Are children born in the summer really at a big disadvantage?
Version 0 of 1. Twelve months ago the government announced plans to allow summer-born children to start school a year later. Why hasn’t it happened yet?Schools minister Nick Gibb wrote an open letter to schools and local authorities in September 2015, announcing plans to change the rules to allow children born between 1 April and 31 August to start primary school a year later. At the time, the move was welcomed by parents of summer-born children, who have long argued that their offspring are at a disadvantage because of their relative immaturity within a class. But this week it emerged that while some authorities have been pressing ahead with change, the government is delaying because of fears that some parents might try to play the system. Parents play the system? Surely not. What are they hoping to gain?Gibb, speaking during a parliamentary debate, said there were concerns that some parents might use the change in policy to double their chances of getting a place at a popular primary school. Competition can be fierce for successful primary schools, particularly because of an increase in the number of school-age children, which has been putting pressure on places for a number of years. The government has become worried that some parents of summer-borns might use the changes to make two applications to their preferred school, applying once when their child is four and again when they are five. So ministers have asked for more time to consider how to best implement the changes to avoid “unintended consequences”. Does it really make a difference when a child starts school?It does. Children born in late summer – in July and August – will find themselves learning in the classroom alongside children who can be 11 or even 12 months older than them. The older children will be more physically capable; they will be able to concentrate better and their language skills will be more developed – an advantage that is then reinforced by praise and improved self-esteem. Children born in the summer also tend to perform worse academically than those born in the autumn. The differences are at their most pronounced soon after children start school, but the gap remains up to GCSEs and beyond. So if you are born in July or August, you are likely to do worse in your GCSEs?A report by the highly regarded Institute for Fiscal Studies concluded that children born in August are 6.4% less likely to achieve five GCSEs or equivalent at grades A* to C, and around 2% less likely to go to university at age 18 or 19 than children born in September. Does the disadvantage persist in other areas of life?The IFS argues that the effect fades over time and there is little evidence that it persists into adulthood. But in a feature titled How to build a champion: Be born at the right time, the BBC points to research into the possible impact of birth date on sporting success, particularly looking at football in England, ice hockey in Canada and competitors at the Beijing Olympics. English football mirrors the school calendar, in that children are divided into year groups based on whether they are born before or after 1 September. The study found that professional football youth academies in England for 16- to 20-year-olds were dominated by “older” players born at the start of the academic year. Figures for 2009 found that 57% of the footballers were born between September and December, compared to 14% who were summer-born. Similarly, 75% of footballers taking part in an under-17 European championship were born within that four-month window. Would it help to let all children start school when they are older?You mean like in Finland, where children don’t go to formal school until they are seven? It’s true that the later children begin school, the smaller the relative age difference between them will be. But the fact remains that children are born throughout the year, and school starts at a fixed point. The IFS argues that it is the age at which a child sits a test that is the key driver of differences in educational attainment, rather than their birth date. Perhaps the government should be looking at age-adjusted test scores rather than greater flexibility in relation to school starting dates. |