Summer born boy

[Dee198600]

I am hoping for some guidance / helpful advice. My little boy was born at end of July and will be starting in reception at primary school in September. I have read a lot about the difficulty summer born children (esp. boys) can face in school and being almost a year younger than some of their peers. Can anyone reassure me that I haven’t made the worst decision in letting my little boy start in September and not deferring until compulsory school age? Thanks in advance 😊

My DS is an August baby - youngest in his year. This is going to sound braggy but you asked for reassurance - he always loved school and never struggled. He got 10 x 9s at gcse and is off to Oxford this autumn!

I have a July boy.
Most of his friends are also May-August, which might help, but he's loved school so far (year 1) and is expected levels.

That’s really interesting—so although summer-born children are statistically less academically successful than their autumn-born peers, making them the oldest in the class doesn’t actually improve their academic outcomes?

I've sometimes wondered whether there is more to it than oldest/youngest, and whether there is better brain development of similar in children who are developing in the womb over the summer-after all, that's when Animals might choose to give birth.

There was a statistic that something like an Autumn born child is 25% more likely to get to Oxbridge.
So I started counting up my friends from uni and, they were right, There were far more September of October birthdays.
Then I realised that a good proportion of those were a year ahead, or even two years ahead, so weren't the oldest, but the youngest.
When I took those who were out of year out of the equation, it was similar numbers across the months.

@MargaretThursday @BingBongBoo86

The "birthdate effect" affects children born at different times of year depending on the compulsory school age cut off dates in the country they're from.

See p25 of this literature review

https://www.cambridgeassessment.org.uk/Images/109784-birthdate-effects-a-review-of-the-literature-from-1990-on.pdf

Sorry I can't seem to edit:

I meant the cut off dates for starting school, not necessarily the "compulsory school age"!

Deferring is popular on Mumsnet but people who actually defer are very much in the minority in real life. Our August born boy is in Year 3 and has thrived at school. He's working at greater depth in most areas, has lots of friends and participates well in sports. He had a speech delay and a gross motor delay (didn't walk until around his second birthday). The headteacher advised us to just start him on the basis that he could always repeat reception if necessary and we've never looked back.