Summer-Born children: Exploring the month-of-birth effect on educational attainment and socio-emotional development in England

The project has been designed using a mixed-methods approach and is made up of 4 studies that have an overarching theme of exploring how the month-of-birth (MOB) effect in England. The project aims to provide novel findings on the nuances of the MOB effect for educational attainment in reception year and the ways in which MOB differences present for markers of socio-emotional development during the school career.
Study 1 includes an online survey distributed to reception teachers in England and a documentary analysis conducted on 22 documents. The purpose of this study was to investigate how summer-born children experience and achieve in the Early Years Foundation Stage Profile (EYFSP) in the academic years 2022/2023 and 2023/2024. As well as explore the ways in which teachers' own opinions of Early Years Pedagogy align with the EYFSP and the Reception Baseline Assessment (RBA).
Study 2 explores the MOB effect on EYFSP outcomes across school contexts and the difference in MOB outcomes across the profile's Early Learning Goals (ELGs). This study has utilized multi-level modelling techniques to analyse data from the National Pupil Database (NPD) in the academic year 2022/2023.
Study 3 uses data from the Millennium Cohort Study (MCS) to explore the MOB effect on the disaggregated ELGs in the Foundation Stage Profile from the academic year 2005/2006, and parent perspectives of socio-emotional development at ages 3 and 5.
Study 4 uses latent growth curve modelling within a multi-level framework to analyse data from the MCS and investigate the trajectories of the MOB effect on parent perspectives of children's socio-emotional development from ages 3 through to 17, as per the Strength and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQs). These findings have been compared with analysis of teacher SDQs outcomes for children aged 7 and 11.