Question to the Department for Education:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what consideration they have given to allowing the parents of children born prematurely to nominate their child’s due date, rather than the actual date of birth, when applying for school places.

We have announced our intention to support summer born children by allowing them to delay entry to the reception year until they are five and for those children to remain with that cohort as they progress through school.

As part of this work we are giving careful consideration to how we can best implement any new arrangements we might put in place, and how we can best support premature children into school.

We want to support these children in the best way we can, however, it is important that we take the time to consider the wider impact of any policy changes.