Few children from SE22 are privately educated

[shoshntosh]

i think the real problem is that we send our children to full-time school at age 5 (or in some cases age 4). it's barbaric!

[Asset]

I agree, daughter is due to start school this September (or January) she'll only just be 4 and could be almost a year younger than other kids in the class.

As usual the Scandinavians have it sorted and don't start school till 7

[Ant]

We've just got a primary place for the oldest Antling. She's down to start in January, when she'll be almost four and a half. We can defer until September, but even then it just seems too young to be sending them. And I believe there's no evidence that starting them so much younger gives them any advantage.

[Brendan]

In SA we started school at 6 and a half. And then it was only from 8:30am to 1:30pm. High school finished a bit later at 2pm but at 12 on Fridays. And all anecdotal evidence points to us having received a very well-rounded, liberal education. Granted I didn?t enjoy it that much but I?m well smart I tell you.*

I really don?t think it is fair or necessary for the kids to have to spend so much time at school or to start so young. Think of the children. School is after all the most unpleasant place for a kid to have to be. They all hate it and rightly so. Let?s be honest it is rubbish. You can?t talk out of turn, you have to tuck your shirt in, you only get to sing what and when they tell you and there is any number of other forms of unpleasant control to make life unpleasant for the little bundles of anarchy that we call children.

Plus when do they get time to play sport if they are at school all day? No wonder they?re all podgy.

* Any spelling or grammatical errors in the post are because I am dictating it to a clockwork office assistant that I invented this morning before breakfast and I still need to iron out some of the glitches. I can?t plug the iron in at the office though.

[James]

re. the whole Charter issue, is it not possible that instead of concentrating on kids of all abilities the focus is now on the kids hovering dangerously around the 5 A*-C benchmark? In other words, why bother with the kids who are sure to get/fail to get 5 A-C?

Any school that has improved significantly may be playing the same trick the political parties do - focussing on the marginal seats as it were.