EYFS Best Practice: All About...Summer-borns

The current median school entry age in England, fourand- a half, is one of the earliest in the world. It is possible for a child to start Reception just days after their fourth birthday. Prospective mothers with a child due in August are often jokingly told to 'cross their legs' until September, and some even plan conception around the school year, so their child will not be one of the youngest.


ATTAINMENT CONCERNS

On an individual level, a child who is young for their year may thrive while an older child may need support. However, in general, extensive research shows an attainment gap between the youngest and oldest children (see 'More information').

At Key Stage 1, for example, the proportion of summer-born pupils achieving the expected level for writing is ten percentage points below the proportion of autumn-born pupils. Autumn-born pupils are more likely to rate their academic ability as 'very good' than their summer-born peers. While most research shows that the gap between summer- and autumn-born children tapers off as they progress through the education system, differences persist. In 2010, Government-commissioned research concluded that every year 10,000 summer-born children fail to achieve
the required standard at GCSE purely because they are the youngest pupils sitting the examinations.
A disproportionate percentage of are referred for special educational needs (SEN), with one 2003 study finding that 23 per cent of British summer-borns were classified as having SEN, compared with 15 per cent of autumn-borns.

Teachers may be misdiagnosing SEN by not taking into account a child's developmental age. The Summer Born Campaign, however, argues that the diagnoses are correct, but are caused by starting school too early, and thus avoidable. Research from the Institute for Fiscal Studies hasrelatively young children in school also found that summer-born children are two-and-a-half times more likely to report being unhappy at school, and twice as likely to report being bullied at the age of seven.

Premature children

Attainment concerns about young-inyear children are a particular issue for babies born prematurely, who tend to develop according to their due date, rather than their actual birthdate. If Katherine Dixon's daughter Alexandra had been born in September she would have started Reception this year as one of the oldest in her class - but being born five weeks early meant she had to start school last year as the youngest.

'Before she started, the school asked new pupils to draw a picture of their family, and at that stage she could only scribble,' says Ms Dixon. 'That showed me she wasn't really ready for school. She was still sleeping during the day.'

The school offered Alexandra halfday attendance for as long as she wanted, which turned out to be until the next spring, but Ms Dixon was worried Alexandra was comparing herself academically to older children in the class, giving her a false impression of her abilities. 'She would say "Mummy, I can't do joined up writing, and everyone else can",' she says.


GOVERNMENT POLICY:DEFERRED ENTRY

In response to all these concerns, the Government last month set the wheels in motion to ensure all children born between 1 April and 31 August will be able to start Reception class the September after they turn five, if that is what the parents want.

This option exists under the current system: school attendance is not compulsory until the start of the term after a child turns five. But parents have complained that while this was a legal option, schools and some local authorities did their best not to encourage it, placing deferring children straight into Year 1 or warning that they could be forced to miss a year later in their education.

Amendments to the admissions code last December left the decision of which year to place a five-year-old in up to the local authority, which is supposed to take into account the best interests of the child. But parents say some local authorities refused all cases of deferred entry to Reception, while others demanded expensive professional evidence to prove it was in the child's best interests.

Schools minister Nick Gibb says under the new rules deferring children will not be forced to miss a year at any point. The proposed changes are subject to a consultation, which will look at issues such as expected take-up, and will have to be approved by Parliament. But Mr Gibb has written to schools and local authorities encouraging them to take immediate action in implementing the policy.

Children whose entry is deferred will still be eligible for the 15 - rising, from 2016, to 30 - hours of free early education until they turn five, which could put pressure on nurseries, many already making a loss on the free places. But Claire Schofield, director of membership, policy and communications at the National Day Nurseries Association (NDNA), is not concerned. 'Nurseries will welcome the chance to support children who aren't ready for school in their setting for another year and we don't anticipate capacity issues,' she says.

Tim Oates, group director of Development at Cambridge Assessment, welcomes politicians have listened to evidence and are confronting this issue,' he says. However, he says deferred-entry children still need to be in a stimulating environment.

'If you have a summer-born child and hold them back, you have to think what they are doing in that year,' he says. 'If they are in a linguistically impoverished environment or limited in terms of the range of experiences open to them, that can be problematic.'


BEST PRACTICE

Settling in Best practice strategies designed to settle and support all young children will particularly benefit the very youngest. These include: