Youngest in the year - reception

[yaboreme]

Hi,

I was just looking to see how things are/ turned out for any of you that had summer born children who started school at 4.

My son was 4 in August and I'm really worried that I made the wrong decision to send him to reception after only turning 4, 2 weeks prior to the start of the school year.

He's emotionally a little behind and is a little behind his peers with reading, writing etc but I have been assured that he knows the concept of simple math and is very enthusiastic to learn.

My concern is that he may have benefited from an additional year to be 5 when he started to be of a more similar age to his peers.

Am I worrying about nothing? Or should I enquire about resitting reception (if that's another option).

Hopefully this makes sense.

Thank you

August born, never a problem academically and got into grammar school with only a few months of preparation. However he was always emotionally and physically less mature than his class mates, and I think would have benefited starting school a year later. You could see he was the youngest in the class, whereas when he was with the year below, he looked like he fitted in better.

My elder son was the youngest in his class in primary school. In all honesty I don't think he was really ready for school at just turned 4.But back then there wasn't the option of delaying starting Reception - you could miss it out altogether for Summer borns as of course statutory school age is not until the term after they turn 5, but that just meant starting in year1 in an already established class that had been together for a year. I decided that that was even worse! Had the current system been in place then I probably would have applied for him to delay reception til he was 5.
My younger son has a September birthday and things have been very different for the two of them. DS1 always managed perfectly well academically but as others have said, socially and physically he was behind the rest of his year group, all the way through school in some ways eg still being 17 and not being able to legally go to the pub with everyone else to celebrate the end of A levels, last to drive and so on. DS2 has just always been a lot more confident, though obviously some of that is just personality. But I do think being the oldest in the class made things easier for him. DS1 didn't actually struggle, but I think school has always just been that bit harder than it needed to have been. He took a gap year between school and University and I would say that he does now feel like he is in the right cohort at last.

Ds is the youngest in his year. You could tell he was smaller and less mature through to the end of KS1. By the end of KS2 you wouldn’t have known. At GCSE he got nine 9s. So no lasting problems!

Ok, apart from those things, average ability summer borns will catch up with average ability winter borns to be average ability.
Of course there are always children who are above and below. I was talking generally.

I think they all need some adjustment time tbh, my children are sept and Jan babies so not something I will need to consider, but I am an August baby and I never felt left behind, was in top sets at secondary for all subjects etc.
My friends little girl is August 26th and she loves school, and absolutely thriving.

One of my children had two school friends with August birthdays, they've all left school now and the two have ended up with very different academic success but that's because they are two different people, it's not due to the one factor of their birth month

So my point is that it doesn't matter how other children have got on, it won't help or hinder your child and imo it's usually better to stick with the correct school start rime

I mean most people are going to say 'hell be fine' especially since you have already made the decision.
And yes, most kids catch up. But it doesn't mean that they don't struggle. There is no difference between a 22 and a 23 year old. Similarly there is little difference between a 17 and 18 year old. However there is a difference between a 5 and a 4 year old. The 5 year old spent 20 ,% more time of his life playing whereas the 4 year old was robbed of a year of play. And it normally takes a while to catch up, especially emotionally. It's not about how bright they are, it's about emotional maturity.
So in a nutshell, your kid won't be behind for ever, but I find kids do better when they are older when they go to school. (And because people don't like anecdotal evidence, even statistics tend to show that people born in the first half of the year -ie the older ones- do better, higher proportion of ceos etc)

I have two summer born children and just wanted to reassure you that they do "catch-up" IME. I've realised that a large part of that first year (called reception round here) is trying to level out the kids experiences and ages. For instance some children may not have been in a childcare setting before. I would say mine found the first term harder than some of their friends but with gentle encouragement, they had the confidence to keep persevering. They are now nearing the end of Year 1 and are smashing phonics in particular. And most importantly loves their friends and looks forward to school!

My granddaughter is a July baby. She spent the first 4 years of her life abroad in a Spanish speaking country and then was due to move to the U.K. to start school in 2020 just as Covid started. The move was delayed so that she arrived in the November, spent 2 weeks in quarantine and then started in Reception with 2 words of English. Fast forward to January 2021 and she was speaking English fluently and thriving at school, despite the above and the fact that she was one of the youngest in the class.

My August born has thrived in reception. Academically ahead is actually at the top end of the class. She holds her own socially, although as another poster put it, maybe some of the negative social stuff goes over her head.

My end-of-August dc is doing really well at uni. I kept on asking the reception teacher ‘can you tell he is youngest in the class?’, and she would invariably reply ‘not at all’ (ie, there were no obvious signs that they were struggling). One thing I would say though, is be careful not to overload them with activities after school or on weekends during the first year or so - having down time at home is so important..

