Ray - here in NSW kids start primary school when they are about 4.5 or 5 yrs (there are different cut offs for starting age but I think they vary from public to private schools slightly). Before that you can choose whether or not they go to day care or what we call preschool (which is for learning before they start school and they start this at 3 years). Some day care centres run 'preschool programs' so it's preschool within a day care facility. I want our DD to go to one that is just for preschoolers (so no kids younger than 3). she would then continue preschool when she was 4 and then start Kinder the next year when she's 5 - well that's the plan anyway!

Our primary school starts Kinder, then year 1, 2, etc etc. I know it's very different in other states. My sister is in Perth for example and they do things very differently.