Does anyone know of research comparing outcomes of summer/autumn born children?

[WilfSell]

Just wondering, since I have both a September and an August child, neither of which are at school yet and wondering whether there is any sound academic research demonstrating some of the anecdotal differences mentioned on the other thread about this...?

dd1 is only just on ORT3 and she is October born so he is doing fine (or dd1 is rubbish, either/or! )

Agree confounding variables need to be looked at.....

ps Am not a lunatic hothousing middle class mum

I'm sooooo glad I live in Scoltand where we don't have to worry about this Not only are kids a minimum of 4.5 when they start school (there is no reception, although there are nursery schools), if you don't think they are ready, you can hold them back until the following year, so that in theory they could be nearly 6 when they start.

It's not just personality popsycal, it's a whole host of factors. Home environment, family stability, roll models, genetics, motivation or drive, personality, and opportunity, as well as age in year to name just a few. If a child has most of these factors right, then they probably don't need to worry overly much about the odd one that isn't, as obviously most children don't have everything in their favour. But an example of one August child that's done well and a September one that's done badly does NOT indicate that an effect that's shown to make more than 5 percentage points difference in the likelyhood of achieving 5A*-C GCSEs across the cohort can be dismissed.

At my senior school the two classes per year were divided by age. Every year the older class achieved slightly higher exam results on average (inc. O levels) though there were high flyers in both classes. I don't think the setup really helped much at all - it would only have benefited the young ones if they had sat their exams 6 months later.

Oooh, this is an interesting thread.

I've got 3 boys - one November, one March, one end of August.

So far, not noticed any sig differences between ds1 (March - yr 2), ds2 (Nov - reception).

Ds3 starts in Sept at 4 yrs 4 days old - argh!

Tbh, not worrying about it. He's as bright as a button and as the youngest of 3 boys, pretty confident and outgoing and is more than holding his own at school nursery at the minute. I think he probably knows letters/phonics than ds1 did on entry to reception and he is better on his numbers as well. I think just because he has learned from the older two and ds1 didn't have that advantage.

I'm glad that my summer born boy has 2 older siblings because I'm sure that helps.

..and I think the 11+ is adjusted for age (although that's years away yet and it could all change by the time ds3 gets to yr 6!)

'I also dread to think what would have happened if ds1 had been born late rather than early - he could have been a September baby. I think we would have had serious behavioural problems in reception.... '

ditto popsycal, re ds3. If he had another whole academic year ahead of him in nursery he would be going nuts. He is ready for school even though he is still quite little. He can't wait!

my middle child is vv early sept. He will be the oldest in nursery for a whole extra year.

I'm not sure I mind though.

I know that I read something in the last year that looked at this - and there are advantages and disadvantages - if dc is September they might, when they start school, be significantly more mature than many of their classmates and therefore find it a bit difficult to fit in. Conversely, an August birthday dc might find that they are doing less well than their classmates - and this could potentially put them off learning - and they could become the 'joker' of the class. Clearly this doesn't take account of the qualities of the child - a bright dc with an August birthday isn't going to be disadvantaged much.

Sorry, can't find it at the moment though

SNorkle - totally agree that it is a whole host of factors. I am not naive enough to think that one bright August born child disproves the general trend

See my earlier posts.....

StarlightMcKenzie what country?

Sorry I assumed it was a different country

There are always exceptions of course. The speaker on my course said that footballers were often born Sept to Dec ,because when they are 5 they are physically the more able so do better in games and therefore get early confidence that remains with them. My DS born in Aug could always hold his own physically because he modelled himself on his brother who was 8 yrs older. Academically I wish he had had an extra year. I am still looking for the data. I remember being so amazed that I went to chat with the speaker about it in the interval.

www.ttrb.ac.uk/viewArticle2.aspx?contentId=14217

Actually, theother differenceis that in Scotland we did not sit SATS at set times. There are "Levels" that the children are supposed to sit, but the school decides when they are ready to sit them and the results are assessed differently, as in "By the endof P3, 75% are expected to ave passed Level X". Not sure waht the Levels and the sbjects that they sit the levels in are, as it is all done in such a low key way.

But for example, ds sat his Level A language earlier this year. Some of his class mates had sat it last year. For his numeracy, he sat his Level Ain Ocotber last year, whereas some fo the others only did it recently (he couldn't have sat his numeracy much earlier, as his language skills were not at a level that would have allowed him to sit it easily)

I think in some cases it depends on the child's personality (as has been said above already I think). dd is in reception, isn't 5 till July and has always struggled. She is 'young' for her age as well! With encouragement she is now starting to do a bit better, but it will take her a while to catch up. She would definitely have benefited from starting school later.
dh and I are both well educated - dh was a very late starter but has ended up with a Physics degree and an MPhil!

prettybird - your description of levelled tests at their own time is coming in in England soon too

hurray

Thanks for that OliveOil. TBH I don't worry how he is doing academically in reception providing he is coping with the social side etc. What I was trying to say (badly) is because of his age I am not too worried if he not yet keeping up with his peers as he still may need to develop some of the cognitive skills necessary to perform some tasks well.

There is also peer group effects, DS's group of friends he started at nursery with got split into two for school.

The September/October children are now treading water and not learning anything new in year 1 waiting for the younger children to catch up with the phonics etc while his slightly older friends June to August born are being encouraged to catch up with their slightly older classmates in year 2. Even though there is supposed to ability groups it never quite works like that as the teacher has one class of thirty not five classes of six.

There is definitely recent impartial Scottish research. However, I can't remember who carried it out. I take it you'vesearched?