Summer-born children who defer starting school suffer 'negative effect'

Children born in the summer months, who defer starting school by one or two terms, suffer a ‘negative effect’ from missing out on the extra time at school that their peers are getting.

The research by York University and UCL looked at over 400,000 children born in 2000-2001 on the National Pupil Database who attend state schools in England as well as over 7,000 children in the same year from the Millennium Cohort Study.

Researchers compared early versus later entry into Reception class and looked at the impact on their cognitive and non-cognitive skills up until age 11. They found that all children benefit from early schooling, however the average effects are stronger for disadvantaged boys.

Children in England and Wales start school in the September after their fourth birthday, although some parents feel that if their child is born in the summer months, they are not ready for school and apply to defer them so they start in the spring or summer term of Reception.

Co-author of the study, Professor Thomas Cornelissen from the Department of Economics at the University of York, said: “The idea behind deferment by one or two terms is to give the youngest children some time to become more mature and school ready. But it seems that on average the negative effect of losing one term of reception class outweighs the potentially positive effect of deferment, in particular for boys from disadvantaged family backgrounds.

“The school-entry policy that should be recommended based on our results is a uniform school-entry date at the start of the academic year, while allowing deferment in exceptional circumstances. Importantly, this is the policy that most local authorities today have adopted.”

The study revealed that it is boys from disadvantaged backgrounds, who benefit most from early schooling, helping to narrow the skills gap with boys from high socio-economic backgrounds. Researchers found the early schooling improved relationships with teachers, academic interest and disruptive behaviour.

For disadvantaged boys, early schooling boosted test scores in language and numeracy at age five by 16-20 per cent, personal, social, and emotional development at age five by eight per cent, and language and numeracy skills at age seven by about 10 per cent. For boys from high socio-economic backgrounds, many of these effects are close to zero.

Co-author of the study, Professor Christian Dustmann from UCL added: “An important finding of the study is that the large skills difference between boys from advantaged and disadvantaged family backgrounds can be substantially reduced by early schooling.

“This is in line with findings of higher positive effects for disadvantaged children of early childcare programmes in other countries, such as Germany. On average across all children, an additional term of early schooling boosted age five test scores in language and numeracy by 6-10 per cent and age seven language and numeracy skills by about two per cent."

The Summer Born Campaign believes that a summer born child should be allowed to start primary school, in Reception class, aged five. For more information on flexible entry for summer born children click here