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!!

It’s not impacting him whatsoever. He’s always played up at sports. He plays men’s cricket now and has zero problems connecting with people much older than him. At seven he was supporting his partially deaf classmate in his studies. No one asked him to. He identified that the boy was struggling and gave him help. He was mature enough at age 9 to ask to sit the 11 plus for a very competitive entry state grammar. At 15 he has a huge amount of friends and maturity beyond most boys of his age.

4 is ridiculously early to start school. In most European countries kids don’t start until at least 6. I feel sorry for the 4 year olds subjected to the school system so early in life. Sadly most parents are happy to see them off due to financial reasons.

Bad mental health as adults?
So presumably this research is done on a population where the vast vast majority did not defer? So where is your conclusion that deferring helps? I’m in my early 30s and when I went to school, you started the term you turned 5. So if you were born in Feb, you started in Jan, if you were born in Aug, you started in Apr. So no one started just after they turned 4 - is this considered in concluding that deferral will help with the adult mental health of summer borns? Unless the conclusion your drawing is that the mental health issues don’t come from starting school just after turning 4, they come from being the youngest in the year? In which case fine, but then where does that stop?

You think people are taking offence because of counterfactual thinking… no, it’s how you’ve phrased things in a condescending and confrontational manner. The government do not need to ‘fix’ it. The choice is there - people can make a choice. But the idea that they would change it so that ALL summer born children start school later is not warranted when the data is open to interpretation due to the large number of potential confounds within a non-experimental/causal dataset. I do know what I’m talking about when it comes to data interpretation but the fact that you ignore every issue I raise along these lines suggests that maybe you do not. But, all I aimed to do here is reassure some of the people you’ve condemned to the bad mothers’ club that the data cannot be as cut and dried as you suggest - hopefully I’ve done that!

I feel the cut off in Scotland is at a better time - its end of February so youngest in year start at 4.5 and eldest in the year will have turn 5 in March so be almost 5.5. You can still defer January and February born if not ready for school

Horrible, smug, goady posts from the OP

I think it’s child dependent. My eldest was only just over a month from his 4th birthday when he started reception. Looking back he was really young but it was one hundred percent the best for him, he really enjoys learning and the social aspect of school too. There’s no way he could’ve still been at nursery up until 5 years old. He has thrived and had caught up with elder peers by year 1. My youngest is thankfully born in April but he’s a totally different personality, 3.5 now and way more babyish/still very toddler like compared to how my eldest was at the same age. Honestly this is not due to any different parenting style, they’re just different. But my youngest would definitely not have been ready had he been summer born. I’m even worried about him being ready at 4.5 when he starts next Sept!

You keep going on about the statistics and the research…but when anyone asks about this all you have is a Facebook group which is one huge echo chamber from my brief time in it when we were deciding what to do with August born DS2 and a recommendation we all do FOI requests. While I’m sure deferring is right for some, can’t we just leave it at that? DH and I absolutely have the education and the finances to have deferred DS2 but we didn’t, because he was a happy, inquisitive thriving child who actually found the transition to school a lot easier than his winter born older brother.

It's such a difficult situation and although I did defer my summer-born, I also do agree with your post.

Me and my friend had babies within 2 weeks of each other, with hers being born mid-August and mine being born at the end of August, and so they should have been in the same school year.

I decided to defer my son whereas she sent her son to school just after his 4th birthday so her son has just started year 4 whereas mine has just started year 3.

Both of our boys are very similar in character and ability and when they're in a room together it's very clear they are at near identical stages of development both socially, emotionally and academically. They are both on the same book band when it comes to their reading and they are both on the same level of the "Rocket challenge" - which is a tool the school uses to assess an aspect of the child's mathematical ability.

However, the school has no concerns about my son, whereas my friend has frequently been called in to school due to the teacher's concerns about her son's inability to focus and concentrate, and how he isn't able to retain information as well as the other children, and how he's "behind" in maths and his reading compared to most of the other children in his class and in relation to what is generally expected of a child in his school year.

