ABSTRACT
As part of some research I conducted a few years ago, I explored the impacts and effects of young children entering school as early as they do. In the UK the admissions policies for many education authorities clearly specify that a child must be in full-time education from the term after their fifth birthday. In reality, it is common practice for the majority of young children to enter primary school during the September term after their fourth birthday. The small print of many of the admission policies remains ambiguous in dealing with the concerns of individual families that believe their children may be cognitively or socially unprepared to enter school. There is, in contrast, a very definite recognition by parents and practitioners of the children who ‘are just not ready’ to join school. This sentiment is often centred on concerns that are transparent and inevitable to anyone who has an understanding of the momentous growth and development that children undergo in the short twelve months between being four and five years old. For it is during this year, at different points for different children, that the pieces of the cognitive and emotional puzzles begin to slot together. They begin to consistently apply cognitive understanding to new problems and scenarios. They have independently initiated periods of prolonged focus on self-perpetuated tasks, and there are increasingly sophisticated communication techniques used within trusted relationships, as they practise their social interaction skills.
