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Primary education

Join our Primary Education forum to discuss starting school and helping your child get the most out of it.

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Original poster

Summer born children, delay school start year?

58 replies

Sunshinelife9891 · 06/05/2025 20:19

Hiya!

Looking for other people's thoughts / experiences, please. We have been told that our child can start school in 2026, rather than 2025 because they are summer born (June). The school has said they will join reception in 2026, and so will carry on their school journey in the school year under where they would ordinarily have been able to join.

Has anyone done this, and is your child now older and in hindsight would you still have made the same decision to delay the start year?

We haven't specific reasons, not developmental etc, more just having the choice, supporting the child from an emotional POV etc. Our child will continue to attend nursery until attending school.

Thanks!

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cramptramp · 10/05/2025 09:29

@Theyalwaysknewbest That’s a really good point. I’m against deferred entry but that’s just added on another reason why.

JulepTulip · 10/05/2025 13:12

@Theyalwaysknewbest but isn’t his birth year the same as many children in the class? A summer born who was deferred would have the same year of birth as anyone in the “correct” year born from Sep-Dec.

Are children really that intolerant of differences? What if a child was held back for other reasons? I don’t know what the right thing is re: deferring, but the drama and bullying over it seem ridiculous.

legoplaybook · 10/05/2025 13:26

Theyalwaysknewbest · 09/05/2025 21:00

Honestly, it's a really important point to consider.
I realise this is anecdotal, every child is individual so this won't apply to all children, but....
A boy in DD's class, he should be in the year above, but he's in DD's year because he's a summer baby so on that basis his mum delayed his school start by a year. At the time, she felt he was too young to start reception so deferred him by a year.
Now he's in year 6 but should be in year 7.
All the kids in his year group have worked out he should be in year 7 due to the fact that when they started year 6 in September he was already 11 years old. There's plenty of smart kids in their year who matter of factly said at the start of yr 6 "Why are you in our year group if you're already 11? You're in the wrong school year!" drlivered in that blunt, loud and insensitive way that kids say things.
On the first day of year 6, the teacher went round each kid in the class with the question "When is your birthday date and when will you turn 11?" to create a visual display on the wall with photos of the kids, oldest to youngest, on a rainbow. I saw it. It was designed to be a celebration of their birthdays and ages. This boy of course had to answer "I'm already 11 my birthday was in July". So they all know and now he is constantly asked by classmates why he's still in primary school when he should be in secondary school. Why did the teachers make him stay in primary school instead of letting him go to secondary school? (The teachers didn't of course, but the kids think this must be what happened). Many kids ask him in a genuinely confused way. Many other kids mock him and burst in to laughter at others who make jokes about it. DD tells me he goes bright red in embarrassment every time the topic of birth year gets raised. There's no way he can keep his age a secret, so that means all the other kids know he's the age of year 7 secondary school kids yet he's in year 6 primary. DD said she saw him frantically and desperately begging the teacher not to join in with a class activity that involved researching and writing about things that happened in their year of birth. She's seen him in tears over it several times when it gets raised and questioned by classmates, with teachers comforting him. I know the mother, and she tells me he has spent most of year 6 asking her to put him in to secondary school "now" saying "It's where I should be! I should be in year 7!" and he tells her he is angry about it.
Obviously this is only his experience and of course there will be kids who don't have this experience. But it's worth thinking about.

Edited

Show quote history

If a child is going to be bullied, kids will pick on anything - if it wasn't birth year it would be his name, or hair colour or glasses.

Your birth year example makes no sense though as he will have the same birth year as half the class - they will all be born in 2013/2014.

Theyalwaysknewbest · 10/05/2025 20:35

legoplaybook · 10/05/2025 13:26

If a child is going to be bullied, kids will pick on anything - if it wasn't birth year it would be his name, or hair colour or glasses.

Your birth year example makes no sense though as he will have the same birth year as half the class - they will all be born in 2013/2014.

Show quote history

Sorry, I meant the class research project was 'the month and year of the month and year you were born in'.
I'd deleted some sentences and accidentally deleted that bit too.

legoplaybook · 10/05/2025 20:50

Theyalwaysknewbest · 10/05/2025 20:35

Sorry, I meant the class research project was 'the month and year of the month and year you were born in'.
I'd deleted some sentences and accidentally deleted that bit too.

Show quote history

Yeah sorry this all sounds like it never happened 😂
The first day of Year 6 the teacher is asking them all when their birthday is to create a birthday display like they have in early years? But in Year 6?
And none of the other children have ever met this child before?

Theyalwaysknewbest · 10/05/2025 21:01

legoplaybook · 10/05/2025 20:50

Show quote history

Yep. It happened. The teacher asked them.
Nope, he was a new kid starting in yr 6, moved from a different area. Guess what - it happens!!!😂

legoplaybook · 10/05/2025 21:11

Theyalwaysknewbest · 10/05/2025 21:01

Yep. It happened. The teacher asked them.
Nope, he was a new kid starting in yr 6, moved from a different area. Guess what - it happens!!!😂

Show quote history

So the teacher, knowing the new child is out of year, decides to make a big deal of birth dates completely unrelated to the curriculum, and then allows the horrible kids in the class to bully this child?
This school sounds shocking!

Superscientist · 13/05/2025 11:09

My August born started in September at 4 and a few weeks and only the size of a 2 year old!
She was more than ready academically and has really thrived. She has needed a little support socially and emotionally but it hasn't held her back.
She really struggled in her last months of nursery where she was one of the oldest after most of her preschool room finished in July and she was in until the end of August. She doesn't like being the oldest her personality is more aligned with watching other children and trying to do the same of them. One of her favourite friends is a little boy who did have his place deferred and is over a year older than her.

Really you need to look at the skillset and personality of your nearly 4 year old.

There are a couple of children in my daughters class who are in the older cohort who were only just ready for school and had they been summer borns absolutely would have struggled with being at school at just turned 4.

When looking for schools I asked all how they help the little ones keep up and went with the school that was the most child focused and have been happy with our choice

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