June Blog: Starting School

Two essentials for a child’s successful schooling: enjoy preschool education for two years; and only allow your child to commence formal education when s/he is ready (and not when you want her/him to commence).

In different schools where I have worked across the world, I have witnessed a need by parents to start their children young in preschool or formal schooling. In Ghana, many parents also expect their children to “skip” a grade at some stage during their primary school years. In these situations, I believe parents are doing their children a disservice and even being negligent!

Wow! Isn’t that a bit harsh? What about my premise that every child is different?

Let me explain by asking two questions.

• Would you throw your child in at the pool’s deep end in full knowledge the child can’t swim?
• Would you give your seven-year-old child the keys to your car and allow them to drive it anytime they like?

The obvious answer is no! The simple reason is that the child is not ready in both scenarios.

It is the same answer when it comes to starting formal schooling. The child must be ready. Specifically, the child must be socially ready to experience success. Success will follow if a child is ready to commence school.

Countries have different starting ages for children to commence formal (compulsory) schooling. In Finland, the starting age is seven years. Australian states have a starting age of five years, either from the start of the year or by halfway through the year.

Preschools generally start one or two years before formal schooling commences.

In most countries, preschool education is not compulsory. In my experience, a child who has consistently attended preschool is more “ready” to commence formal schooling than a child without preschool experience. Let me emphasise here that the preschool experience must be play-based.

What are the readiness factors for a child to start preschool? The key factors are:

• being toilet trained;
• following directions;
• speech is coherent;
• handling transitions;
• minimal separation anxieties when a parent leaves; and
• interacting with other children.

For the child commencing formal education, the above readiness factors must be evident. Additionally, the child should be able to:

• write their first name;
• dress themselves;
• identify basic shapes;
• number counting and recognition to ten;
• know basic body parts and use;
• visually discriminate basic shapes;
• recognise basic colours;
• colour and cut a basic shape; and
• throw and catch a ball.

The parents should communicate any health concerns or learning issues, as well as personality (happy, sad, confident, shy) and the level of English (or the language of instruction). Note, there are no right or wrong answers here, but the information will ensure a more settled start to school than without this information.

From my experience, parents are better off holding their sons back a year so they can start confidently, while most girls appear to be school-ready at five years (for formal schooling).

So, what is my main concern about a child being “ready” for school when they commence?

Children can’t fail preschool! However, if they started young at preschool and do not demonstrate all readiness factors for formal schooling, another preschool year will be essential. A child who starts formal schooling and is not ready will experience mixed success in their first year. (Remember, success breeds success.) Minimal achievement will likely have a negative impact on the child and likely continue throughout their school education. If a child’s social maturity remains an issue, then troublesome years will be Grades 4-5 in primary school and Grades 8-11 in secondary school.

Most parents have ambitions for their child to attend university upon completion of their secondary schooling. That is a total of 15 years of schooling (including two years at preschool) before commencing university (4-7 years). So, when your child starts young at preschool or formal schooling and then skips a grade, are parents setting their child up for success or failure?

When to start school is as hard as choosing the names of each of your children. Tend to be cautious rather than foolhardy, as the consequences will be realised further down the track.