Tbh I don't read too much into all this. I am a late august baby - youngest in my year all through school.

Always in top sets, good exams , no different to my peers who were born early September/October and almost an entire year older than me.

Never did any harm socially.

I now have a July child & a December child, my whilst my December is one of the older ones (8) & started school nursery at almost 4...
her younger sibling (almost 3) who is summer baby is so much more socially ready than she ever was as the same age to start school nursery in September even though she will be just over 3.

Honestly think it's just child specific.

My dd is born in June and started reception last September and she’s got on great, she’s brilliant at her maths but is struggling with phonics, her teachers have nothing but praise for her and she’s quite happy. We could tell dd was ready for school though as she was starting to dislike preschool and wouldn’t want to go.

He will be fine.

He might be a bit behind with reading and writing at the moment but he sounds like he is doing well with socialising and IMHO the most important thing. Is he happy?

My son is in reception and is one in the oldest in the year, November born. He went to nursery before hand 3 days a week. We’ve always read to him daily, but he still had focus sessions to help him catch up with phonics, and I know there are 4 year olds in his class still who are probably ahead of him. He excels at problem solving and maths. What I’m trying to say is, it really doesn’t make much of a difference when they were born, they all learn at their own pace, have their own strengths and weaknesses and all catch up in their own time. Try not to worry to much, you’re child will be fine x

We’re in Scotland so our system is a bit different but my youngest went to school early and she did struggle a little in primary 1 and I did worry I had made the wrong decision. She’s now 20 doing well at uni. She’s another one that hated that her friends could all drive and go out before she could, especially going away to uni at 17.

It is a worry but the problem is he won’t then start reception at 5, he would go straight into year 1 I believe. So overall I think he would be further behind as he’s missed all the reception learning.

Depending on your council deferring a year doesn't mean they then get to start in Reception the year after. Some councils/schools will then put them straight into year 1 or others then skip year 7 and go straight to year 8 at secondary school.
Although my DS is the oldest in the year (his birthday is 9 times out of 10 the first day back in Sept), he has friends that are the youngest and you cant tell the difference to be honest even now in year 1.
Alot can be improved by working on it at home and remember alot of children wont have been to nursery or preschool (about half of my DS year) so reception is alot of the time getting everyone to a basic level which your DS might already be at

My Son was one of the youngest and struggled up until juniors. He was very behind everyone else but then by the end of school he was top in a lot of tests out of everyone in the class. I’m not bragging but just wanted you to know that it will take time but they can catch up so don’t worry about it.

We had this - but around a decade ago when the only option for deferral was for them to join their correct year late so missing F2 altogether which didn’t seem helpful. He was fine but it took until year 5/6 for him to truly ‘catch-up’ academically and find a consistent level within the class. Writing was probably the most challenging area. If we had been able to defer, I would probably have taken the option, but actually I think he would have been bored. You would also find that this impacts on outside interests - so for football teams (similar), he would have to play in the team that reflects his age which would mean that he isn’t with school friends.

I don’t think you could have technically held him back? Unless you are private I thought all the government would have let you do is let him go straight into year 1 missing reception which would have been worse?
We have October born twins - there were kids in reception who were almost a year younger than our kids and at 4/5 that’s a huge difference. There were some kids who became labelled ‘naughty’ but I often thought that really they were just so much younger.
But I think even some kids older for their year group could also be emotionally immature - the most important thing is academics so your son doesn’t feel he’s behind and thinks he is not capable when really he’s just younger. I would do some gently stuff with him like playing with a spinning top to help his pencil grip - stick some key words on a cupboard door and and him each day point to 5 words.

Academically no, but emotionally it’s been rough at times, particularly reception and year seven. I still wouldn’t defer though, and teen dc agrees it was the right choice for them.

Once he's at the end of reception you'll not be able to see much of a difference. My best friend has 2 late July born. By year 1 her ds was at the top of the class and her dd is the same now in year 3.

Positive story here. My daughter started school last September after turning 4 mid-August. I was also wobbly about it. But she has absolutely thrived and already you'd not pick her out as the youngest. She has readily acquired basic academic skills, has made friends and has really bought in to the school community (she loves worship and singing). She is genuinely really happy going to school which is all we could have asked for. We've had absolutely no problems at all and I'm so glad we didn't defer a year.

Read to him at home regularly and lots of crafty playing. Beading, chalk marking type of play to improve his hand eye coordination and strengthen his little wrists for writing. Cutting Up shapes, drawing over patterns.