Child Development
Government urged to rethink school starting age
Educational experts are urging the Government to rethink the age at which children start school, to close the gap between summer-born children and older peers.
Tim Oates, of Cambridge Assessment, which published a review of research into birthdate effects last year, believes that the school starting age should be based around the development of 'executive function' in children, the ability to monitor, plan and reflect, which typically occurs at around the age of four-and-a-half.
Mr Oates said, 'The gap in attainment between summer-born and autumn-born children is a function of their being young for their year group. The evidence points to there being a spurt in the development of executive function at around the age of four-and-a-half. If you push down the onset of intensive formal education too far, some children will not develop this capacity and struggle with the demands of formal schooling.'
His views were backed by a new review of birthdate effects on education and school policy, published by the Department for Education in July. This found that the gap between the number of autumn-born children and those born in August who achieved a good level of development in the EYFS profiles is 24 percentage points. This gap falls to eight percentage points at Key Stage 2 and six percentage points between autumn-born and summer-born children who achieve five or more grades A*-C at GCSE.
Summer-born children were found to be significantly more likely to be identified as having a special educational need than older classmates. The most disproportionate SENs in summer-born children are moderate and specific learning difficulties, speech, language and communication needs and 'unclassified' needs.
The study found that gaps in attainment were only due to summer-born children being comparatively younger at the time they were assessed, not to how old they were when they started school.
A spokesperson for the DfE said, 'We are still considering policy on summer-born children. In the meantime, from September 2011, all local authorities will be required to offer children a place in Reception from the September following the child's fourth birthday. Parents will continue to have a choice on whether to defer and, if so, can continue to access 15 hours' free nursery education from a range of providers.'
