Do you support summer borns starting school a year late?

[Tortycat]

I'm not a teacher but gate crashing this thread as would be interested to hear what those working in education think. Ds is end of july 2014 born and behind in a few ways though no obvious SEN (eg still struggling to potty train, still sometimes naps). I'd like him to start school next year in reception instead, as not only do i think he's not ready, I'm aware of disadvantages for summer borns at schools, especially boys. However the head of our local school seems very against this.

Is there any particular reason why this should be? He's given us none except that its not necessary. I feel like a pushy mc parent but i cant really understand why he's against it

Not a teacher but parent of late July boy. Was more than ready for school socially but not academically. Caught up very quickly. He’s in Y10 now and emotionally very mature. I think being in Y9 would be disastrous for him. I see child development holistically I suppose.

My son is early August birthday. Reception year was so so hard for him, some of the children were 10 months older than him! By Y1 he was much more settled and coping academically and socially. The gap closes very quickly!
He is now in Y9, aged 14 and excelling!

OP, please fight this. We have an early August boy, and had a head teacher who swore blind that his teaching staff would be perfectly capable fo meeting his needs.

His writing was still illegible at the end of Foundation, he only met 4 of the standards expected at the end of Foundation and he got the NQT who couldn't work out why summer born children struggled with tasks e.g. fastening coats.

He's Year 4 and still behind with his writing and only now coming on with his reading. His voacbulary is excellent but he finds written work very hard and failed the Yr 1 phonics test and Year 2 SATs - he couldn't even read the question papers.

One question to ask though is the transfer through to secondary. It seems a long way away but if your feeder secondary won't take children out of year, even if you get him held back a year, you may find he goes from Year 5 in primary to Year 7 in secondary along with his birth date peers. If your schools don't do this, keep fighting to get him into next year's cohort.

Very common in Scotland to defer the younger children (jan/Feb) birthdays. Depends totally on the individual child.

I think any child who is not reaching their developmental milestones - not just summer-born children - should be entitled to a different approach to what currently on offer in mainstream schools.

Sadly just isn’t the money for the assessment that would entail, so we tend to go with the blunt instrument of chronological age, which is not always an accurate measure of how well a child will settle and progress in school.

The school I work in supports this. We had our first pupil stay in Nursery for an extra year this year. They will be starting in Reception in September with their new cohort. The headteacher's own son is a summer born boy (now grown up) so she is very sympathetic to parental requests. This year, we have, in fact, approached two parents to ask if they would like to consider delaying a year. There is no pressure on them to do this, but we just wanted to make sure they had all the information to enable them to make an informed decision.

Yes, depends on the child obviously but for some children I think it's a good idea x

Thanks for reponses - guess different responses show kids are all different. Knieval - sorry your child has had a hard time. That's my worry, both how my son may struggle, but also risk of being forced to skip a year at some point.

Littlefish - love the sound of your school!

I can see potential problems for us/ him eg feeling a bit different to others, but i just can't quite get why schools themselves are against it. If anything i thought they'd be positive as older children might get better sats results. Interestingly the head said he's summer born and it didnt do him any harm!

For any heads out there, if i fight this and kick up a fuss, would i forever be labelled an awkward parent?? The school's an academy so i understand it's up to the head rather than the la.

I’m not a head teacher but I work exclusively with parents in a primary school.

In our school, if you manage to advocate for your child with respect for everyone in school who will also have their best interest at heart, you will be fine. It’s usually rudeness and an unnecessarily confrontational approach that labels someone “that parent”.

You might also want research how going into reception at age five will impact on secondary school.

Some will say your child has to go straight into year 7 at the end of year 5, or straight into year 8 at the end of year 6.

A close friend delayed her son 5 years ago as he was premature, what she found was that they wanted him to miss reception and go straight into year 1 which would have defeated the object. She had to get a solicitor involved to fight for him to start in reception

I am a KS1 teacher with a summer-born boy due to start this year. We are delaying his school start and have found a very supportive head in an academy who agrees. Our request to Local Authority schools has been turned down recently but we are in an area that is notoriously anti.

I never used to understand the summerborn issue until I had my own children. Now it makes complete sense to me. 4 is very young anyway but 4years and a few weeks old very, very young for school. Especially given the Bold Beginnings report and expected emphasis on pencil grip and formal learning in Reception.

Sorry to hijack but I am currently due second child in last week of August so have become more aware of this issue. Is there any difference in how a late August child would be treated vs say an earlier summer born? Or is it just a case of a strict 31st August cut off and then it’s very dependant on the child and the local/school policy? The idea of ‘formal learning in reception’ as opposed to play-based is pretty awful!

