its the social and emotional side of things i worry about as much as anything really.

TBH i expect that age adjusted scores will be a reality for GCSEs or their successor by the time DS takes his in 12 years time. The research is resoundingly clear that the line on the graph for your GCSE scores slopes gradually downwards from sept to aug.

I am a bit confused as to if there is anything i can do about my summer born boy. currently 3 and due to start school in sept 2010.
he's only a june birthday i hasten to add. but he's tiny, still in 12-18 months trousers so at this rate i hope the school uniforms is available in 18-24 months size or what will i do? he's enjoying nursery but it is really clear that his self-help skills are not great, we are working really hard ot help but he is just young. also he had glue ear so to be honest, if you don't know him, you probably couldnt' understand what he says most of the time. people often misunderstand what he says and just answer a totally different question.
DH said people always thought that he was a lot younger than he was as a child, but he was a sept birthday so i guess he just fitted in. i'm worried DS is the same, but with a summer birthday. at the moment at least DS really looks like he belongs in the year below. he doesn't really interact much with other children but those he talks about are the younger ones in the pre-school next door to the nursery. he's seen the speech therapist a bit but he isn't really SEN.
we live in Bradford LA (hi otter and lingle, not in the head covering place but nearby - and would love to move there for the schools if we ever get any money!) and want to know if this deferral thing is still an option? provisionally we are interested in a school in leeds LA, which has a mixed year r/1 and Year 1/2 class and the children in year 1 are split by age. so effectively he might get an extra year in (a kind of) reception and DD sept born would get two years in the year 1/2 class and just one year in the Year R/1 class.
DSs nursery is amazing and i would love to leave him there for an extra year and start him a year late in Year R (def not straight into Year 1, what would be the point in that?) but i suspect i don't have the option?
Do I? Ed Balls is kind of hinting i might? or is this at some kind of fictional point in the future if labour win the next election? confused as to what my options are if any, and wishing all children stayed in nursery until nearly 6 as this would help this problem a lot.
sorry for long rambling and overtired post

totally agree with that Tizzyjacko - most of the kids who pass the 11plus at DSs school are Sept- Feb and indeed most of the kids i teach are too (in selective school)

And what about the social side? The older ones tend to be more successful at games (Because they are bigger and better coordinated), get picked for the speaking parts at assembly and class plays (because they can read and/or are more confident)and therefore feel succesful from the very beginning. I have one of each, September and July (plus third with special needs)and the July born DS has definitely suffered from a lack of confidence compared to his september born younger brother even accounting for differences in personality.

If a child has been to nursery, then the transition from school to reception is generally not too bad, even for summerborns.

This is because a reception class is mostly play and a little formal learning. The real pain starts in Y1 when the equation reverses to a little play and mostly formal learning. That is when the problems start for many summer borns, and you only need to look at mumsnet to find threads reading "My dc is in Y1 and cries every morning, yet was fine in reception, I do not understand it."

That is why schools need the ability to back year children who are struggling, and it is why it is cruel to start a child in Y1 if they have not been through reception. It is also why learning through play needs to be integrated into the whole of KS1, as it is in Wales.

but how do you know a lot of summer born children aren't disadvantaged? because they do as well / if not better in the tests. but the argument for age-adjusted scores is for internal use. an august born child doing as well as a september born child is not 'not disadvantage' they are actually working almost a year ahead.
it's about expectations and setting appropriate work while still young. It would make it more explicit.

My son has been Statistics bear this out too. he will be going into year 5 (currently year 6) from january in the independent sector.

(I don't see need for age-adjusted scores. That would be an awfully blunt tool. Plenty of children aren't disadvantaged by august birthday.

I'm not sure what would mitigate them and agree it is a prob. I'm just worried that a change along the suggested lines would just be a combo of:

(a) shifting the arbitrary watershed so that eg if you can defer children with a May-to-August birthday, parents of children born in April would feel their child diadvantaged

(b) introducing a class/inclome differential so that the poorer children would suffer age-related effects disproportionately.

I would like policy to concentrate on improved teaching and classroom resources (plus perhaps less monitoring, which is damaging in a range of ways anyway).

I can only speak from my experience of this, but my two eldest found the transition from nursery to school not so straightforward. I don't think it is the same: although there are learning expecations in nursery, there is none of the current testing or monitoring that occurs in school. And on the whole, nurseries are still better geared up to manage the physical care and emotional needs of young children in a way that schools, even good reception classes just aren't. If that were rectified, then maybe that would help.

The evidence is that educational outcomes are different at all levels, even at GCSE and A level. I am not sure how the current primary provision can deal with that. Perhaps proper monitoring and age-adjusted scores would go some way? What do you think would mitigate the age-effects, Deadworm?