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.

Reception is not usually an Issue as it all play based. It’s as they move further up the school that summerborns often struggle. The transition to Y1, or Key stage 2 or secondary. For my summer born husband ( who is extremely successful) it was when he got to sixth form. He dropped out and ended up repeating year 12 twice. Also it’s not just about academics, it’s the social side. My DC is much more able to deal with school emotional than they would have done if they’d been a year younger. This follows them through. I’m so pleased they’ll be a year older when dealing with all the teenage drama

But there is a ‘correct year’. If they delay starting and are not moved into that year they are considered ‘out of year’

It really depends on the child the schools etc
But

You cannot tell if a child has sen at 3... There are people getting asd diagnosed very young but i think unless they are constantly stimming etc its probably unwise to be so young.

The sen diagnosed in summer borns is probably
Dyslexia
Well obviously summer are more likely not ready to learn phonics vs winter borns. So maybe fail y1 phonics test. Having seen a kid still on the scheme in y3 well that would be into y4 if summer born. And yes even march born he ended up with sen diagnosis just because he was slower to pick it up! Now imo it was wrong anyway because by y6 he not only exceeded on sats but did very very well. He didnt use the extra time he was given. His reading is now fine. But priniclally reading is practised at home so that can be caught up by parents. Maths is probably the main issue in that it can be harder to catch up and stay caught up. My dd was very bright and could read cvc words at 3. But by y1 got slightly behind on maths. Not really surprising as her writing wasnt great (and she seems to have slow processing). She caught back up and stayed at 'met' but never got to exceeding. And yet she is say top 10% nationally for maths. So was made to feel useless at it because school have a narrow view that you are fast at maths if good. (Rubbish..) Probably based on competitive boys..
Anyway in terms of adhd that doesnt seen to be diagnosed much here. But if it were schools nationbally seem to refer the fidgety kids. Well that is a tiny part of adhd.
Bigger issues are concentration and impulsivity. Lots of young kids cant sit still well. And 20min carpet time - where they cant see the book is a lot. How many are actually listening. Its forming bad habits of looking like you are listening when you arent.
Writing probably is the most developmentally inappropriate. And i would think few 4y0 can learn that easily in a 30 kid environment so effectively you are teaching them to have a go but it may look rubbish compared to peers. There is a lot of writing by ks2 though so that improves.
But.. Obviously being referred by teacher for eg adhd is likely the child is annoying the teacher or very much less mature. Genuine sen kids are supposedly 1/3 less than their age. But i dont think teachers are fully thinking of how the age in class works.
So a aug born y 6 (just turned 10 in sept) is 12m older than a sept born y4 (9). Now would you expect the same from them? In a park you might think the kids are similar ages. But at school they are getting ready for sats vs starting to learn fractions
If the y4 can read like a y6 they are 'gifted'.

Just turned 11 is very young to be exposed to unfiltered 18yo.
Theres vaping, bullying (physical and verbal), some kids swearing, constantly kids going to behaviour support.

One of dc friends is jul and very bright (probably gifted). They got moved down from set 1 maths (so presumably had great sats) within a year.

but in a scenario where the bottom 1/3 fail maths or english. But even retaking it wont necessarily help because clearly even if you are now the age of the oldest youve missed bits along the way.

i woyldnt trust many schools to ID sen. As anway they probably wont tell you.

Just fyi you can start midway through the year - if you have a place you can choose not to send your child until part way through the year if you feel that is best for them. The disadvantage of that is that your child would be joining an established group which may be hard friendship wise, and would have missed some of the teaching eg around phonics etc, so it’s not a popular option, but it is completely possible.

I think the SEN point is interesting, but also kinda unbelievable that parents and teachers don't take age into consideration when questioning whether a child has SEN.

On the contrary, I know of 3 autumn born boys in my son's reception class who have some behavioural issues, are a bit behind on reading....their parents are concerned because as they are the eldest they have 'no excuse' and should be doing well. It's so important to treat children as individuals. The statistics are important too, but of course not all summer borns will be disadvantaged and not all autumn borns will excel.

And I suppose that’s what makes it difficult.

Deciding whether to delay your child is a bit of a gamble really…..you don’t know if it is/will be the right decision or not, you just need to go with what feels right at the time.

The risk is to send them at just turned 4 and hope everything is ok, or send them at just turn 5 and risk them being bored.

My deferred son is very clever. When he was in Year 1 he went up to the Year 2 class for both maths and English, and now he’s in Year 2 he joins the Year 3 group for those lessons.

He took the year 2 SATS when he was in Year 1, and got the top mark out of all the year 2 students.

It’s because of this that his teachers, and the Head have been trying to push us towards moving him up a year group so he’s back with the cohort he ‘should be in’ but me and DH don’t want that. I have no doubt that academically he would be fine if he went up a year, but socially and emotionally he is on par with his current cohort and there is an obvious difference between him and the children in the year above.

At the minute my son is enjoying school, he’s thriving, has a lovely friendship group and is confident, but I know that if I moved him up to the school year above he’d be so overshadowed by their stronger characters and he’d lose the happy and confident qualities that he currently has and no doubt start falling behind.

Don’t you think that being regularly surrounded by children who are more socially and emotionally mature would have a positive effect on your ds’s development @NorthernGirl1981 ?

That is a good point. There is also the issue of an August born child who is now disadvantaged and are having to work with children who are well over a year older than them which isn't fair. You could say that they have a choice to defer but if everyone did this wouldn't we be back to square one?

