Under consideration PE2142: Review the policy on school commencement and deferred school entry in Scotland

Background information

Children are cohorted for good reasons for sport and education. In almost all other countries, and in many sports, it is tightly limited to 12months. In Scotland it is permitted to extend to 19months.

Our deferral rates are among the highest in the world and it is likely to be doing more harm than good.

We know that being among the youngest in a normal cohort places you at disadvantage with higher rates of physical injury, mental ill health, suicide, some SENs, lower academic attainment, and lifetime earnings making this a public health problem. This is known as the Relative Age Effect. It can be expected that the effect is causing significant harm to children, but we do not know for certain because Scotland did not study the effect of this decision.

We also know that deferral is disproportionately chosen by white, wealthy, males; often the least disadvantaged thus widening inequality.