As the summer enters its final month, by the end of this week all of Sydney’s schools will have reopened their gates for the start of term one.
For many parents the return of classes could not come sooner, after weeks of juggling school holiday programs, days with the grandparents and working from home to patch together care for their children over the year’s longest break from class.
And for half of parents with students starting kindergarten, the approaching school year comes after a big choice.
As Cindy Yin reports in today’s Sun-Herald, parents of children born from January to July are continuing to show a preference for sending children to kindergarten closer to their sixth birthday than their fifth.
The decision can be difficult for parents, many of whom must weigh up concerns about their child’s school readiness against the financial cost of another year of childcare.
Most Sydney private schools take matters into their own hands, narrowing the possible age range of a year group by requiring students to have turned five by March.
The state government has promised to introduce a “universal” pre-kindergarten year by 2030, by funding 100 additional public preschools and offering subsidies for those in private programs.
While early education experts are correct to say that school readiness is a matter for families and educators to decide on a child-by-child basis, the reality is that financial pressures on Sydney families mean some can afford to wait another year for their child to be emotionally or academically ready for school, while others, weighing up another year of private childcare fees against a free public kindergarten, cannot.
The current school starting age rules were introduced in 1987 to bring NSW in line with Victoria. But while Victoria brought its cut-off forward seven years later, NSW has stuck with it.
This wide range of possible school starting ages in NSW is an anomaly nationally. The opposition is right to suggest that a move towards a universal preschool year next decade would be the right time to reconsider whether the current cut-off is fit for purpose.
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