Two boys, June & July birthday, and two different DC private schools.

In my experience, the schools will tell you what they think you want to hear. If you go in with the attitude (as we did) "we want them to start pre-k as 4 year olds if at all possible," then most lilkely, they will make that happen. But if you say or imply that you think your little sweetie may "need more time" (wink wink), for whatever reason, then guess what... that will be their recommendation.

It depends upon the school. I really doubt height matters.

Burgundy seems to admit summer birthdays.

"Now, there are some red-shirt giants that look 8 in Kindergarden, but I don't care about them, I care about my kid and so should you."


You might care about them in a few years, PP, when your "smart as they make them" teen girl has bigger and older boys in her class that, with no redshirting, would have been in the grade above her.
Redshirting by parents of kids with no actual documented issues is nothing but stacking the deck so their kids have an artificial advantage. I feel bad for the kids.

I'm the OP. Thanks for all those who chimed in. I just want to understand whether it will be up to us or whether the school will pressure us to redshirt. If it makes a difference, DS is average in height and skinny.

I'm sorry but when you say that your child is "as smart as they make them", it just comes across as bragging. Interestingly you never hear parents saying this kind of thing on the public school board about a 4yo, only here on the private school forum. And this is about a summer boy.... May girls should not need to be redshirted--there is no reason for that in almost all cases and it is not common in private schools. Summer, perhaps, but May is spring.

It depends. If your son is emotionally immature, and only you will know that, then that might come across in the recommendations, Wppsi, or play date. I have a girl with a May birthdate and she is as smart as they make them, can be as charming as can be, and as sweet as candy, but if she hasn't gotten a nap, sufficient rest, is hungry, or just enough 4 year old love, she is a train wreck. Apparently, non of her typical 4 year old behavior showed itself and she is starting pre-k big 3 in the fall. Now, there are some red-shirt giants that look 8 in Kindergarden, but I don't care about them, I care about my kid and so should you. I felt that she could handle it and more importantly she maintains that she is ready to move on from her Pre school to the big school. Time will tell. If at the end of the school year, they want her to have "the gift of time" and do Pre-k again, then she will be a giant in Pre-k and more mature. Best advise is to talk to your preschool, Wpssi tester, and follow your guts. If you think he's ready, go for it.

I read a NYC message board and there private schools solve the problem by not accepting children who are born in the summer. Seriously - parents know their admissions chances are slimmer if they have a summer bday. They redshirt May birthdays and then, rather than have to deal with old July and Augusts (or young ones), they fill the class with kids from other months. Plenty of kids to choose from in NYC. Be glad we don't have that here.

Anonymous wrote:14:42 is your son the exception or the rule

I would say that you find a mixture at St. Pat's. From what I understand, the school sometimes recommends that a child stay back a year (maybe one to three children in PK each year) but for the most part it's the parent's choice, not the school's recommendation. They have a really healthy "attitude" on the summer birthday "controversy" (as another poster put it).

22:25, so is one qtr of the boys and one atr of the boys birthdays in june, july and august at GDS? If I had not heard it several times then I would have been skeptical as well.

Prefirst is the norm in k-12 schools in the baltimore surrounding area. The schools say this and if they do not do prefirst then they redshirt. You can ask on a tour. One school mentioned that 50% of their students would end up in prefirst. I heard from another school mention that 7 students were repeating pre-k, my guess is that they have ~24 pre-k students.

7 schools that I looked at mentioned redshirting or prefirst. Although it might not be a great sample because they are from one persons selection, but because how willing and open they were at discussing this it seemed pretty common to me.

Lots of on-time summer birthdays--boys and girls--at GDS.

I don't know what the sample sizes of the PPs are, but it strikes me that if you know one or two schools, then that's hardly a case for generalizing about "most" private schools on red-shirting.

14:42 is your son the exception or the rule

My children were at St. Patrick's. We are leaving for public, but my son who is a July birthday would have gone on to K at St. Pat's next year. His birthday was never an issue. I questioned it this winter, especially now that he's going to public which is more intense (and I don't think that's necessarily a good thing), but his teachers and the head of the Nursery all encouraged us to have him go on to Kindergarten, whether we had stayed at St. Patrick's or not.

He'll be in a K/1 classroom in the fall in an Arlington public school and will most definitely be one of the youngest, but I'm not concerned because he's ready socially. He's our second (our first is 18 months older) and hangs out with six year olds all the time and fits right in.

He also looks older- he was one of the tallest in his class this year and is only about an inch and a half shorter than our six year old who is also a string bean.

Anonymous wrote:Most schools will redshirt June/July/Aug Birthdays. You can fight it but you will find that your child wil end up being the youngest in the class especially at all boy schools.

We are at an all boys school and every summer birthday except one was redshirted.

I think this is the more common scenario by far in this area. Some preschool directors and many parents I have spoken to seem to feel that all later summer bdays, girls and boys, are better off redshirted. Go figure.

The fit may always seem right because the kids rise or fall to the grade level the are placed in.