‘School starts at five . . . or four years old?‘ The rationale for changing admission policies in England and Wales

The 1944 Education Act requires that children commence full‐time education in the term following their fifth birthday. But many local authorities now admit children at the beginning of the school year following their fourth birthday. This trend breaks with long established conventions about the kind of educational environment that is appropriate for children above and below the statutory starting age. The origin of these conventions is explored, first in the debate surrounding the 1870 Act and secondly in reports in the first decade of this century which led to exclusion of under‐fives from school and establishment of a separate nursery education sector.

The recent break with convention has come about because of the opportunity created by falling school rolls to meet parental demand for early educational provision. The specific policy of annual admission has been justified educationally as helping compensate for the disadvantages experienced by summer born children under termly entry arrangements. While annual entry may be the most equitable way of arranging school admissions, questions are raised about whether setting this a year younger will necessarily be to the advantage of summer born children, especially if resources, teaching and curriculum are not modified to suit the very youngest entrants.