School Gate Blog: when should summer babies start school?

THE government wants all children to start school at the age of four, even if their parents think they are too young.

Many parents hold back children who have just turned four because they would be the youngest in the class, but ministers say this risks causing long-term damage to their educational performance.

The controversial guidance will accompany a far-reaching shake-up of the national curriculum for primary schools, which critics claim will also lead to a downgrading of science and other traditional subjects.

The debate over four-year-olds starting school centres on summer-born children, whose birthdays fall in June, July and August. Research to be cited in an official review released tomorrow has shown that they perform less well in exams, including GCSEs and A-levels.

Some summer-born pupils who start formal classes in the September after their fourth birthday are overlooked by teachers or bullied by older classmates. Other summer-born offspring are held back for six months or a year, but then struggle to catch up with classmates who have been at school longer. Some parents time their children’s birth to avoid a summer baby.

However, Ed Balls, the schools secretary, believes he can solve the conundrum. “There is an education premium for a summer-born child starting school earlier that no parent can afford to ignore,” he said. “But . . . parents have concerns about their child starting school with older children - we must have the right curriculum and approach by teachers.” The official review of primary education, ordered by Balls, will recommend that all children start school in the September after their fourth birthday, even if they are born in June, July or August.

The report by Sir Jim Rose, a former chief inspector of primary education, will propose that children are not plunged straight into formal lessons but start off part-time, spending 15 hours a week at school with an emphasis on play.

Michele Elliott, founder and director of the children’s charity Kidscape, cautioned that for the youngest, starting school was “an absolute shock to the system”.

The Rose review will also lead to an overhaul of the national curriculum for primary schools. This will change the emphasis from traditional subjects to overarching “themes”, such as wellbeing, health and social attitudes. There would be more teaching in areas such as relationships and healthy eating.

The national curriculum, introduced by the Conservatives in 1988, includes 11 compulsory subjects for the youngest pupils. Under the new system of themes, Whitehall insiders say there will be a greater emphasis on “relevance”: for example, animal reproduction might be learnt as part of a wider course on “relationships”.

The amount of prescribed knowledge will be cut sharply, with a greater emphasis placed on more general goals.

Michael Gove, shadow schools secretary, said: “This is the last thing we need, when this country is falling behind other countries in the quality of our science teaching. We need more rigour in how we teach science - not less.”

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