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

Hey my daughter is a very late August baby - she was literally 4 about 3-4 days before she started reception. She has been youngest in class / year / school consistently since day 1 - although she is now in a school where someone is 1 day younger than her! But honestly it all evens out - first of all the early years curriculum is based on months (as in age in months) as opposed to years because of how much difference there can be between a 4 year old (just turned) and. September baby who’s 5 a couple days later. My daughter didn’t struggle academically to keep up but socially in primary I felt that she was younger than her peers in a lot of ways and that did lead to her sometimes being left out / bullied because of this and she naturally wanted to spend time with kids in the year below her bcos they were closer in age. However, she’s now close to finishing secondary and you would never know she’s a year younger than some of her friends. Over time the age gap just disappeared. Keep an eye on him, if you think it’s too much or he’s unhappy you can revisit (I know boys can struggle more than girls in this situation) but I think you’ll find he settles in and the age gap becomes much less noticeable.

My son is August 27th and in year 3. I never considered deferring, worried a bit at the beginning but he’s thriving and his teachers have said you’d never guess he was the youngest (he’s beyond many of the autumn born kids). I also teach Maths at a secondary school and I looked at the birth dates of lots of classes to see if there was any correlation and never found anything! Kids do well when they want to do well - if they work hard they’ll be fine!

I think in larger schools, DC don’t really know DC in the year below. They find dc in their own cohort. Obviously some 4 year olds are less socially ready for school than others but @Justkeepteaching I am interested in secondary observations. Some people seem to think summer born dc are destined to be behind Autumn borns forever. Amongst my peers, DH and my own DC and their friends, I just haven’t seen this. I’ve seen parents have low expectations of summer borns though! And use it as an excuse which I don’t think does dc any favours.

I work in reception and can assure you that he won't be the only summer born child. There will be many his age at the same level. Theres almost a year between the youngest and oldest in the class so it wouldn't have made a difference if he was 5.

I'm 19/8 and my daughter was born 8/8
I was worried too particularly when she started nursery at 2 years 3 1/2 weeks. She understood everything but wasn't really talking, after 10 days there her speech just exploded. I've never worried about it since and likewise I held my own through school and beyond made the top sets etc.
I'm sure it will be fine.

I’ve been teaching for 17 years and when I had my son (almost 8 years ago) I spent quite a lot of time looking at the spread of birthdays at my school and the sets they were in for Maths (I’m a Maths teacher) - I’m very interested in data and having an August born I wanted to see if there was any correlation between birthdays and their set in Maths. Obviously it’s just a small data set compared to the whole population but there was literally no correlation. I even looked at their predicted grades in a number of subjects to see if there was any link (yes, I’m that much of a nerd!) but there was nothing. I know lots of adults as well who were summer born and have gone on to become Lawyers, Doctors etc. I honestly think the biggest factor is how much they want to work hard and learn.

Mine started just after her 4th birthday, she's now in Y3 and doing really well with all the school work, excelling in some areas. She is younger than some of the others in terms of what she plays with (toy kitchen for example , friends are selling theirs) but i love that, that she's not growing up too fast.

Whilst I don’t necessarily disagree with your post, I would argue that the research just looks at one factor in a child’s educational journey and that there are far more important factors than their birth month to consider. You can’t really compare birth months alone as you can’t have two identical children, born at either end of the school year, being given the exact same opportunities and teaching at school and have the same support and parenting at home and then show that it was the month they were born that made the difference. A well supported child with no SEN and a willingness/eagerness to learn will do well no matter what month they were born. As a teacher, the children who perform worst at GCSE and A levels are the ones who don’t put in the effort/don’t care. That has a far bigger impact than the month they were born!

Hi,
my son (now 13) was born 30th August and in those days we had no choice about whether to send him or keep him back. He was the older child so no older siblings to help him “grow up quicker” or anything. I knew he’d be OK academically, but worried about him emotionally. Obviously it was a bit rough for a couple of days, but after that he absolutely flew - made lovely friends and went from the bottom reading group (put there based on age) to the top really quickly. Turns out he’s pretty clever and I’m pleased there was no option to keep him down so we didn’t have to make a decision.
In my son’s case, he didn’t go to the school nursery where a lot of the kids had been (he’d been at a private nursery part time due to working hours.) So I guess this made his transition a little bit harder because others already had more friends - but we made sure he met up with a few others before he went to Reception, and it was absolutely fine. Every year at his birthday party throughout primary school, parents said they forgot how young for the year he was (3 of his friends were 1st / 2nd September!) and how grown up he was.
I don’t have any advice, as children are all different, but I just wanted to tell you my story.
In Y9 the same child is still thriving and very happy in school.

@Justkeepteaching I tend to think you are probably right. My DD1 is August birthday. Her primary friend, a late May birthday - Cambridge maths grad. The top 5 DC at DDs primary in her year for 11 plus scores were all summer borns. 3 went to Oxbridge. State primary. (I’m afraid DCs do discuss their scores!). I know the scores were weighted for summer born but DCs still had to perform at secondary! I think some dc find school easier than others and personality matters. All of the 5 were girls though. I know some of the 5 were reading well at 4. My DD wasn’t that advanced.

