http://rrf.org.uk/messageforum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=6109
19 February 2015
Delayed school entry linked with poorer results
By Judith Burns
Education reporter, BBC News
A delay in starting school for summer-born or premature children may be linked with poor academic performance later on, a study suggests.
Some experts believe delayed school entry benefits this group of children.
However, the study found children who missed a year of learning often did worse in tests at the age of eight.
The research team, led by scientists at Warwick University, analysed the records of children born in the German state of Bavaria in 1985 and 1986.
They studied 999 children, of whom 472 were born before their due dates.
The researchers looked at teachers' assessments of the children's achievements in their first year of school and compared these with results of standardised maths, reading, writing and attention tests when the children were eight.