http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1092635/Part-time-school-urged-children-summer-birthdays-prevent-doing-worse-tests.html
I read this with disgust. I'm more a fan of keeping them at home longer rather than farming them out even earlier for this joke of an education system.
My girls start nusery in January and they will enjoy it I'm sure but frankly the idea of sending them to school earlier horrifies me.
We're fortunate, my girls are winter born but home ed is still an option for us!
What do you think?

no no no I don't believe any of that crap! They start school early enough. By what they're saying, my girls would only be 4 years and 2 months old when they were pushed into school. And all that fannying around, starting them part time. Meaning I drop 4 off in a morning, pick 2 up at lunch time, then pick 2 up at 3pm. Nooooooooo, if all else fails, I'm gonna go with the argument of "my car will be polluting the atmosphere on SIX journeys a day, instead of the usual 4! :hihi:

Well my Lo isnt going to nursery,Jellies 3 times a week will be great.I have thought about home ed but not sure I could do it,even so he will go to school at the very latest opportunity not the earliest.Thankfully Littleboo is a winter babe too.

My DD is an august baby, so I read this with interest. I really hate how the parents are not given any choices. Some summer babies, may cope with full-time school in september, others part-time. But there may be some summer babies that would benefit waiting till the next term. I really don't know at this moment what my DD will be better doing. She hasn't spent much of her life away from me at present, as I'm a SAHM and she won't be starting nursery till next September when she's 3.

I'm not one to push education anyway, as I believe children learn better from play and once saw a program on the swedish education and felt it was a lot better. Where young children, were still children and learnt through play until they were older and then it became more formalized.

Home schooling, isn't totally ruled out and maybe something I start investigating nearer the time as I don't feel the proposal for summer babies (and the IT bit) is in the best interest of the children.

my son was born on the 31st of august so he would only be days over 4 years old if this is to happen, to me it just sounds wrong. We too are considering home ed and have been for a while now

Both the families i nannied for long term didn't want their children to start school any earlier than they could , My employers both chose not to send them to nursery till 2 terms before starting school , One of the children started school in the september and was due to be fultime at the october half term but she refused to allow him to be fultime until the easter as she feels that they have long enough at school and family life at home being cared for is in better standing for future life, she also felt that pushing them away at an early age can make them in to insecure adults, this is someone who is a consultant and a Gp now.
I personally didn't start school till the Christmas after i was 5 as my parents wanted that time to enjoy as a family and i am told in the late 60's it was frowned upon by the education authority.