Category Archives: EXAMPLE CASES
Schools Adjudicator Upholds Objection Against Wakefield Council Summer Born Admissions
The Office of the Schools Adjudicator determination can be read in full here. In brief, the “objection refers specifically to explanatory note 16.9 in the arrangements which says that: • there is an “expectation” that, where parents of summer born … Continue reading
School Start Summer Born Poem
It’s School Today Dry your eyes, be brave, I say. You’ve just turned 4 but it’s school today. Let’s roll up your trousers, they’ll fit one day. Now dry your eyes, be brave, I pray.
Mumsnet Summer Born Guest Post
The Summer Born Campaign‘s Rosie Dutton provided an update on her daughter’s progress after starting school at age 5, instead of age 4. In this week’s Guest Post, A later start can be the best thing for many children, Rosie says … Continue reading
Not the First Time? Summer Born Adults Recall Being Made to Miss a Year of School in the 1970s
Anyone else miss out on a year of primary school? A few years ago, I came across the discussion forum above. It describes a chronological reorganisation of children in school, which does not appear to have considered their individual best interests, and includes the … Continue reading
Leicestershire County Council’s Financial Settlement Following Summer Born Admissions Fight
In today’s Leicester Mercury, Fiona Dryden describes Stephanie Walsgrove’s fight with Leicestershire County Council to allow her daughter, Amelia, to enter Reception class at CSAge in September 2017: Leicestershire mum wins battle to delay her daughter’s school start. The article refers … Continue reading
Headteachers Complain of Cuts but Untold Amounts of Time and Money Spent on Summer Born Admissions
On the very same day I read this in the Guardian – Cuts, cuts, cuts. Headteachers tell of school system ‘that could implode’ – a parent in our Summer Born Campaign group described how no fewer than three head teachers … Continue reading
Stress Spikes as Deadline for Admissions Application Approaches
With many of the 7,200 members in the Summer Born Campaign group busy preparing admissions applications for primary school places this week, the shocking postcode lottery and differences in admissions authorities’ positions is more stark and stressful than than ever. Copious letters, emails and … Continue reading
Simple Summer Born Admissions Process Publicised in Hertfordshire
In this week’s Watford Observer article (Everything you need to know about applying for school places in Hertfordshire this year) Matthew Lennon highlights just how simple and straightforward some admission authorities are making the summer born application process. Lennon reports: “In line … Continue reading
Headteacher Suggests Pregnancy Plan to Solve Summer Born Problem
In 2013, the Good Schools Guide advised parents to avoid getting pregnant between July and November, and this week headteacher Steve Woodhouse has given summer born pregnancy advice too. Mr. Woodhouse emphasises how he has only very recently learned just how educationally disadvantaged summer born children … Continue reading
Admissions Authorities with Automatic Summer Born Admission to Reception Class at CSAge
Here is a list of some of the councils and schools that now allow summer born children the automatic right to enter Reception class at CSAge – without any costly, combative and time-consuming requirements for parents to provide arbitrary reasons and evidence. … Continue reading
Irony as Lancashire Issues Most Fines For Children Missing School
This week (October 19), the Lancashire Evening Post reported that ‘Lancashire tops chart for issuing fines to parents if kids miss school’. The irony of this is not lost on parents of summer born children, many of whom are fighting for their children’s access … Continue reading
LGO Finds Fault with Lancashire County Council’s Summer Born Admissions Process
The Local Government Ombudsman has upheld a complaint against Lancashire County Council, which was made by a parent member of the Summer Born Campaign. In summary, the LGO concluded: “There was fault in the way the Council considered Mrs X’s request for delayed … Continue reading
Year of School Removed from Summer Born’s EHCP in Surrey as Ofsted and CQC Commence Joint SEND Inspection
When even a summer born child with special educational needs (SEN) can be made to miss a year of school – against her parents’ wishes – it’s clear that the DfE urgently needs to protect the educational rights of EVERY summer born child. In … Continue reading
Summer Born Sadness – and Madness – of a Forced Early School Start
This harrowing message from Ruth in Coventry needs no introduction, but it does need ACTION (by the DfE) to stop this shockingly unfair postcode lottery, as promised. “Everyone is posting pictures of their sweet children who aren’t starting school this week, … Continue reading
Summer Born Son Struggles in Year 1
What happens to a child who is forced to start school early, at age 4, against his parents’ wishes, and against the 2015 request of a DfE Schools Minister? One year later, at age 5, and having only just reached CSAge, his parents are … Continue reading
Summer Born Smiles Starting School Age 5
This is just a selection of #summerborn children from our ever growing campaign group who very happily started school in Reception class this month – at compulsory school age. They are the lucky ones, who have won the postcode lottery (school … Continue reading
‘No matter what you say we’re not going till CSA’
It’s become somewhat of an accidental tradition on this website to publish an annual poem by the parent of a summer born child – by Rosie Dutton in 2014 and Lauryn Douglas in 2015. This year, Melanie Charnock says she was inspired to … Continue reading
B is for Book, Bored and Below Compulsory School Age
I am not an early years teaching expert, but I have witnessed firsthand how ingrained a hatred of reading can develop in some children, and was acutely reminded of this when I watched the BBC 4 documentary ‘B is for Book‘. As a former … Continue reading
Postal Delay for Parents of Summer Born Children
While most parents in England found out today which primary school has offered their child a place, for parents of some summer born children, like Leo in Surrey, they won’t find out until the postman arrives with a letter tomorrow (or later in … Continue reading
Cambridgeshire MP Supports Summer Born Children
There are a number of councils (and schools) in England that are stubbornly refusing to implement the Schools Minister’s call for action in September 2015, to allow summer born children to enter Reception class at CSAge if this is their … Continue reading
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