Summer Born Deferred Children Excluded From Team Sports

[David88]

We are currently looking at deferring our daughter as she is a summer born child. She was born in late August putting her just days older than the year group more suited to her educational and emotional needs. Whilst this is being supported we are being told she will be “excluded from all team sports throughout her life” by admissions. Despite her being just 11 days older than the September year group cut off, the ‘U8’, ‘U9’ etc code will apparently exclude her from taking part in all team sports away from school or when her school plays another etc. Does anyone have experience on what pathways there are to allow her to be included with her peers. I understand the FA have a system for football but after speaking to the local council who don’t offer any guidance or help on the subject there seems to be no avenues on this subject. Would anyone have any advice please?

Surely they just mean she will have to play with her chronological age group, rather than be excluded from out of school sports?

I know in rugby you can apply to play out of age group.

She’ll do PE with her class.

But yes, she’ll miss the cut off dates for competitive sport, so she will need to do those through clubs in her correct cohort. Clubs are usually better coached and idc play more fixtures than schools.

If you didn't have age rules you'd no doubt get some super competitive sports parents pushing to 'hold back' their kids so they'd be older and physically bigger, stronger, faster and able to dominate in the younger school year group teams.

Is it a state school or independent ?

The latter can be weird about competing in school competitions but I’ve never heard of any issue at state schools, you just do PE with your usual class ? And most extra curricular clubs are done based on age rather than year group anyway?

We took the view that the small risk of a sports club being tricky wasn’t worth the huge benefits of having the summer born disadvantage corrected by starting at CSA. Being young for the year would likely make your sporting prowess reduced anyway, but I really can’t see many circs in which this would be an issue…?

For what it’s worth, we started our august born at csa and are so relieved that we did. Mumsnet tends to generate a lot of ignorant comments about this issue so be warned, usually either from people who haven’t read up on it or those who feel defensive about not doing the same for their own child….

Shell just play with her age group at club sports, that's a non-issue as even if she had school friends at the club there are many sports where you are grouped by ability instead of age so in those cases she wouldn't necessarily be with her school friends anyway.

Often they only play for a year together anyway and then one half of the group moves up. U16 Rugby is year 11 and 10, U14 is year 9 and 8, U12 is year 7, obviously I've used typical year groups so the group she would be in without deferring.

Swimming galas are single age groups.
Dance is ability based for relevant classes Grade 1, Grade 2 etc so you can have a range of ages

She’ll just play with her chronological age group for sports and not with the year below. I don’t think this is unfair. It’s something to consider though if she’s sporty.

My son is August born and I didn’t defer (it wasn’t an option). I’m glad there wasn’t as I probably would have and although it would have benefitted him at 4, it wouldn’t have now at 13. Sport is a large part of his life too and playing with his classmates has been great for him so I would consider the sporting aspect if you’re going to defer. I don’t think you could expect sporting teams to allow summer born kids to play for the year below. Not all summer born kids are August.

My in cohort 12 yo y8 girl isnt in a sports tean anyway in fact she is in the bottom pe set despote beong pretty tall (5'4) which is 91st centile. None of her ummer born froends are on the top set either. Realosotcally there are say 120 girls in the year and i dont know i guess maybe 10 needed for netball then any kid only has 8% chance.
I was august and even with a private school and only maybe 80 in the yeargroup only ever invited once for a rounders match where i was a substitute that never played.
Possibly there os more chance of gettong on the house match teams but i doubt they would stop a csa chold playong anyway.

My CSA girl was really fast up to y2 then overtaken by kids whose parents pay a lot of out of school clubs.

Most people dont become sports people.
but everyone unless going onto some trades they will need gcses etc.

Its rubbish really that in education AND in sport the teachers and coaches cant see who is actually talented or will be and push summer borns as much as winter borns..
I mean they are already educationally disadvantaged but also in sports.

Thinking about it the summer borns seem to be doing better at getting into say the maths set than the sports.

As one who was born in the last week of August - bad idea I would say. Being the youngest all the time was no disadvantage academically or socially - you tend to keep up with your peer group. Only awkward bit was being one of the last in the class whose voice broke/ hit puberty - but that is as much due to genetics as age.

(and due to an odd set of circumstances I ended up jumping a year, and so taking A levels, and leaving school, at 16...)

There are some sports, if played below county level, you can ask for an exemption to play in year - the FA and Rugby being 2, but others don't at any level e.g,. Cricket (except Middlesex), Rowing, Swimming, gymnastics.

As with everything there has to be a cutoff for the different groups and August isn't a huge issue/difference to 1st September but April/May is a much larger gap, so permission even in rugby/football isn't guaranteed.

Other out of school activities can also be affected for anything which has age boundaries.

I don't really understand what you mean?
In school sport the cut off is the 31st August, so the whole cohort are in the same age group. So all year 2 for example are under 7s even though some of them actually are 7.

Funnily enough I know someone who is in the same school year as my youngest who is having exactly this problem.
mum wants him in clubs as his school year, ie with his school friends. Sports clubs have said no due to regulations / insurance it needs to be chronological age.

