August babies

David and Samantha Cameron with baby Florence

With the premature birth of the Prime Minister’s new baby girl, tongues are set wagging about the life this August baby has to look forward to.

For years there has been endless debate and speculation at the school gates as to the progress of summer babies academically. And surprisingly confirmation of what many parents suspected has come to light; those born in the summer months are significantly less likely to be academically successful compared to their older classmates.

We know that late-August babies are too young for school just by looking at them, before even considering their academic ability.

As school years run from September to September, those born in late summer result in being the youngest in their school year, almost a whole year behind in some children’s cases. While some mothers’ offspring are walking, talking and starting to read, if not reading already, the late-August child is still barely able to sit upright and only recently stopped drinking from a bottle. These children tend to be a lot smaller, less formed, slower resulting in a lagging behind in gym and ball skills. However, if these children were to begin school a year later, they would be sure to excel and thrive physically and academically.

Recent studies are constantly demonstrating that children born in summer are consistently out-performed by their older counterparts.

Research conducted three years ago by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) found that children born in August do worse in school tests, have a high likelihood of struggling with reading and writing and then tend to drop out of education by age 16. The study was based on the records of every state school child and concluded, August-born children, in particular girls, are penalised by this unlucky birth date, which in extreme cases can lead to children being mistakenly labelled as having special educational needs.

In addition to this study, another concluded that fewer children born in August were likely to continue into higher education.

More recent studies such as research conducted by the Department of Education, earlier this year, highlighted the negative effects of an August birthday. Younger children were considerably behind by the age of five and were struggling to catch up throughout compulsory education. This research also found that these summer-born children were more likely to get bullied and be reported with learning difficulties far more then older classmates.

Although research has found the most high achieving athletes and personalities are born between September and December, Earlier this year with the majority of Premiership footballers born in autumn months, summer children tend to be very creative and artistic. Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, Madonna, and Coco Chanel are to name a few of great August babies. So all is not lost in summer babies!!

In conclusion, understanding why some children fall behind their peers is essential to building a better education system and such findings suggest for example; students should sit national tests when they reach a specific age rather than as a year group, annually.

Saphra Bennett, August 2010