Confidence matters as well I think. DD and others needed no encouragement to try something. Language skills were good. Brilliant teachers helped but some dc are reticent to participate. They do take longer to gain the most they can. Never been sure DD worked that hard at school though! Her friends seemed to think she didn’t do the max at uni either. Doesn’t seem to have mattered. Confidence has mattered a great deal and a clear plan for a career.

I have a feeling that professional statisticians might be aware of this kind of thing and know how to correct for extraneous and confounding variables.

Mine was born in August and I was worried too. And he was early (his actual due date was the 29th!) But he's been absolutely fine. He's been at a quite small school with a nice friendly atmosphere, which probably helps. But if he wasn't doing ok you'd know about it by now. Mine's in Y2 now and he's got a lovely group of friends and seems to be keeping up ok with school work. So, yes, like the others say - he'll be fine 😘

My Grandson arrived slightly earlier than planned on 31st August.
He started school a few days after his 4th birthday after a lot of stress and worrying from my daughter beforehand. He was tiny (aged 2-3 clothes) and a late talker. He was slightly behind his peers and had only had a year at nursery.
She was desperate to defer him a year but was told that if he started the following year, he would go straight into Yr 1 and, advised her that as reception is like an extension of nursery, he might have have struggled more going straight into Yr1 and missing out on socialising with his classmates.
He’s in Yr2 now and still the smallest, but boy does he hold his own and copes very well.
He is still slightly behind his peers, but we are thinking he’s possibly dyslexic.
DD has no regrets now. He loves school and she has lots of lovely feedback of what a delight he is.

My daughters are June and August born and they’ll both be waiting until CSA to start school. Whilst they probably would be okay in reception at 4. I don’t want them to just be okay, I want them to thrive. The extra year in nursery/home will be so beneficial to them. Another thing we considered is, it isn’t just starting reception early, it’s also doing that SATS a year younger, their GCSES, going to college and uni. Overall, the extra year will be so good for them in the long run.

You are entitled to ask your school and local council to consider repeating reception as this is your right as a parent of a summer born child however as pointed out before, seeing his friends move up might be really confusing for him. I am all for starting school at CSA but it does seem like that may be unsettling for a child. If I was in your position, I would be working with the school to see what they could put into place, interventions, working in social skills, his reading and writing etc whilst going into Y1.

This isn’t true.

You don’t automatically go into year 1. You can request a reception start at 5 and the school/local authority decide. They have to say why placing the child into Y1 would be in their best interest. We all know missing reception would rarely be in their best interest so 95% of the time they’re placed into reception.

I haven’t read all of the posts but seen a few and surprised that some people can defer and allow children to start in reception if deferred for a year.
My DD was told DGS would go straight into year 1 if she chose to defer him. This was in 2021. Do local authorities have their own rules regarding this?

My son now 16 is an August baby! He turned 4 before starting in reception but had also been to a childminder & preschool prior to starting. He however was more than ready for school.
I’m a great believer in mum knows best.
Reception is mainly play based anyway & he could always do half days.

starlight our posts crossed. DD wasn’t given the choice. She was told straight to Yr1 if she deferred

The local authority/head teacher has the final say but it’s rare they would say Y1 because missing reception obviously wouldn’t be ideal for any child. Some head teachers don’t really understand it all so they just say you have to stay with their year group and then the LA just agrees. In recent years there’s definitely been an increase in allowing children to start in reception at 5!

I was the youngest (27 August). I’m sure my Mum worried but it never did me any harm.

My understanding is that if you choose not to start them at 4, then they just miss out on reception and go straight into year one.
They don’t go into Reception a year later, so they miss everything that is done in reception and I don’t think this would be beneficial to them at all.

Not true.
You can now start reception a year later if you have a summer born child.

Hi OP, eldest DD August born, but 6 weeks early so should have been a whole school year later developmentally. I would say the only difference was being very tired initially but as other posters have said it does even out. Now 22, 1st class law degree and doing very well in her career!

These threads pop up regularly and are always full of anecdotes about kids born on August 31st who now have a PhD from Oxford or whatever.

But as a previous poster has said, on a population level it is acknowledged that summer born children who start with their correct cohort, don’t do as well as pupils born before the summer months. Of course it’s a flawed assessment, because there are so many other variables to consider - parental support, quality of teaching, child’s natural intellectual ability, general health, poverty, deprivation, facilities at school etc etc.

But in general, the less mature pupils don’t do as well. It’s a fact, which has lead to the change in policy, allowing parents to delay their children’s start date.

Everyone will have their own individual experiences. Mine is of a high academically achieving child, who definitely found being the youngest a challenge, due to lack of confidence. Having said that, my younger child is way more confident, and if he was summer born he’d have been better equipped to cope than DS1.

My Son was one if the youngest .July baby ,barely 4 when he started Reception.He was one of the top boys in his year, and went to a RG uni and is now a chemist working in industry. Please dont worry, he sounds similar to my boy (Now nearly 30!) Some schools would start late Summer babies in yr 1 and miss reception, Not to be recommended!