Upshot is that he does no outside sport that he would like to do because mum hasn’t told him he’s out of year and can’t explain why he’s not in the same team as his school friends.

@BigSilly shes debating holding them back a year so when they’re in year 2 they will be under 8’s, not under 7’s.

My DC was out of year and while they did PE with their year group, they could not represent their school etc. Significant issue as my DC (who was sporty) got turned off sport because of it.

I have a summer baby and won't be deferring. I think the sports club policy is fair. There has to be a cut off point and there'll be deferred children who are a year or over a year older than the youngest children who are in the correct age group.

Sorry but OF COURSE she should play sports with her actual age group! There has to be a cut off somewhere and 31 august is it. The older the kid, the bigger and stronger the kid, as a generalisation, so it would start getting dangerous if every parent said, 'but it's only one more day'. Yes, your particular dc might be small, but obviously there has to be a cut off.

I've just read your message again and I'm getting the rage!! Why the fuck should there be a pathway so your kid can cheat?!

Are you in England, Scotland or Wales.
Each will have different rules

I don't know if they mean just school sports teams but it us definitely not the case for all sports in the wider sense. Some use the school year, others the chronological year for their age group. Off the top of my head I know that British Cycling use age on 1st January to determine what age group a child will race in for that season whereas England Hockey now have their current off as 31st August, the same as English schools. So my DS who is born in the Autumn was one of the youngest in his year for cycling but one of the oldest at hockey.
At school, your DD would do regular PE and games lessons with her class, but I would guess that if she wanted to play for school teams she'd probably have to play with the year above. Outside school it would go on her chronological age, so if she played hockey on the England Hockey Talent Pathway as an example, she wouldn't be eligible in Year 13 as she would already be over 18 before 1st September, whereas those in the "correct" cohort could play as U18 until the end of their schooling even once they've turned 18.. She would still be able to play of course but her age group would be determined by her date of birth not school year - same would apply for homeschooling children or anyone else who was not following the "standard" educational pathway.

I didn’t defer my August born and I also have a July born. July born is doing really well academically so glad I didn’t defer.
August born is managing in every way. Quite tired, allowances are being made in school but academically doing ok.
So I would talk to the school and see how they help the summer borns. Maybe look at a few schools. Mine are in mixed age group classes so year 1 is still mainly learning through play.h
My August born is in reception

There Is an out of year dc in DD’s class. He does PE as normal with his class. For friendly weekly matches against other schools he plays with his class ( so technically too old but it’s a friendly). However, for official tournaments like IAPS and for rugby he has to play up or not play. As it happens he isn’t good enough for the year above so he doesn’t play but he technically could and it would only be an issue in Year 8 when there’s nowhere to play up to because year 8 is top of the school.

i know it’s theoretically possible to get an exemption for club rugby but I don’t personally know anyone who’s got one. For girls even less likely as they go up in 2 year age groupings as it is which is tough when you’re at the cut off of the younger year. For school rugby I’ve also never seen it as they are paranoid about injuries.

She'll have to play in the year above for competitions, has always been thus. Talented players will often play up a year anyway.

Fa in particular is very strict, we had to bring in her passport each year to register dd, despite like many girls her playing with older kids often due to lack of players

Agree.

I mean, the "despite her just being 11 days older than the September year group cut off" argument makes no sense.
You are suggesting she is too young to be in a year group with people who could be up to 11 months and 20 days older than her but you are pushing for her to play sports against people who could be 12 months and 10 days younger than her. How would that be "fair".

With any cut off date, there will always be someone who is the youngest, and someone who is the oldest. It can't be any other way.

Oh, and yes, we have an August born.

There has been a spate of left wing ideals pushed through in the last decade or so, on the basis that it would be lovely for that individual person, with absolutely fuck all thought gone in to the negative impact on anyone else. I'm looking at you TWAW. It's exactly the same as the op wants here. Never mind the fact that your dc could be a year and 11 days older than her competitor, rather than the previous maximum of one year, and thus a year and 11 days bigger and stronger, never mind that that person is now more liable to be injured in a contact sport, as long as it suits your dc. Entitlement is on the rise.

For the poster above whose school allows it for 'friendlies.' What difference does whether it's a friendly or not make in the injury? Kids will go for it regardless of the type of match. I wonder if their risk assessment covers injuries by an out of cohort player. Do you make the other school aware so that the parents can make a decision whether their dc plays or not?

DD stayed in year, but had children a year older and younger in academic year. I suspect that schools phoned ahead to agree it was okay, if it ever was an issue. My daughter is a hockey goalie and she was certainly allowed to "play up", sometimes 2 years if teams were short.

External swimming and biathlon comps are usually done on an "Age at 31 December"... I don't ever remember seeing "at 31 August"
Things like cross-country will have multi-age groups competing at once.

If you do decide to stay in academic year, do stress to DC that some children are months and months older than her so of course they will be better for a few years.

DD is nearing the end of her school career so I have seen the rise, and subsequent fall, of her older peers. It must be hard to watch the younger (very determined) younger kids overtake you.

Whatever you do, focus on building expectations and emotional resilience.