August 'babies' and 11+ entrance exams....

[gameboy]

I'm sure I read/ heard somewhere that children born in summer can take many years (right up to 11 or older) to 'catch up' with their oldest peers?

Do school entrance exams at 11 take any account of 'immaturity' do you think, or has it really become irrelevant by then?

DS2 is a late August boy, and although he's only 6, the gulf between him and his older peers is still massive - seems hard to imagine it will have disappeared completely by Year 6!

Some are weighted, giving extra points to those with summer birthdays. Others are not.

The 11&divid; exams sat by children to get into the remaining state grammar schools do give a few extra marks to the summer born. The entrance exams to independent schools vary - you'd have to get in touch witht he individual school concerned.

11+ I meant - not 11 squiggle!

Eleven squiggle's the nonverbal reasoning section

My friend's ds has an August Birthday and had 6 points added onto his raw score. (11 plus, not indep.)

11 squiggle, 14 woggle, 16 baggle, 18?

fraggle

DD did 11+ last year and I remember the Head saying that it is only a very few marks that are added to those born in August.

It is only a few marks - but my dd only passed her maths paper by 2 - so every little helps!

We were spared that detail, seeker - it took me until the Year 7 Parent's Drinks do to work out that there were differing degrees of effusiveness in the letter offering a place.

Our letter didn't say - it just allocated dd a school -and it was the one we were hoping for. The school had the actual marks if you wanted them - and as I can't bear anybody to know anything about us that I don't know - IYSWIM - I went to ask. It was then that I discovered the skin of the teethness from a very amused heat teacher!

To be fair to her, I ought to say she did much better in the other two papers! And she got an A for her maths homework last week (much to her surprise!)

gramar school told us that 11+ tests were standardised - so younger children are not expected to do as well as older ones

Where do you live? They do age-standardise the tests in Bucks and Kent. And you'd be surprised how much the summer-borns catch up. When I taught Yr 2 many years back, the entire top two groups were taken up with Sept/Oct birthays. When I re-taught the same cohort in Year 6, the groups had changed completely, with all the summer-borns way up at the top. As the parent of 2 August-borns, I can verify this. My two 2 caught up by Year 2. It depends on how 'bright' they are as well. By the end of Year 6, there can be up to 7 years' difference in attainment. Date of birth is just another thing to chuck into the mix...........