I am worried about my child starting school he is slightly delayed anyway, I am trying to do phonics with him now and helping him in every way I can. He cant put his shoes on, Struggles with getting his coat on but cannot fasten it up, Cant get dressed himself. I AM DREADING IT. I am hoping he has a leap in his development before September.

I have a June 2014 DD, and have decided against deferring entry for a year, despite living in a supportive LA that agrees all requests. We spent some time playing recently with a girl & boy who were both summer 2015 born, and DD was bored stiff.

It made me realise that while keeping her in her correct year group means there may be children ten months older and she may struggle initially, leaving her in nursery with children 14 months younger will be no better for her. Sometimes children achieve so much better when they have something to aim for, rather than coasting. And yes, there will be some children 10 months older than her, but the majority will be just a few months or so.

That’s a good way of looking at it Brillo I hadn’t considered if that way round.

I have a DS born June 2014 and I agree with deferring in principle, it was what I had originally planned to do when he was a baby, but as he has grown and developed I now think it would do more harm than good. He has a good grip of words and numbers and talks to me and other adults in (fairly) normal sentences. He also seems a bit bored playing with his cousin who was born in March 2015 so early will be starting school this September 😭 Fingers crosses I’ve made the right decision.

My ds is a late summer born and academically was completely ready for school, he came top of his year with his reception baseline assessments. But, he was knackered the whole time, tired and grumpy a lot and struggled with friendship groups.

If the option had been there when he started school, I would have kept him at home for an extra year, regardless of his academic ability. The social and emotional development is just as important in my view.

I really think it depends on the child. I am early September born and the school starting age at my local village school waaaaay back in the day was pretty flexible.

Because I was academically very able, and obviously bored stupid at home, (no nurseries, play-groups or pre-school in our rural backwater) our local school head suggested I start school a year early. I think staying at home another year and starting school aged 5 almost 6 would have been detrimental to me. I was desperate to start "proper" reading and writing.

Academically I was always absolutely fine but looking back I was probably emotionally not as mature as many of my peers. However, at the time it was never an issue and I never felt out of place.

If the child is ready for school as a late summer born then fine - I have known lots of late summer children in my own DCs' classes - but you know your child best and if in doubt I think it is best to defer.

I used to teach reception and I honestly think it is a case by case thing. Some summer born children do really well and are completely ready for school and excel, however some children really struggle and find it hard and you can see that another year of Nursery to mature and give them a better start would have really helped. So I completely support it and I think generally parents know what would be best for their child. I have three children who all have autumn term birthdays and are so different, my eldest son would have easily coped at just 4, but my middle son was only just ready when he started school a month before he was 5 and had he been a summer birthday I would have seriously considered holding him back a year.
I am end of August birthday myself and struggled in school, particularly in primary, it was only at university I realised I wasn’t actually thick!

Depends on the child.

Generally girls tend to be more school ready than boys. My girl who is late July was WELL ready for school and is in top groups for all her subjects now. She's a younger sibling (helps enormously I think with maturity) and clearly is bright and keeping her back a year would be disastrous for her.

Another child who is less confident, or who is less mature for whatever reason then it might be an idea but I still think they should be able to start at Xmas/Easter in reception year rather than wait a whole school year.

Don’t forget your child may change a lot in the next 5 months; that’s a long time for a small child to develop in. So a child that doesn’t seem ready now may suddenly feel a lot closer to “ready” nearer the time.

The posters who've mentioned it being an issue when going into secondary school - would this still be a possible issue with DD who was actually due november the year she'll be being held back into but born premature in August?
Is it a no flexibility situation in some schools or would they look at it individually?

I agree it should be flexible. I can think of children who lack social skills at 4, and this in turns hinders them developing academically. They might benefit from starting a year later. In some countries children start at different dates throughout the year and so this issue doesn't arise. My friend lives overseas and her daughters school admit children the week after their fifth birthday regardless of when that is. My own children didn't start till the term after their fifth birthday (in UK, not that many years ago !) but that meant that The summer born children did not have time in reception. The only other thing to be aware of is that it might reduce your child's options later on if they have to miss a year's school (for health reasons for example) as there is an age limit for school sixth forms so it could limit their choices at that stage.

bubbles

Ime all schools are different. One of our children with Downs Syndrome transferred to secondary school in year 5 because he had repeated a year further down the school. He was going to a special school however, so they were set up for him.

You’d have to ask the school about their policy on this.