yo and likely to be diagnosed with ASD and possible ADHD as well.
If he had been assessed back in year R/1 like the winter born child then he could have been receiving the support he needed all this time.

I'd also note that if I could have deferred back then, then I almost certainly would have done. Looking at him now, it could well have been the wrong decision.

I think if we could get rid of the lack of expectations for summer born boys then we might find that it improves their attainment. I'd be interested to see anyway.

The lack of attainmrnt is literally because of a physical impossibility for one age /month of say aug to all be 5-6m ahead developmentally so they are average not bottom. Imagine if this were height. Would we be querying why aug are the smallest? (Although i understand that summer children are actually taller). No if we lined up hundreds of kids we wouldnt expect sending them at age 4 or 5 would suddenly make the youngest not the smallest. Just like walking there will be ages it is easier to learn. Walking ranges 6m-3yrs with average about 12m.
And yes it impacts on sen. My ildest was very adhd/odd but it is hard to tell if it's immaturity as school just told dc off all the time in yr r. It was really negative for us all. Being a young one and not fitting in socially has been really bad too. We are ending up with fewer fiends over time.

Agree with the last two posters.
My dd found school hard for years (only just getting better now and she is nearly out of primary!) and it was always put down to her being young in the year. She struggled socially emotionally and with the work. Had to send her part time in reception.
Eventually diagnosed age 9 with many SpLDs, eye problems (longsighted and double vision), dyspraxia/ASD/SPD and high Iq so had just about managed to not fall really behind. She would have meltdowns about writing and had huge anxiety about school and was bullied too.
I wish we had deferred her and started her age 5. We were just on the cusp of when it became easier. The problem is when it is your eldest child you have no previous experience and also the decision is taken at such a young age SEN is not always apparent unless you know what to look for, but most parents wouldn’t know unless they had experienced it before. I just knew there was a problem but no idea what it was or how to fix it.

I have a 17, 15, and 8 yr old. The oldest 2 are winter babies, and the youngest is a July baby.

I really agonised about my youngest having to start full time education when she’d only turned 4 a few weeks earlier. But she was so excited to start school, and is a bright button, I did not want to delay her by a year.

In reception, she did very well - but was exhausted. Did not want to have friends over to play as her older siblings did. But now she is in Y4 she has caught up. Her best friend is a September baby and they are almost the oldest and youngest in their class, and you’d never guess there is nearly a year between them (DC3 is a head taller!).

I think you have to consider these things on a case by case basis, and you know your child best.

Also of note is out of school clubs.
Dc1 was too tired till y2. And then got into rainbows. At 6. But that year the eldest were leaving at 7 to brownies. So was left with the younger group. Now a classmate is mar born i think buT that meant they move up or left in say apr and got in brownies in sept.
Dc got into brownies finally at 7.5 then a month later lockdown. The birthdates weeks apart. This obviously impacted friendships as by then the rest of the year had already moved up.

Dc2 in comparison joined at 5 in lockdown to rainbows so it's not been great but huge advantage as she gets to be with all the year above and already have been there when her friends might join later.
Whilst again dc1 sees her year group kids be promoted in brownies because they have been there longer.
For me the issue is there are no advantages to being youngest. It really does need to be evened out so say more sports took from younger ones at least.
But it makes likttle sense to mark a SB kid as say met in ks1 sats who in 12m is then doing all that easily.
And i dont think its very good for the oldest either as they think they are better than they are too.
Our school seem to have grouped reception zoom by age largely. They are all before xmas except 1 and they are only march... Dc2 actually isnt as bright/has a poor memory compared to dc1 so it will be interesting to see how they grade her in may for eyfs.
Poor dc1 was years ahead for reading (lime ability at under 5) and only got met. Now either the teacher never read with her (true) or it's tactical because these marks are used to predict ks1 and 2. Maybe underestimated due to behaviour.
The maths curriculum is crazy we are on improper fractions in t4 dc can do it but omg the battles for home schooling. And actually aritmetic in numbers under 20 is poor considering problem solving ability. Is that because effectively wasnt ready to practice that in the other year groups. As i think thar is what happens they move up with slight weaknesses and youngest have more. They are doing ttr and dc1 is really slow but again of course are these top kids nearly a year older. (I do think for tt that shouldnt matter though).
Also not doing full stops or capitals. But i think that is more behavioural or sen tbh. As in has mentally moved on to something else due to lack of concentration.

On individual level sen or behaviour make more difference to achievement than age in year. But say an adhd child who is youngest will be potentially so far behind in maturity.
But otoh where would dc1 be if the eldest and more confident in maths abikity.

Am in the Scottish system so slightly different. However eldest is now 10 (possible adhd complications) and was/ is nearly the youngest in his year. He's a dreamer and has often switched off from learning, I don't think he was ready and it's impacted his learning. I wish I could of deferred him.

In contrast I deferred my second child and he's the eldest in his year. Academically he finds it easy. It's been much better to start with a degree of emotional and social maturity that he was lacking at four.

We don't do a lot of clubs even before Covid but they are grouped by ability (swimming) or year group (rugby) where he also has an advantage.

I have an October born child and two with May birthdays. I found the October child to be completely ready for school and learning. There was a bunch of them in her class that were autumn babies and they were all really bright and performing at the top of the class. At 11+ time most of the autumn babies still did well, but there were some surprise high performers from a couple of spring / summer babies.

My two born in May definitely didn't start top of the class. My son in particular struggled with school in y1 and 2 as he wasn't ready to be sitting still so much and found that side of things quite difficult. But by Y5, he was flying and is now at grammar school.

I find this a very interesting subject, being summer born myself and also parenting my grandson who is summer born - late July 2015. Academically I did OK - passed my 11+ and went to grammar school and have worked as a teacher all of my adult life. However I have always struggled with self confidence. I was less mature and savvy than the other girls in my year and still live with scars of that.

DGS (even with a shaky start with a very young and struggling mum) popped into the world very alert and fascinated by everything - playing with his own shadow and saying his first word at 8 months old. Conversing fully at 20 months, riding a 2 wheeled bike within a month of his 3rd birthday. Moved early into the toddler and then the preschool room at nursery. Ahead developmentally across the board from being a tiny baby. Reading CVC words from 3.5 years old, very confident with number, a real problem solver. I thought he would sail into reception and be top of the class. How wrong I was. Reception was a nightmare (not helped by a very formal teacher and lockdown). His writing was very immature and this shaped the teachers view of him academically. He was held back with his reading, put into a lower Read, Write Inc group on the basis of his handwriting.

His reading really took off last summer just as he turned 5 but he is still in the middle read write inc group because of his writing. He has an aptitude for maths and is working about a year ahead but until I pointed out to the teacher what he could do, he was in the lowest ability group. Again on the basis that he was reluctant to record anything. He's still a bit wriggly on the carpet (now in Y1).

However at the last parents consultation (by phone) a couple of weeks ago - he's been in school on a key worker place - his teacher was finally seeing what he is capable of. He's still only middling with lots of older girls in the class but I can see he is beginning to take off now. I think he will have caught up with his potential in the next couple of years. It has been a real revelation observing the extent of disadvantage a late summer born has to contend with. I'm not sure starting at CSA is always the answer though.

@Oilyvoir @PearlWellington @womaninatightspot @HSHorror @sydenhamhiller @Namechange600 @MargaretThursday @TerribleTiming @Eccle80 @Mummy195 Thank you everyone for sharing your summer-born experiences, really appreciate you taking the time to comment and I have enjoyed reading them. So far I have interviewed a few participants, and have others booked in :). It is such an interesting a thought provoking subject. I too am summer-born which fuelled me to research it.