“Unfair Penalties for Summer Born Children Exposed in LIAAG Paper to All London Authorities: Forced to Miss ‘any’ Year of their Education Unless they Start School Early”
Published September 7, 2015
Written by Pauline Hull and Michelle Melson
Thamira Andrews’ summer born children began their education at the age of 5 in India.
But when the family returned home to England in July, Thamira says she was told in no uncertain terms by both her local London admission authority and the first school she approached that it is not their practice to place children ‘out of year groups’, regardless of the individual circumstances.
Shockingly, the children must skip a whole year of their education and enter their ‘correct chronological age’ year groups.
For Milan-Felix, this means moving straight from Year 1 into Year 3 and for Radha-Olivia, moving from Year 3 into Year 5. Continue reading
“School shake up to help pupils born in summer” is the headline on the front page of today’s Sunday Express newspaper (report inside by Political Editor Caroline Wheeler).
This is the second time that the issue of rights and best interests of summer born children has made front page news this year; the Daily Telegraph covered it on July 17.
See all @sb_campaign radio and television coverage here.
See all newspaper and online (incl. campaign) coverage here.
In Lauryn (of Liverpool)’s own words:
“We knew from the day Isabella was born (August 20, 2011) the struggles that she may face with early admittance to education due to her summer birthday, and we made a decision early on that we would wait until she was compulsory school age (CSAge) before sending her to school.
But when the time came to start applying we didn’t anticipate the minefield that was the admissions process for Reception class at CSAge. Continue reading
This morning, Michelle Melson’s eagle eye spotted this very interesting ‘Opportunity‘ being advertised by Bradford Council’s Admissions Team:
“Panel Members for Deferred or Offset Children starting Reception – The Admissions Team are looking for Primary Headteachers to volunteer to be part of a pool of professionals that they can call upon when a parent requests their child be deferred or offset from starting Reception.” (published September 2, 2015)
Is this really what parents, taxpayers and the government want headteachers to spend their valuable (and already limited) time doing? The Summer Born Campaign disagrees with the admissions postcode lottery that these appointed ‘panels’ sustain (just compare how Liverpool is approaching requests), but also there is no research or evidence for these ‘pools of professionals‘ to draw on that says missing a year of school is ever in a child’s best interests (just the opposite in fact). Continue reading
Following last week’s Liverpool news, today the Summer Born Campaign received a formal “supporting statement” from Councillor Lana Orr in the office of the Mayor of Liverpool, Joe Anderson. We are very grateful to this council for listening to us and doing what is right; and we only hope that more admission authorities might now follow suit.
“We believe that every child in our city deserves the very best education regardless of the month of their birth and that parental choice is of great importance. That’s why we will be amending our admissions policy to ensure that parents of summer born children – who wish to wait until compulsory school age before sending their child to school – will be able to send their child to reception aged five. Continue reading
The Autumn 2015 issue of JUNO has a featured special article on ‘School Starting Age‘ that includes a section on ‘Summer-Born Children‘ written by Pauline Hull.
More information:
JUNO is a natural parenting magazine that inspires and supports families through its range of features, columns and artwork – see its Twitter, Facebook and website links.
Age 4 on Aug 20, 2015
Excellent news this week from Liverpool City Council:
“All summer born children whose parents request a deferral will automatically be granted…“*
This was something Summer Born Campaign member Lauryn Douglas, mum of four year-old Isabella, thought she might never hear following a 12-month battle with the council’s admissions department; her request was denied by a ‘panel of teaching experts‘ not once, but twice.
