Summerborn reception

[Userflower]

I just wanted to share some good news, my friends child started reception this week (deferred summerborn so is already age 5). There are 7 summerborn children deferred in her class. There are no children born in July or August 2021, as they’ve all deferred to start next year!
Times are changing!!

So that would have made my June born the youngest! There will always be a youngest. Hope it all works out for you.

I don’t think it’s really about who’s the youngest it’s about the fact no child starting reception a few days/weeks after their 4th birthday

My daughter started today. She turned 4 10 days ago. Obviously I'm a fucking terrible parent. So... thanks.

Actually, scrub that. I'm not. Holding my daughter back would have been terrible decision for her. It's child dependent.

I didn't defer for lots of reasons (DS had a really nice cohort and I didn't want him to be the only one left behind, he's super tall, I'm on mat leave and I thought better to keep him out of after school club).

A good reception teacher will just cater to the needs of the cohort anyway. It's not massively different from preschool.

Honestly just having a more playbased curriculum going into ks1 is better for all children and then there wouldn't be this stress about defering.

I have to say, it didn’t cross my mind to hold my July born child back a year. Should it have done?! Maybe I’m a terrible mother too.

My DS is in Year 2 now and he’s one of 5 August birthdays, none of whom are deferred.

A lot of kids at my daughters nursery were summerborn and have all gone onto their respective schools. Maybe we should set up a terrible mothers club 😆

It’s just a personal decision from the parents. The government have just released a study on this that found families where both parents attended university and are classified as middle class are most likely to defer summerborns, which I do see as a negative. I wish the information on how to defer was available to everyone so it was an option to all

Why does it have to be a competition?

Deferring is right for some and not others. What I will say is that it it is not just about reception, but the step up to Y1. None of us know how our children would cope if we had done the opposite to what we did, so none of us will be remotely objective. But can we stop being arseholes and judging each other?

Why is it “good news”? I appreciate that the ability to hold back a year is good for people who feel their child needs it, but if there was a July 2021 born child in the class who was perfectly ready for school, would that somehow be less good news?

Exactly this. It's all about the child.

I've got one summerborn that was deferred and one that wasn't. Right decision for each of them

Well both myself and husband are university educated and we haven't deferred our July born 4 year old, so ...

Plus the information is available to all. We looked in to it and felt it wouldn't be a good choice for our child.

Statistically summerborns benefit massively from deferring, both academically and emotionally. The benefits are mainly seen long term, in secondary rather than primary school. But as noted I think the onus is on the government rather than parents to promote their studies on this that support deferral and then educate parents on how to do it. But I guess the government never will as summerborns qualify for the 30 free funded hours on their ‘bonus year’ so there would be a huge expense to the government

Same. You can join the terrible mothers club too 😆
Tbh, I don't know anyone in real life who even considered deferring.

That’s your personal choice. I am just stating the facts that the government found, the vast majority of deferred summerborns come from university educated middle class families. The government is also running a consultation at the moment to increase awareness and consistency of deferrals across the country

That’s fine, but why is it ‘good news’? Surely it’s a personal decision based on an individual child? Sounds like you’re saying everyone should defer.

I’d be interested to read studies on the impact of children in their teens on deferral.
Some children could do with another year but others are more than ready. I don’t think deferral
should be done as standard just when absolutely needed.

My DD is a very end of August baby, she turned six last Thursday, started Year 2 on Tuesday. Her bestie is a whole 11 months 2 weeks older than her!

She was more than ready to start school when she was just 4, I couldn’t imagine holding her back a whole year, and people questioned if I was going to at the time. It hadn’t even crossed our mind, she’s the smallest in her class, the youngest, but she’s feisty and more independent than half of them in there!

Are times changing??? My DS has just started reception and his year has an early September moved up so still actually 3 on the first day of term and at least 4 Augusts and 2 Julys. None deferred from the year above. My 8YO is a June and not even close to being the youngest. Always good for parents to have options but IME it’s not something that a lot of people are doing.

I guess these will become available in time as more and more people defer. Deferral requests are up 250% year on year from the last 5 years. July and August deferred summerborns will do their GCSEs and A levels at ages 16 and 18, rather than 15 and 17 which I know is desired by a lot of parents who defer their summerborns

😆

Surely it depends on the child. My 4 and 10 day child, started. But as she could already read, and behaviour was becoming more tricky- she was bored at nursery... What do you do? Hold them back? Not sure that would have been wise- she was doing maths, phonics and reading with year 1 in 3 months of starting school....

i didn’t defer my summerborn dd and no regrets. she’s always been the youngest in her class but academically ahead. She gets frustrated now in y6 because the lessons are slower than she’d like and not challenging- a year behind she’d be climbing the walls!
a friend with a similar aged dc did defer and it works for them, a little odd now as the dc are quite far apart academically and socially despite being born days apart but whatever is best for the individual dc.

its not ‘good news’ though, deferment has been happening for years 🤷‍♀️