ARE you an August or a September baby? This is a vexed question for parents; whether their children are born at the end or start of the UK school year can be crucial when it comes to performance at school.
The gap between these groups is substantial throughout primary and early secondary education. Attainment, self-esteem and the chances of being selected for sports teams or university are , all other things being equal.
Advertisement
鈥淎ttainment, self-esteem and university prospects are lower for the youngest children in a school year鈥�
suggest the attainment gap may be widest in the early years. In England, 49 per cent of summer-born children who start school in September having just turned 4 achieve a 鈥済ood level of development鈥� in their first year, compared with 71 per cent of autumn-born pupils, who are nearly five when they start.
In terms of numbers reaching the 鈥渆xpected鈥� levels of writing, reading and maths, the gap is around 8 per cent from ages 5 to seven and drops very little from ages 7 to 11. By 15 or 16, around 6 per cent more autumn children gain five or more 鈥済ood鈥� grades at GCSE, in subjects including English and maths, than their summer peers. This suggests the possibility of different futures for many young people based on birth month.
Such figures explain why the UK government is keen to ensure that all parents of children born from April to August can easily delay the start of school by a year. That sounds sensible, until you realise that this may fail to solve the problem.
by a year (which many ), or , have been shown to be ineffective.
So what to do? Altering the date on which pupils enter school won鈥檛 help; an autumn- or would be no better. Selection, setting and streaming pupils .
There is one solution to much of the problem though: to all assessment results. This would mean pupils still sit annual tests or exams at the same time, but with results adjusted for age. These would form the official record for educational decisions by schools, universities, employers, individuals and family.
For the sake of fairness, this is what should be done.
This article appeared in print under the headline 鈥淗elping August鈥檚 child鈥�
Image credit: Source/Getty