So although our children are the exact same age and at the exact same level (in maths and reading at least), my child is considered to be doing really well whereas her child is being labelled as 'behind', solely because he's being compared to some children who are a year older than him and so the expectations are higher.

It's a very unfair system.

The reasons I decided to defer my son weren't based around academic abilities or expectations etc, but when I see how differently my friend's son is viewed compared to how mine is, it does make me thankful that I deferred him to avoid having these kind of labels or unfair expectations potentially being placed on him.

(As a disclaimer, I am very aware that my story is an anecdote and it does not represent all summer-born experiences etc etc. I know that the huge majority of summer-borns thrive at school (primary and beyond) so my post, or my decision to defer my son, is in no way any kind of judgement towards parents who made a different choice).

This!

Both mine (June and July) are deferred.

Not going to enter the debate but just wanted to say to other deferrers who may not be aware - you need to start the ball rolling for their secondary school place at the start of Y5, not Y6. So you basically apply at the same time you would if they were in their 'correct' year using a paper form for deferrals, pretty much like the reception deferral process, but apparently it's a common mistake!

I found this out very late (June this year when I should have first applied back in September '24 😱) and it has been quite stressful rushing around to get it all sorted! Thankfully it is now, my 11 year old went into Y6 on Tuesday and I was able to make the second and final application online at the same time as everyone else in her year as the admissions team worked very hard over the summer holidays to sort everything out for me.

There is hardly any concrete information anywhere about this that I could find so just a heads up. 👍🏼

My DS has just started reception. A third of the class have birthdays in June/July/August, none have deferred.

There is one girl who deferred last year so has joined the class when she’s already 5 and to be honest she looks ridiculous. She’s huge and looks like she’s in the wrong year. I’m not sure that’s going to help her. She just looks completely out of place.

Apparently the schools advises against deferring for a year unless there are significant developmental or special needs issues. I think that’s the right approach.

One small thing to consider is if your DC defers and ends up being good at sport you’ll have a lot of problems when you reach regional representative levels as you’ll be excluded from competing with your year group as you’re in the wrong year. A lot of sports governing bodies are quite strict about this primarily for safety reasons.

Yes agreed I think the absolute most common reason not to defer is financial

Yes agree!! The department of education is looking at implementing this model in England it’s what their consultation is about, they said with a 7-10 year implementation

Can we stop with this unproven idea that all parents of summer born kids want to defer but can’t? I suspect the most common reason not to defer is parents thinking it’s not right for their child!

Perhaps its depends on area, nobody defers here. I've got kids right across range of primary age (large infant and junior schools in home counties) and have never come across anyone who deferred.

It’s one of the government findings. Along with parents not knowing it’s an option/how to do it

no, you're not. My 15 year old started about the same amount of time (I don't remember the exact date term started 11 years ago :)

Due to moving about, and not living in the UK any more, he's still the youngest in his school year (in a country where the school year spans 2 human years - there's 17 year olds in his class! And absolutely thriving. He loved school from the first day, loved being around people, loved learning stuff, and keeping him home or at nursery for another year would have absolutely been the wrong thing for him (he did not love painting and art and water play and rice play like they did at nursery)

Can you link this please? Because (granted, a brief) google search has not thrown up this research.

youll need to do a a freedom of info request to your local council - the studies and findings are mind blowing! It really makes you think deferral is a must

A FOI request of precisely what question? And just FYI the LA is not the same as the government.

Ask for all government research into summerborn outcomes. As well as specifically for your local authority.
Yes a council and government are different but in cases like this the local council is holding the information that the governments research produces

Surely the studies are just published without having to go through a freedom of information request to your local council?

No idea on that - I just got it through my FOI request

I moved my induction date so that DS would be born end of August instead of early Sep because the difference was about £12k in nursery fees. Judge away.