Blogs

"There are local differences in policy regarding when schools insist parents enrol their children. While compulsory school age is the term after a child is five, most schools insist they start a year before that - often despite what parents are saying is in the best interests of their own child. But why are we starting school at age four, or even five, at all? Most countries start at six, when children are arguably more "ready to learn". The main argument for the early start is to boost academic attainment - but international studies comparing children who start schooling at six or seven seem to show no such correlation. There is however seemingly a wealth of research on the importance of play-based pre-school on superior academic, motivational and wellbeing outcomes. If we really want the best for children, we'll give them back a bit of childhood time in settings that really understand them - time to lie in the grass, paint really messy pictures, climb some trees and get really, really muddy." Cath Prisk on the school starting age.