Summer borns in primary school

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My son is an August 2021 baby so would be due to start school in September 2024. I’ve recently become aware that summer borns (born after April 1st) can defer and start reception the following year, so in my sons case would be September 2026. I contacted my local council and they approved this straight away, it was very easy. They agreed he could start reception when aged 5 and not miss reception as well as not skip a year of school down the line, he would stay in his adopted year. They said this has become very common throughout the UK and local councils are fully supportive. My son has no reason to be deferred other than being a summer born. I would be interested in hearing from other parents who’ve deferred, has this been a positive experience? I guess my only concern would be, would he feel different and out of place when down the line he’d be aware he’s educated out of cohort. Other than that, I can’t think of any negatives in deferring, only positives.

I have two summer borns (one late July, one late August). Didn’t defer either of them and it seems to be fine. Lack of deferral was largely down to a good friendship group and no issues at nursery. But I’d definitely not have thought twice about it had it been a different scenario, so I’d say go for it if you think it would suit your child.

From my own experience as a summer born myself, I always remember in school envying the older ones. They just seemed lucky to me to be having birthdays first, being generally taller and more grown up, learning to drive first etc. I always felt less confident, and wished I was the oldest in the year rather than the youngest. But that’s just me and my feelings rather than anything I can say goes beyond the personal.

There is one member of my family whose birthday is September 3rd and who was thus the oldest in his school year. He did very badly at school! So there are no guarantees anyway.

childlawadvice.org.uk/information-pages/education-of-children-outside-of-their-chronological-age-group/

I delayed my my end of August born DD and it’s been the best decision. She is going up to secondary in September and I still don’t have any regrets at all. Socially she has been fine all the way through.

DD was actually on the SEN register at nursery but an extra year to mature has made all the difference. She moved off it by year 1 and is now expected to do well in her SATs.

There were a couple of paper work hurdles to jump through - but we even relocated to a new area during the secondary application process and it’s been fine.

I can’t comment on the age limit for competitive sports though - as DD isn’t that way inclined anyway.

My daughter was born right at the end of August 2020.

So she just started reception last September. She didn’t go to nursery, just straight in.

She is thriving. Reading and writing (had no interest in either before September), parents eve two weeks ago we weren’t surprised to be told she is exceeding expectations for this time of year. Socially and emotionally she’s thriving too. Her teacher said from the first week in that you’d never think she was the youngest (by 4 months), you’d think she was the oldest.

Shes doing better than her older siblings who are both October born children did.

Everyone was telling us we should defer, especially when they were horrified to find out she didn’t go to nursery (none of my children did), but I’m so glad we didn’t.

All children are different. She’s extremely confident, sociable and bloody minded and we knew she would be fine.

The 11+ is weighted for age. Certainly in my area, anyway. my August born is only reception, but she will be taking it just like her older siblings did when the time comes.

Sorry, to add, my daughter’s due date was September 16th, my c section was originally booked for September 8th but she had other ideas and had to come last week of August! My consultant actually commented that oh dear, she won’t be one of the oldest in reception now while she was being delivered.

Certainly not where we are. This is still the case as stated in the current policy for the London borough where we are. It is up to the secondary to decide.

No it was not simply the way you do for primary everywhere. It is clearly stated on our London borough’s policy. They decide if you defer for primary but for secondary the school decides.

The mother I routinely spoke to about is certainly found it to be jumping through hoops. She had to contact many schools to find out which would support a deferral. Then she would know which to put forward as choices. Many did not reply to emails and she was frequently chasing to try to speak to someone to see if they would agree to it should the DC be allocated a place at this school. She found it quite challenging.

The policies for other London boroughs near us are available to view and some say this is the case.

Obviously this will vary where you live but it cannot simply be dismissed that it is a simple process. For some it is not currently simple.

It’s not, it’s go to the school to prove it would be in the best interest of that specific child to miss school the last year of primary and they almost certainly will not be able to make a case for that, due to obvious reasons.

You can defer any child born after April 1st so you could have the youngest be nearly 17 months younger than the oldest.

I agree with your concerns on this, especially as I imagine that some of the children who are already disadvantaged for other reasons are far more likely to be the ones not deferred (only engaged parents aware of how the system works will defer). But I also agree that it’s not an issue for the individual parents to solve or consider when they are making the best decision for their child, which is obviously a totally reasonable thing for them to do.

This is the current stance where I am on the local authority policy:

‘When transferring to Year 7, parents/carers should note that all secondary schools in XXXX are their own admission authority and the decision to admit children outside of the normal age group at secondary age would be solely at the discretion of the school. The LA will work with families to facilitate their request; however parents should note that this cannot always be guaranteed.’

So for a classmate this meant doing the secondary application a year early and asking for them to agree to defer so the DC could do Y6. This was with very obvious reasons - premature, diagnosed learning difficulties. The problem was that you don’t choose secondary school, just nominate choices of course, and it was not easy for my friend to get confirmation from the schools that they would do it. She found it very stressful. Hopefully they will make is easier but people need to check the policy where they live and not take advice that is not specific to where they live.

