How do season of birth and length of schooling affect children's attainment at key stage 1?

Authors:
Publisher website
Google Scholar
Abstract
A review of previous studies identifies three main hypotheses to explain the general finding that summer‐born children perform less well than their autumn‐born classmates. This article reports the findings of an analysis of the 1991 National Curriculum Assessment data in relation to season of birth. Two hypotheses are explored in an analysis of the results obtained by a sample of around 4,000 six‐ and seven‐year‐olds in maths, science and English. The analysis revealed that there were significant differences between children of different age‐related groups in all three subjects. Although this was partially the result of differences in the age of the children when tested, other factors were found to be related to the achievement of these groups. The findings indicate that both age on starting school and length of schooling are important factors. Children who started school close to the age of four did less well than others. For older children, length of schooling appeared to relate positively to achievement at key stage 1. The implications of these findings for school policy and practice are discussed.

This publication has 17 references indexed in Scilit: