ABSTRACT
This chapter begins with an exploration of the compulsory school starting age across Europe. In some countries, there has been an official or unofficial nudging down of the compulsory school starting age. Whereas in other countries the school age has risen. Despite the rise in school starting age in these countries young children are attending education and care settings beyond the home sooner, as attendance at an ECEC setting is compulsory. The discussion then moves to the English context and explores the unofficial lowering of the school starting age despite the official school starting age remaining constant. This then leads to an overview of the English governments’ strategic policy developments of compulsory school and the ECEC sector. This discussion sets the political context in which the study took place. The chapter draws on not only academic literature and policy but also the views of parents, ECEC practitioners and teachers that took part in the research.
