In a recent interview with the Guardian’s Yvonne Roberts, England’s new Children Commissioner Anne Longfield said, “My mission is to nurture true joys of childhood“, and pointed out that “there is a societal gain from a public investment in having all children doing well. In economic terms, it is not only fair and just; it is essential for us to compete globally.”

The Summer Born Campaign agrees with both of these points, and found this comment interesting too: “I know what can be achieved when a small group of people put their minds to understanding what might make a real difference”.

And on November 11, 2014, the Children’s Commissioner replied to my “urgent” tweet:
@PaulineMHull @4ChildrenUK will look at what support we can give @sb_campaign
We have continued to keep Anne informed about summer born issues, as her background would lead us to suggest she might be willing to help:

Anne Longfield OBE is Chief Executive of the charity 4Children, which says it “believes that every child in every community should have the chance to achieve their full potential and that every parent should have the support they need to enable their family to flourish…”

And “that children and families should be at the heart of our society and actively involved in shaping the decisions about the services they need.”

And last November, Anne Longfield promised to “relentlessly champion the interests and rights of children“.

The Summer Born Campaign sincerely hopes that she will help us  fight against the injustice of missing a whole year of education, which is happening to (or being threatened to) so many summer born children.