Does NSW have anything to learn about school entry policy?

According to the Australian Primary Principals’ Association (APPA) school entry policies need reform and should be consistent across all States and Territories. According to their President “…five-and-a-half [is] the association’s preferred starting age but parents could be allowed discretion to send their child six months earlier or later.”

Such a reform is unnecessary for NSW, especially when there is no conclusive evidence that children benefit from starting school later.

The figure below illustrates NSW’s current school entry policy showing entry age by date of birth. The school year begins towards the end of January so January births begin school at approximately 5 years of age -provided they enter school in the first intake in which they were eligible (emerald line, left of cut-off).

Those born after July 31 are older when they start school because they have to wait until next year’s intake (emerald line, right of cut-off).

Because children in NSW have to be in school by their 6th birthday, the parents of those born before July 31 can delay their entry until the following year when they are a year older (gold schedule).

The only way to provide parents with the “…discretion to send their child six months earlier or later” would be to allow for an additional intake of children in late July. This would allow a child born in January to begin school at the APPA’s preferred age of 5 and a half or to be sent in January nearer to their 5th birthday.

This is not necessary in NSW as current entry age policy already affords many parents flexibility as to when children can start school. Those born after the cut-off might have a pre-determined entry age but these children are not much younger than the APPA’s preferred entry age.

Data on NSW children born in 2003 from the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC) suggests that, on average, if starting school on-time would mean an entry age much younger than 5 many parents hold their children back until the following year. It is for this reason that the average entry age (orange line) for children born prior to July 31 is almost 5 and half under current policy.

It is important that State and Territory school entry policies provide parents with flexibility rather than enforcing strict entry age requirements as happens in some other states. Parents and teachers are better placed to know when a child is ready to starts school than education bureaucrats. Fortunately, NSW school entry policies already provide significant flexibility.

Matthew Taylor is a Research Fellow at the Centre for Independent Studies.