Petition allow summer born children to defer their school start date

Parents of children who are born within the school summer holidays (25/7 - 2/9) should have the choice of sending their children into reception when they have turned four or defer until they have turned five depending on their child's readiness.

Www.guardian.co.uk

Summer-born children are at a serious disadvantage in the majority of England's primary schools, a major study has found.

Nearly all primary schools divide pupils according to their academic ability by the age of seven. But a study of 5,481 children shows that this means summer-born children are far more likely to be placed in the bottom sets than their autumn-born peers.

August-born pupils are more than twice as likely to be in the bottom set as their classmates born the previous September, researchers at London University's Institute of Education found. September-born children are almost three times as likely to be in the top stream as their August-born peers, the study shows.