Well yes. Mine has a mid-July birthday and was just fine, although deferring wasn't much of a thing at the time (she's now 18 and at uni). But she was bored at nursery - not enough formal learning going on there (she's also autistic). School was where she wanted to be.

But, it depends on the child. Some children are ready, some aren't. There's no one-size-fits-all. And if everyone with a summer born deferred their child's entry, March/April babies will simply become the new 'summer borns'. Each parent must do what they feel is best for their own child.

To give you a different perspective, I’ve got a very bright autumn born girl, who is also my DC2. If she’d been 2 weeks older she’d be in reception right now.

She hasn’t been bored at all in nursery - she has absolutely thrived. She’s at a preschool attached to a primary school and they have been doing phonics and writing with her there. She would definitely have coped if she’d been in reception given what she’s capable of now, but as it is she is loving life spending most of her time playing with her friends. She is going to have the most fantastic start at primary as she can already read simple books and write well.

If I had a summer born I would absolutely defer them. Who wants their child to “cope” or “catch up eventually” when they could thrive from day 1.

My DC is over 18 now. He arrived right at the end of August instead of the middle of the autumn. We deferred, it was hard to achieve in those days but it was absolutely the best thing to do. It would never have been a struggle for him intellectually but he was so tiny that even starting aged 5 he was wearing age 2 clothes. All the EYFS things were a big ask for him. Zipping up coat, the motor skills. He was Yr10 before he stopped being small and is now over 6 ft. I can't imagine how much more tricky the early primary years would have been if he'd gone at 4.

I started my 2013 aug born at compulsory school age .

at the time I didn't really think too much about high school it seemed so far away . Now we are in year 6, he's been accepted into his first choice high school with zero issues but I am now worried about potential bullying if people find out he could of been in the year above .

Ive never doubted my decision until now really .

It felt so right for primary he's had no issues , he's doing well in all subjects and has never struggled but hasn't been really above everyone else either . He's the oldest by 2 weeks

I have a summer born dd - and I now have to work out what to do for the best but she's a totally different child to my son

I don't agree with this perspective.

If you went on a training course at work and you already knew all of the content, you would be bored and feel it was a waste of your time. You now have a child in that situation. In reception, she will be taught to read and write, but she already can. So in the carpet sessions, she will be bored and wasting her time. They might have some streaming for phonics, which may mean she doesn't need to spend two months learning the first 20 letter sounds, but they may not stream.

I personally wouldn't call spending 2 hours per day doing things that you can already do "thriving."

Tbh I think it’s very unfair that children could end up in a class with ‘peers’ who are 16months older just because the went to school at the ‘correct’ time. They may have been taught the same academically but the older children will have more emotional maturity and my August baby will be treated the same.

My personal view is that they should only be held back with a good reason. Eg speech delay or a special need.

My DS is a July baby and it has been a battle behaviour wise until Y8 he was just very immature compared to his peers.

Academically, it was a slow start and one of his primary teacher's said he may flourish later as he was only just hitting milestones etc. Then he did his SATs and got surprisingly very high scores and now he is sitting in the top of set 1 in maths and English and scores consistently high across the board in tests.

He has trouble iin sports as he is good but physically, playing football and running he is not as developed so obviously finds this harder. Infact most athletes are autumn born DC.

There is no ‘correct time’ if they’re attending before 5 though, compulsory school age is t until 5 years old.

Our youngest is 31st August! Deferring wasn’t an option 20 years ago.
academically it made no difference to exam results, I’m afraid you’re either clever or your not!
It was always noticeable he was younger for sports teams till he was 13/14 and when his friends were driving in 6th form and he was still 16.
If we had our time again I think we’d probably consider deferring particularly if it becomes the norm to do so. I think if you asked him though, he’d say no!

I was going to ask about sports. For some it won’t matter as they compete in their year of birth rather than school year (lifeguards is one example that I know of), but others are in academic year where playing in the ‘wrong’ age group is definitely not allowed.

This just shows that you have absolutely no idea how teaching works in EYFS. It is nothing like a training course in an adult workplace.

As it happens I have an older child (spring born) who could also read before starting school. He wasn’t bored at all in reception. Teachers are good at differentiating, formal teaching in reception is relatively limited, they do stream children for phonics in any event and there’s no harm in revising things that are the foundation of learning. There is nothing that she will do that is “boring” or “wasting her time”.

I did this for both of my children. They have July and August birthdays. Best decision ever, especially for my son. I’m also a primary school teacher and have seen first hand how beneficial this has been to children who have done the same in my own classes.

One of mine is born end of April. So the mums I know who are his playmates mainly are around March, April, May, June.

There’s a few mums who are May who are saying they are going to defer. That is absolutely barmy imo. I can’t believe this is allowed from 1st April!

August born is much more debatable and you should do as you think is best. No one’s going to say they made the wrong decision are they.