Fortunately, despite a journey fraught with setbacks, Lauryn received overwhelming support from her local MP Stephen Twigg (Labour and Co-operative, Liverpool West Derby) and his office staff, and most recently, Joe Anderson, the Mayor of Liverpool, who offered summer born children his full support. Continue reading
As another example of how easily admission authorities can get information for parents wrong – to the point of being unlawful (underlined below) – and how parents can feel under pressure to enroll their children in school before CSAge, Cambridgeshire County Council’s First Steps Admission to primary school: a guide for parents states:
“When should my child start school? Your child is eligible to start school the September following their 4th birthday, but legally must start the term following their 5th birthday. If your child was born between 1 September 2010 and 31 August 2011 you will need to submit your application by 15 January 2015…
Please be aware that if your child was born during the summer term and you chose to defer their admission to school until the following September, they will be admitted into the Year 1 group, and not Reception.“
Continue reading
Summer Born is Summer Born is Summer Born
If a child is born between April 1 and August 31, they do not reach compulsory school age until the term following their 5th birthday. And if a child is born prematurely during this period, their parents are not entitled to any greater legislative rights when requesting Reception class entry at CSAge, and no extra protection against their child missing a year of school later on, than any other parent – the postcode lottery exists for everyone.
It’s true that new text (specifically requested by the charity Bliss during the Code consultation period) was added to section 2.17 of the 2014 School Admissions Code: “Admission authorities must make decisions on the basis of the circumstances of each case and in the best interests of the child concerned. This will include… where relevant, their medical history and the views of a medical professional…and whether they may naturally have fallen into a lower age group if it were not for being born prematurely“.
But as the Summer Born Campaign has repeatedly warned, by keeping the admission of summer born children within section 2.17, by condoning the idea that a different (‘miss a year of education or not‘) decision might be made for different summer born children (depending on the subjective views of head teachers and/or administrators), and by legitimising the involvement of medical professionals (costly for parents and/or the NHS) by those admission authorities fundamentally opposed to flexibility (while others agree to all requests regardless of ‘special circumstances’ on the principle that no child should miss a year of education), it only made the existing flexibility unfairness worse.
In fact, numerous parents of premature children joined the SBC facebook group desperate for help when their requests were predictably denied, as a “delighted” Bliss welcomed what it called “greater clarity” in the new Code, and a “fantastic breakthrough“. Continue reading
I read the DfE’s latest report on school exclusions in England (2013-14) in the knowledge that summer born children are significantly more likely to be diagnosed with SEN than any other group.
Interestingly, the report, published yesterday, links to another, 2012 Research Report (A profile of pupil exclusions in England), which tells us:
“When controlling for other characteristics, being a pupil with any level of Special Educational Needs provision has a stronger effect on the odds of being excluded than gender, Free School Meals eligibility or ethnicity.” Continue reading
In email correspondence with the Summer Born Campaign group member Gemma Adams, an official from the DfE’s School Organisation and Admissions Division has said:
“The Government recognises that this has been problematic in a number of cases…
…children are still being admitted to Year 1 against their parents’ wishes. The minister has, therefore, decided that it is necessary to amend the School Admissions Code further to ensure that summer born children can be admitted to reception at the age of five if it is in line with their parents’ wishes, and to ensure that those children are able to remain with that cohort as they progress through school.
The Department has begun the work necessary to implement that change and will be conducting a full public consultation in due course.“
Callum Gafford is yet another summer born child who faces losing a year of his education as penalty for starting school at CSAge, and his mother Natalie was interviewed by reporter Sean Killick on BBC South Today (02:58-07:59)
During today’s report, member of the Education Select Committee Caroline Nokes said, “I absolutely think that the decision should rest with the parents who do know their children best and that this has to be a decision in the interests of every child not for administrative neatness for a local authority.”
This was followed by a pre-recorded interview with Schools Minister Nick Gibb, who began by talking about the ‘parents calling for greater rights because of conditions imposed by councils‘ when they request Reception class entry at CSAge: Continue reading
A member of the National Governors’ Association has told the Summer Born Campaign that its June 5, 2015 newsletter reads:
“The NGA encourages governing boards who are the admissions authority for their school
to allow summer-born children to defer and begin reception a year later should parents wish for this to happen.”
