Not allowed to take birthday cake to daughters party?

notanewuser

daisiegg wrote: »

That is exactly what we are planning to do! Not due to not wanting to be heavily pregnant in summer but due to not wanting a summer baby due to aforementioned educational difficulties they may suffer. Obviously this is anticipating a perfect world in which we don't struggle significantly to conceive. I know that is not at all guaranteed and I can imagine that if we were struggling to have a baby then I would really stop caring when s/he was born! But in an ideal world...

Being pregnant through the summer wasn't any issue for me! Sure, I got puffy ankles and had to lie down a lot, but that was hardly a big deal.

Spendless

I didn't want to be heavily pregnant in the summer either. I dislike my September birthday, everyone assumes you will be the cleverest as you are the eldest of your school year and it's just not true.:p Fortunately I could conceive easily and we always used to holiday in June.:D

krustylouise

daisiegg wrote: »

That is exactly what we are planning to do! Not due to not wanting to be heavily pregnant in summer but due to not wanting a summer baby due to aforementioned educational difficulties they may suffer. Obviously this is anticipating a perfect world in which we don't struggle significantly to conceive. I know that is not at all guaranteed and I can imagine that if we were struggling to have a baby then I would really stop caring when s/he was born! But in an ideal world...

My daughter is 5, soon to be 6 and has a reading age of an 8 year old. She is top of her class for maths and writing. I don't believe at all that children born in summer have educational difficulties. I personally believe children develop depending on how much effort and commitment you put into them. Learning doesn't end at school and dd has homework every night (3 very short bits 1 maths 1 reading book and 1 paragraph to write on the book she read and to practice her writing) dd enjoys doing it and her teacher praises us on our hard work and she is excelling in all areas and keeps getting certificates in assembly.

daisiegg

krustylouise wrote: »

My daughter is 5, soon to be 6 and has a reading age of an 8 year old. She is top of her class for maths and writing. I don't believe at all that children born in summer have educational difficulties. I personally believe children develop depending on how much effort and commitment you put into them. Learning doesn't end at school and dd has homework every night (3 very short bits 1 maths 1 reading book and 1 paragraph to write on the book she read and to practice her writing) dd enjoys doing it and her teacher praises us on our hard work and she is excelling in all areas and keeps getting certificates in assembly.

I was waiting for people to come along and say this...it must be annoying to hear that you child is in a group that is known to underachieve, when your child is doing just fine. It of course doesn't mean that your child will automatically be one of those that underachievers. Yes, of course, there are always exceptions, and no one said that ALL summer babies have 'educational difficulties' - that would be a ridiculous statement. Well done to your daughter for doing so well at school, and to you for supporting her. Equally, if I did have a summer baby I am fairly certain s/he would also be fine, as my husband and I are well educated, and would be very involved with our children's education - however I do believe school might be a bit more difficult for them and I would want to avoid that if I could. I have read the research and seen the statistics. It also can't be a coincidence that in my top set GCSE class (pupils who will get As and A*s), only one pupil was born after April in the school year (I think she is June, if I remember correctly. She is also at the bottom end of the class). My husband's daughter is a summer baby and she has always underachieved despite attending a private school and having lots of support at home. My husband thinks she started school too early and just never really 'caught up'. It seems very hard on her that she is doing the same exams at the same time as others who are 11 months older than her. I am sure it can be overcome in lots of cases, like your daughter's, but equally I would want to avoid life being a tiny bit harder for my child if I possibly could.

This post will come back to bite me when I now inevitably end up with a family of summer babies despite any of my best efforts... :rotfl:

daisiegg

krustylouise wrote: »

My daughter is 5, soon to be 6 and has a reading age of an 8 year old. She is top of her class for maths and writing. I don't believe at all that children born in summer have educational difficulties. I personally believe children develop depending on how much effort and commitment you put into them. Learning doesn't end at school and dd has homework every night (3 very short bits 1 maths 1 reading book and 1 paragraph to write on the book she read and to practice her writing) dd enjoys doing it and her teacher praises us on our hard work and she is excelling in all areas and keeps getting certificates in assembly.

Oh, just wanted to add - with all due respect, it doesn't really matter whether or not you believe that children born in summer can suffer educationally; it is a statistical fact. But again, it doesn't mean that ALL children born in summer will do worse, or that ALL children born in September will be geniuses. I also completely agree with you about how the home and parental input has a huge impact too.

notanewuser

My sister was born on August 31st - she was early and instead of being one of the eldest in the year (as I was) she was always the youngest! That said, we both did well academically and there wasn't a paper's breadth between our results.

Ich_2

Whilst Food Hygeine is the reason given, it is more likely a liability fear or a commercial decision using the given reason as a viable excuse!

Perhaps this may show what I mean which is a similar situation.

http://www.hse.gov.uk/myth/myth-busting/2013/case157-soft-play-area.htm

Perhaps print it off and challenge them with it?

daisiegg

notanewuser wrote: »

My sister was born on August 31st - she was early and instead of being one of the eldest in the year (as I was) she was always the youngest! That said, we both did well academically and there wasn't a paper's breadth between our results.

Yes, as I said, there are always plenty of exceptions!

I know one of the big drives at the moment in education is 'narrowing the gap'. This basically means, helping students who may have barriers to their achievement to achieve as well as students who don't have those barriers. We need to be able to identify all of our 'narrowing the gap' students in each of our classes, and be able to explain, if questioned, what we do to support them. Those groups include: students with special educational needs, students with English as an additional language, looked after children (children in the care system), students on free school meals, and summer born children. So they are considered to be educationally at a disadvantage. OF COURSE being in one of these categories does not automatically mean you are definitely going to underachieve! It just means that nationwide, statistically, you are more likely to. Sometimes it is a bit ridiculous; for example I have students coming up on my list as having English as an additional language, but their English is actually perfect and they are often at the top of the class...so they don't necessarily always need extra support!

I have heard that another key target group that is apparently vastly underachieving is 'working class white boys'. Really, the way things are going, the majority of any given class will be on this list of narrowing the gap students! What it is important to remember, as a parent, a student or indeed a teacher, is that just because a student's name may appear on one of these lists it does not mean they are automatically going to underachieve. And trust me, we do NOT look down our registers, mark off the students who were born after May and think 'well, they will be rubbish'! :rotfl:

krustylouise

daisiegg wrote: »

Oh, just wanted to add - with all due respect, it doesn't really matter whether or not you believe that children born in summer can suffer educationally; it is a statistical fact. But again, it doesn't mean that ALL children born in summer will do worse, or that ALL children born in September will be geniuses. I also completely agree with you about how the home and parental input has a huge impact too.

I have to say I have never heard of educational difficulties with summer babies. To be honest there's a statistic out there for everything, and whether you believe them or not is entirely a personal option. For me we have proven this "statistic" wrong. I think it's very sad that certain people would base the times they would conceive a child on a statistic. I mean, once upon a time did the "experts" tell us to put our babies to sleep on their backs, ten it was considered dangerous on their backs so on their fronts then sides then backs again all down to research and statistics? I think people should stop reding into mindless carp and live a little more. Please don't take this personally, as we all have our own opinions and are entitled to these.

However can I point out you have mentioned various times throughout this thread about summers babies I can't help but wonder you were waiting for a reaction??

notanewuser

Perhaps both of our parents being teachers helped.