I believe it can only be good a thing (based on experience and studies) and don’t really buy into “it depends on the child” - because that child will eventually be a teenager who could then feel emotionally behind their peers. Starting kids in school when they’re closer to 4 than 5 I think is crazy, they’re only just out of toddlerhood. Sure they could be fine but it’s so much better they have an extra year of play under their belt if possible, IMO.

But it doesn’t, it’s been well proven that for many summer horns attending school at just turned 4 doesn’t have a positive effect.

@NorthernGirl1981 The risk is to send them at just turned 4 and hope everything is ok, or send them at just turn 5 and risk them being bored

It’s even more of a risk when you consider the actual application process. I was viewing primary schools when my summer born was just turned 3. They were literally 2 about 3 weeks prior and I was having to assess if I felt a school would be the best fit for them or not when they were barely out of the baby stage!

I agree with you 100%. I think people who have not deferred there children refuse to accept the facts by stating how well their dc are doing. It’s a much bigger picture than just the academics. Emotionally deferring can only be a positive and schools should be equipped with the ability to teach to different abilities so I don’t believe that the potential to get bored is really an issue for anyone

Well not really because if every Summer born child was deferred then we wouldn’t have any children starting school at just turned 4 years old. Which would be the best outcome really.

No, I’m quite happy for my son to he surrounded by children similar to his own age and stage of development and grow and mature and alongside them.

Why should children need to pushed to develop quicker than they naturally would do?

My DS and his cousin sit either side of the 31 Aug cut off. It's been interesting to follow the differences in school experiences between them. While there are lots of things in the mix, I feel being youngest in the school year really impacted Nephews engagement at secondary level. He has been pushed beyond his maturity and is now opting out of education.

In Wales lots of children start half days in school nurseries the term after they turn 3. That means there’s not much variation in ages between those starting each term.

They’re only there for a few hours but it prepares them well for reception, and in our case as we’d chosen Welsh medium education it gave them more opportunities to learn and socialise in Welsh than many private nurseries could offer.

We have a September born and a June born, both boys, so have seen both ends of the spectrum age wise.

I personally don’t see my ‘ summer born’ as a special case . There has to be a cut- off. School years encompass nearly a one year range of age difference and it’s determined that that encompassing range is absolutely fine for learning objectives . My youngest is an august- born, thank god I didn’t defer as that would have added a wholly unecessary year to my primary school run…

You are going to get a wide array of varied answers, but from my perspective you should really only be concentrating on your child and whether you think they will be ‘ready’ for reception when they are meant to start going to school. Your little boy was born the same year as mine except my son was September born meaning his correct entry year is September 2026. He’ll be 4 for a few weeks then turn 5, however, he does have very clear SEN mostly to do with his communication, and at 3.5 he has a while to go before reception year, and we have so far decided not to defer him, although we could. In our case our son may never be ‘school ready’ in the idealistic sense so I’m not sure how deferring him would be of any huge benefit. He’s just lucky that he was born in September…in a way. Generally what we are looking at with my son is helping him with self care and social routine understanding throughout the average school day, as he can already technically do academic work at a much higher level compared to his age. If your child is basically typically developing I would personally say they don’t need to be deferred, and I am of the opinion that you can never expose your child to books and reading too early. Toilet trained, able to dress and undress, self feed and understand more than 1 step instructions are all important for school starting.

I also think about the fact that my DH was August born but did academically very well. I was Feb born and was also academically very good - average. It really all depends on the child.

No, that doesn’t mean there isn’t much difference by reception. The entire of the UK has access to school nurseries, there is still a serious proven link between summer borns and lesser educational attainment and lower development overall. This difference in attainment applies right through schooling, on average.

School years encompass nearly a one year range of age difference and it’s determined that that encompassing range is absolutely fine for learning objectives

@flutterby1
Is that determined though? The sort of graphs posted upthread don’t seem to show that.

I didn’t say there’s not much difference by reception, I say that each group that starts is close in age. I’m not denying the data that shows the differences between birthdays and educational achievement however starting school nursery just after their 3rd birthday
definitely does help them to prepare for reception in a way that private nurseries don’t. They’re used to the environment and structure of the school day - attending and taking part in assemblies etc, used to wearing uniform, having PE lessons etc. It was very positive for both of our ds’s and their bilingualism really took off.

I actually think the 15 hours funding made it worse for summerborns. The elder children got 5 terms of preschool education compared to the younger children's three terms. So they had the advantage of more preschool and being older.

I agree. There are so many ways a summer born can be disadvantaged in the education system yet people seem to think parents make the deferral decision just because they don’t want their child to be the youngest in the class. It’s the possible consequences of starting school at just over 4 that is the reason why parents defer their child, not because the fact the child will be the youngest.

My husband is a teacher and when we were planning our children he said he doesn’t care when they are born, so long as we don’t have summer babies 🤣 Ironically enough I conceived at the end of November so when I told him in December that I was pregnant his first reaction was total happiness, but then realisation dawned and he said, “That means we’re going to have a summer baby though doesn’t it?!” 🤣

We always knew we were going to defer our child, not solely because of all the research and statistics but also because of what my husband could see for himself in his teaching role with regards to the detriment that summer borns can be at.

Yes and I've heard some autumn borns started school earlier and then summer born joined later. To me that just compounds the issue and gave the older children even more advantages.

I don’t know what the answer is though