The NGA’s newsletter article in full, which is applicable to governors of all state funded schools in England, reads: Continue reading
Because he ‘should’ be going to school in September…
Some parents, including Faye Sturgess in Northampton, face a doubly distressing battle to ensure their summer born children have the best start to their education.
Not only has her local school and council refused to agree to her request for Reception class entry in September 2016 when Theo reaches CSAge, but now Faye says the pre-school Theo attends doesn’t want him to return in September 2015.
All three – pre-school, school and council – are seeking to make the decision on timing of school entry instead of the parents; they conclude it is in Theo’s best interests to start school at just turned 4 years of age, against his parents’ wishes.
Yet Theo is the youngest of three summer born boys in his family, and his parents have first-hand experience of the “struggles” their eldest in particular has had in school; they want to avoid repeating this experience with Theo, and they know him best, – but they’ve been told if they don’t enrol him this year, he must start school in Year 1, and he’ll lose his pre-school place too. Continue reading
The Sydney Morning Herald has reported on the Summer Born Campaign in England in its special July 19 feature: When should children start school? Answer differs around the world.
Colleen Ricci writes, “The age at which children compulsorily begin their formal education has become a controversial topic in England…
“According to reports, these decisions are exacerbated by inflexibility in the system: parents of five-year-olds report feeling pressured by local authorities to forgo Reception and enrol in year 1, unless they can prove exceptional circumstances; while parents of four-year-olds report feeling compelled to enrol their children in Reception sooner than they would like, for fear they will otherwise be unable to secure a year 1 place in their preferred school the following year. Continue reading
The 2013 edition of the Good Schools Guide warns women:
“So avoid getting pregnant between July and November inclusive!”
When the Telegraph’s Economics Correspondent Peter Spence tweeted his concerns about a potential middle-class advantage of planning a child’s DOB, it reminded me I’d read this while looking for alternative Surrey schools when our son was facing forced Year 1 entry at CSAge.
But what’s perhaps more interesting in the context of Education Committee Chair’s comments yesterday (“admissions decisions need to be made in the best interests of the child, not administrative neatness“) is just how vulnerable the education ‘system’ is to admin processes trumping children’s best interests: Continue reading
The Summer Born Campaign‘s Rosie Dutton has been interviewed on ITV’s Good Morning Britain as part of wide media coverage following today’s press release from the Education Committee: ‘MPs are promised action on summer born admissions‘.
Rosie says, “There needs to be a change to the School Admissions Code so that all children, if their parents request it, get the same opportunity as Olivia, and can start in Reception at age 5 – without missing a year… we face the threat now that she will be made to leapfrog a year at any point, which is horrendous. So hopefully Nick Gibb will sort this issue out…”
You can read all online and newspaper coverage in our Summer Born News, and also see today’s important post: Many Ministers have Talked the Talk – Could Nick Gibb Actually Walk the Walk?
The Campaign would also like to take this opportunity to thank all the 18 MPs who have formally supported our campaign and the 61 Prospective Parliamentary Candidates who supported us during the Election Campaign. Continue reading
The House of Commons Education Committee has today published ‘MPs are promised action on summer born admissions‘ alongside a letter from Minister of State for Schools, Nick Gibb, wrote to its Chair, Neil Carmichael, earlier this month.
The letter acknowledges that recent changes to the School Admissions Code have not solved the problem of “contentious cases” in the admission of summer born children.
And the Chair says, “It’s very encouraging to see that the Minister recognises the issues raised by the previous Committee. Parents told us that there is still a problem here, despite previous work on the School Admissions Code which aimed to clear this up.
No child should miss out on a year of schooling, and admissions decisions need to be made in the best interests of the child, not administrative neatness.”
In a meeting last month with the Summer Born Campaign‘s Michelle Melson, Mr Gibb promised to review the summer born issue with ministerial colleagues at the earliest opportunity, and today’s news shows he has been true to his word on this. Continue reading
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