Season of birth and school attendance

Previous research has shown that summer compared to autumn or spring born children have been found to do less well educationally, to be more likely to have their abilities underestimated and to be considered to have behaviour problems, but not to differ in terms of school attendance. That last result is refuted by the results of this study which is based on more than 5000 pupils in their last year of primary education and which reveals that: (a) after controlling for gender and size of family, the summer born have the poorest and the autumn born the highest attendance rates; and (b) in the case of pupils with attendance rates of 80 per cent or less, more of them are summer born and fewer, autumn born.