When children should start school depends on more than their age

NSW Education Minister Sarah Mitchell has spoken of the benefits of adding an extra year of pre-kindergarten for five-year-olds, so all students can start school when they turn six.

ACT Education Minister Yvette Berry said the territory was not considering changing the school starting age and instead was focusing on expanding universal access to preschool for three-year-olds.

"We know that those two years before formal kindergarten starts make a real difference to a child's education. And so that's what we've been concentrating on rolling out here in the ACT," Ms Berry said.

Early Childhood Australia consultant Dr Kathryn Hopps said the NSW proposal could benefit many children by improving access to preschool, to be known as pre-kindergarten.

"It can be quite challenging to have a broad age range in the first year of school, but we don't hear that so much after the first year once children are settled," Dr Hopps said.

"I think that there is there's definitely merit but there's a lot to be considered in the consultation that the NSW government will be doing in relation to this."

Every state in Australia has a different policy on the earliest age a child can start school but all students must be enrolled by the age of six. Depending on their child's birthday, parents may have a choice as to what year they send their child to school.

In the ACT, if a child turns five from January 1 to April 30, they could attend school that year or wait to enrol in the year they turn six.

In NSW, the cut-off date is a bit later on July 31. It means children who are four-and- a half could potentially be in the same class as a child who just turned six.

A 2019 University of NSW study found one in four children delayed school entry in NSW and boys, children with birthdays close to the cut-off date and advantaged children were more likely to delay.

Children living in disadvantaged urban areas were more likely to be sent to school as soon as they were eligible. The study found children who started school later were academically advantaged.

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Australian Catholic University lecturer Dr Kate Highfield said regardless of their month of birth, children would have differences in their development.

"Age is one metric and it's a valuable insight. But it's also slightly problematic because our experiences prior to coming to school, whether you've lived in a literacy-rich environment or experienced multiple languages, all of those things will offer you different opportunities as a child that age alone doesn't offer," she said.

Dr Highfield said rather than focusing on age, parents and educators should look at the overall readiness of their child when deciding when to enrol them in school.

"This idea that we start school at six or we start school at four is kind of tricky. Because if you think of a learning trajectory or developmental trajectory, age is just one component of that."

Katy Mitchell's daughter, Audrey, will be starting school next year. As an August baby, there was no decision to be made as to which year she would start school. Even if there was a choice, Ms Mitchell would have opted to delay until she was turning six.

"They will be in schooling for a long period of time. So even if they start that little bit younger and they're OK when they're younger, I think that gap gets more noticeable when they're turning 15 not 16, or 17 not 18," she said.

She said many parents would feel compelled to send their children to school at a younger age to avoid paying thousands of dollars childcare fees and managing difficult preschool hours: "If you don't have the benefits of having time off with them or having flexible hours, you're spending $10,000-$15,000 a year on childcare for the first few years of their life. So you're stuck between a rock and a hard place."

While the ACT's preschool system was nation-leading, it also posed logistical problems for parents, Dr Hopps said.

"The challenge in the ACT is that unfortunately that doesn't suit working families, which is the big almost contradiction that we're a capital city where both parents are likely to be working," Dr Hopps said.

"And we have the highest number of single parents, women who are also working full-time. The school day finishes at three but if you work till five, what are you going to do for the last two hours?"

She said parents should discuss school readiness with preschool teachers.

"In the end, it is a child's right to start school as long as they're legally eligible to do so. So the responsibility very much is with schools and primary school systems that they cater for very young children," Dr Hopps said.

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