• Summer-born pupils disadvantaged by 'unfair' 11-plus test, adjudicator rules

    An Essex grammar school has been ordered to age-weight the results of its 11-plus entry exam after the admissions watchdog found that the test disadvantages summer-born children. In a ruling thought to be the first of its kind, the Office of the Schools Adjudicator said a lack of any age standardisation in the 11-plus test…

    11.49 Apr. 3rd, 2018 | News

  • Schools are streaming the youngest children by phonics ability

    Schools are using phonics to divide primary classes into ability streams – and pupils born in summer are paying the price. Phonics teaching involves six phases in which children learn how to read and spell using progressively harder phonemes and graphemes – sounds and the letters that represent them. But the National Education Union has…

    0.01 Dec. 1st, 2017 | News

  • Stop labelling summer-born pupils as SEN!

    There’s a huge difference in the attainment of older and younger pupils in the same year, and it’s too often misdiagnosed, says Stephen Gorard It is well known that summer-born pupils leave school with lower grades than their peers, but research has now shown that they are also diagnosed by schools with special educational needs…

    5.00 Sep. 24th, 2017 | Opinion

  • Gibb fails to resolve summer-born admissions despite promises

    Schools minister Nick Gibb is under fire for “failing to act” nearly two years after promising to stop the “postcode lottery” of unfair admissions for summer-born children. Gibb (pictured) launched a review in July 2015 to investigate the admission rules for summer-born children, which he said was an issue “repeatedly raised on the doorstep” during…

    5.00 May. 14th, 2017 | News