Working hard in school is essential for developing skills and learning knowledge – but did you know that a child’s birth month could have an impact too?
Research has suggested that kids born in November are most likely to excel academically at primary school.
This new study has now helped to put paid to the widely held assumption that September-born children do the best in class.
The study which explored the relationship between a child’s birth month and their academic attainment revealed that kids born in November are most likely to excel academically at primary school, while July-born children are the slowest to catch up.
Scores were collected from 5,000 Year 6 pupils by edtech specialist Atom Learning and analysed to gain an insight into the relationship between a child’s birth month and their academic attainment – with November babies topping the rankings.
These findings challenge the assumption that September-born children do the best in school, while August-born struggle the most.
Researchers found that children born in the autumn typically do better than their peers academically, while summer-born babies – who start school shortly after their fourth birthday – struggle to make up the difference.
However, kids born in June proved an exception to this rule as they had the eighth highest attainment scores, ahead of both March and May-born children.
The data collected by edtech specialist Atom Learning also suggests that kids with birthdays in January will likely sit in the middle of the classroom rankings.
Academic performance was measured based on an attainment score in Maths, English, Science, Verbal Reasoning and Non-Verbal Reasoning exercises, with a range of 0 to 4,000.
Find below the birth month average attainment scores (as found by Atom Learning):
Birth month – Average attainment score
November – 3046
September – 3045
December – 3041
February – 3024
October – 3016
January – 3014
April – 2997
June – 2995
May – 2991
March – 2982
August – 2973
July – 2932
Anna Masterson, Chief Learning Officer at Atom Learning, said: “Children born later in the academic year inevitably have less time to grow their vocabulary, practise their social skills or simply take in the world before Reception starts.
“This can affect their adjustment to primary school and put them slightly behind their classmates at first. It’s important that we recognise this potential disadvantage and address it.”
The education expert added: “But this data is also a helpful reminder not to focus all of our attention on August babies and neglect the development support needed by children born in other months.
“Spring babies falling behind kids born in June, for example, shows us that this issue isn’t as clear cut as autumn versus summer.
“But parents shouldn’t panic. As long as we give each child the right kind of support for their individual needs and have patience while they get up to speed in primary school, there’s no reason all children can’t thrive.”
Source: Daily Mirror
