Should Children Born in Summer Start School Later?

For parents, the first determinant of when a child starts at school is the child's birthday. While probably not something that parents will consider when they think about having a baby, an August birth may be treated very differently to a September baby, even though they are only born weeks apart.

At What Age Should My Child Start School?

Your child will start school the September term after their fourth birthday. Your child will turn five within this first school year.

If your son or daughter was born between the 1st of September and the 28th (or 29th February if a leap year) then you should reasonably expect he or she to start schooling in the September term after their 4th birthday. If you child was born during the summer months then there may be a possibility that you can defer their start date until January.

Deferred Admissions

A deferred admission is the right of any parent whose child is of statutory school age but who wishes to defer their admission until the January term when their child will be that little bit older. For example if your son or daughter was born in a summer month, which would make them a particularly young four-year-old in September, then you can in some instances defer their starting date until the Spring term which commences in January of the following year.

Parents do not have a legal obligation to make arrangements for their child to attend school until the beginning of the term following their 4th birthday, so if that fourth birthday falls between 1 January and 31 August, for example, parents can request to defer admission until the beginning of January the following year.

In this case, parents must have an allocated school place before asking for the deferral, and must inform the school. Please note that not all schools will allow children to start in January and will have only one start date, that being in September.

Whatever the circumstances however you should make every effort to thoroughly investigate the options prior to applying for a school place. You should make enquiries well in advance to all the schools that you are considering for your child.

The individual schools in question will be able to provide you with details of their admissions criteria and whether or not they operate a split term start scheme. Your Local Education Authority will be able to provide help and advice as to how to best tackle this issue and should also be able to provide you with details of how the schools within your catchment area deal with split term starts.

Benefits and Disadvantages of Starting School Earlier

There are various debates about the relative merits and disadvantages of starting school younger. For example, some studies have shown that children who start earlier are more intellectually curious and benefit from the educational stimulation in the school environment. Children who do start school in the September benefit from interaction with peers, improved knowledge base and a potential behavioural boost.

However, some other studies have shown that children can benefit from starting school later on, because they are free to use their own imagination in a more play-emphasising environment at home or at nursery school. In countries such as Sweden and Israel, children do not start school until they turn six, because of the perceived benefits of this period of free-forming imaginative play.

For this reason, some parents might opt for their young four year olds to wait to start school in January when they are that little bit older. Yet the results of such a decision will obviously be dependent upon each individual child - not all kids born in summer fall behind or see their development suffer, but if yours is particularly young-seeming you might want to consider deferring the start of school. Equally, if your child is thriving at nursery and shows a keenness to learn more, a September start might work well.