Mark Woods: Summer-borns getting left behind

The Summer-born debate moved on apace again this week. For years it seems it just wasn’t recognised as a broad educational issue, beyond perhaps the concerns and reasonings of individual parents. I have a June birthday myself and I never once clocked that the others in my year somehow had a chronological and developmental advantage over me. In fact I was also unaware of the debate as a new parent of two small boys born in August and July respectively. But when the eldest attended his first day at nursery, it suddenly became obvious. What were these giant children doing here with my toddling tot? Surely some mistake had been made? A few Googles later and I became very aware of the possible consequences of my wife and I having been habitual autumnal conceivers. Survey after survey found that not only did being born between May and August put you at an educational disadvantage in your early years, the stats showed it often stayed with you for life. Of course there are exceptions but the data is becoming very clear – even in professional sport there’s a dearth of summer-borns who make it to the top – the physically more developed autumn and winter children naturally catching the eye early on and that early success not just begetting a positive attitude but also access to better tuition.

So what to do? Universal recognition of the validity of the issue would be a start. It sits in a murky hinterland at present along with global warming, where overwhelming evidence is ignored by stubborn refuseniks. Hot-house intensive catch-up sessions for the affected children were suggested last week, which sounds like the least likely way to engage a five-year-old in the history of the world.

Surely though, it isn’t beyond us to factor age into exam scores for the first year or two of school to negate this phenomenon, which potentially robs the country of a great swathe of bright talent? Many teachers will already be doing this but for as long as its not properly recognised nationally – as it is in many Scandinavian countries, then when you celebrate your birthday will remain far too significant a factor.

Twitter @mark_r _woods

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