Time to rethink when children should start school, say experts

PARENTS are clamouring to get their children into primary schools offering two-year prep programs, as experts advise it is time to overhaul the age Victorian children start school.

Prep students from Meadowglen Primary School L to R Patrick, Alana, Levi, Ollie and Jairus have fun at school. The school has a two-year prep program, so kids who need a bit more time to develop can do so. Picture: Tim Carrafa

PARENTS are clamouring to get their children into primary schools offering two-year prep programs, as experts advise it is time to overhaul the age Victorian children start school.

Education Department rules mean that on the first day of term one, prep kids can range in age from four years eight months through to six.

School transition expert Kay Margetts wants an overhaul of enrolment rules so all prep kids are at least five. She said research showed the youngest children in a class tended to do less well.

Meadowglen Primary in Epping has offered a two-year prep program for the past nine years, catering mainly to younger school-age children.

Principal Loretta Piazza said while some of her prep students did two-hour literacy blocks, others did “learn to play” activities.

“It’s all play-based but it’s developing their language,” she said.

Classroom skills also improved and some worked with a speech pathologist.

“It is based on the needs of the child and we determine their needs during the course of the year,” Ms Piazza said.

After a year, most progressed to grade 1 but a few, with parental agreement, returned for another prep year.

Ms Piazza said 90 per cent of parents whose kinder believed their child was not ready for school still wanted to enrol in prep because it was cheaper than childcare and they were worried the child might be bored at kinder if they did another year.

St Bernadette’s Primary principal Kathy Lowe said the 22 spaces in her “pre-prep” program had been snapped up. About 30 children had missed out.

“People are desperate,” she said. “I get people ringing every day to see if someone has pulled out.”

Most “pre-prep” pupils were born between December and April, on the younger end of the spectrum, she said.

Melbourne Graduate School of Education Associate Professor Kay Margetts said the gap in starting ages of prep pupils was a problem.

Children should have to turn five the year before they start school: “There is little or no research that shows starting before five is beneficial.”

Victorian kids can start prep aged:

4 years, if turning five by April 30

5 years, if turning six by December 31

6 years, if their birthday is in January before term starts

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