Daughter is August birthday, what will this mean exactly?

[Sorrel]

I don’t doubt that there are many many summer borns at superselectives (see my earlier post)

What’s for sure is that there are way less summer borns at normal grammars.

I’m not convinced there’s “nothing to be done”. I will certainly keep banging on about it, forever, as it’s unfair and unjust. ( KCC just LOVE me ! )

It's tricky, isn't it, if the issue is that they lose confidence and/ or fall behind early in their school careers. It applies to sport as well; far more footballers are Sep-Nov born, because they're bigger in their school years, get chosen for teams and just feel that they're good.

The school situation might improve in future as from my son's year (current Yr 6), primary schools are no longer allowed to insist children born in the second half of the year don't start Reception till January. That compounded the disadvantage; the older children had an extra term of schooling with a much higher teacher-pupil ratio.

I am not sure that schools were ever allowed to insist on this. Pretty sure it is your right to start school at the start of the school year of your 5th birthday and that you legally have to be in school in the term following your 5th birthday. But heads and local authorities are forever making stuff up for themselves so I've lost the plot.

The other thing that can be a disadvantage for the younger ones is the difjferent ways that schools interpret the national curriculum documents for maths. Kent puts stuff in the 11 plus which could be seen as year 6 work so if you're child is in a group which is not allowed to do "year 6" work in year 5 if this is the way your school reads it, then it makes the maths test feel harder so the pressure (although you don't have to get that many right to apss) feels worse. And younger kids are more likely to be in the groups not allowed to do year 6 work - at our school you had to be viewed as one of their little geniuses from day 2 of reception for that to happen.

The changes were as a result of the Jim Rose review - see quote by Ed Balls in the article about younger children no longer having to wait till January or April to start school because of a local decision:

https://www.teachingtimes.com/articles/ ... iculum.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[FortyNinePence]

Agreed, TM....I seem to recall someone (possibly Amber or Guest55) who had their finger on the pulse, who debunked that myth with stats....?

The point about age standardising is that it compares children born in the same months and standardises to take out any perceived disadvantages.

Playing devils advocate....Anyone wanting to affect any additional age related changes to the 11+ would do as well to tackle the big exam boards, as there is absolutely no standardisation for age done at GCSE/A level and, surely, if you are arguing that someone, through no fault of their own, is effectively 11 months older, at 11 then by 16 they have had that advantage for a further 5 years.....and, yet, the exam boards which examine everything to the nth degree don't rate this argument! Possibly because the evidence shows that the bigger picture doesn't support the belief?

Age standardising only takes into account the kids that actually take the test

Many less summer borns as a % of summer born total take the test vs the same autumn born

Got the figures from KCC a few years ago not to hand at the moment. KCC only quote age standardisation as being fair but this doesn’t address the children who don’t even take it

As others have said, younger ones who aren’t mature enough and/or dont have the self belief as they’ve always been on the back foot

[ToadMum]

Got the figures from KCC a few years ago not to hand at the moment. KCC only quote age standardisation as being fair but this doesn’t address the children who don’t even take it

Ah - so did Kent CC provide a link to the data for all the other grammar admissions authorities, or did they just extrapolate from their own data?

[FortyNinePence]

Got the figures from KCC a few years ago not to hand at the moment. KCC only quote age standardisation as being fair but this doesn’t address the children who don’t even take it

Ah - so did Kent CC provide a link to the data for all the other grammar admissions authorities, or did they just extrapolate from their own data?

I only asked for information about children in Kent schools

[Eccentric]

What’s for sure is that there are way less summer borns at normal grammars.

Over 160 grammar schools, most of which are not super-selective, certainly not as in, applicants ranked on score only

Could you cite the source of your assertion, please? Not doubting you. (Just because our June-born DS1 had plenty of summer term peers at his non-super-selective, entry on non age standardised exam grammar school, doesn't mean that our experience isn't a complete anomaly ).

I definitely have no statistical information. However I can tell you that in my daughter's GS form there are only 2 of them that are summer born and the balance in her form is skewed towards the other end of the academic year.

[kenyancowgirl]

What’s for sure is that there are way less summer borns at normal grammars.

Over 160 grammar schools, most of which are not super-selective, certainly not as in, applicants ranked on score only

Could you cite the source of your assertion, please? Not doubting you. (Just because our June-born DS1 had plenty of summer term peers at his non-super-selective, entry on non age standardised exam grammar school, doesn't mean that our experience isn't a complete anomaly ).

I definitely have no statistical information. However I can tell you that in my daughter's GS form there are only 2 of them that are summer born and the balance in her form is skewed towards the other end of the academic year.

Anecdotally, this exactly mimics the state primary school my boys attend and the state secondary school I work in...

[Guest55]

I definitely have no statistical information. However I can tell you that in my daughter's GS form there are only 2 of them that are summer born and the balance in her form is skewed towards the other end of the academic year.

Every year we did a survey on birth months at the GS where I taught - there was NO statistical difference in the frequency of birth month. We had data for several thousand students ...

[bridge]

https://visual.ons.gov.uk/how-popular-is-your-birthday/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

It would seem that May to August have quite a few births.

[doodles]

I’m not convinced there’s “nothing to be done”. I will certainly keep banging on about it, forever, as it’s unfair and unjust. ( KCC just LOVE me ! )

Sorry, I meant that for children like those of OP and my ds's there's nothing that can be done. Should there be any changes to the system in the future it will be too late to benefit them.

[Sorrel]

More anecdote but in both my sons' primary years the biggest clump of birthdays seems to come in March/ April/ May - nine months after summer holidays! Though just saw the ONS visualisation above which makes that seem less likely. Maybe demographics in particular local areas play a role though.

Son #1 is March born, son #2 September born (deliberately didn't start trying till an August birthday was less likely). #2 does seem in some ways more advanced for his school year but being close to an 18 mos older brother is no doubt a factor there too.