I know some people will disagree with me here.... But.....

I actually think "school readiness" is a bit of a misnomer.... Teachers and schools are able to differentiate and adjust activities for different levels of ability and skill levels (I know its difficult, but it can be done) whether or not a child fits this idea of 'school ready'. And let's think about it....

Some kids are never ready.

So. Some parents hold kids back and year and some parents don't. We end up with an even more distributed population and skill set that teachers need to differentiate and adjust their teaching even more. Some kids learn quicker than others regardless of age... So adding in an extra layer of kids being held back a year just adds another layer to the issue.

How do you REALLY know if your child is ready.....?? I've had parents SURE that their kid was... And they struggled to settle in and learn. I've had parents not sure and the kid was fine.... I've had parents not sure and the kinder teacher WAS sure they'd be fine... And they weren't....

I really believe that typically developing children will be fine, wether you send them the year you are supposed to or not. That's most of our kids.

There will always be a normal distribution of skill and "readiness". Whether we hold some kids back or not. We just a just the distribution of skill by holding some kids back and others not.

In over ten years of working in schools I have yet to see any evidence that holding back or not helps. Either way. The research is quite clear that repeating is not good for children. The research also shows that children in countries with a later starting age do equally as well as countries where children start young. I have been unable to find research about the benefits of holding a child back from starting school whatever the school starting age is.

I think we worry too much about whether our child is ready. They are young. They will learn. And assuming they have had a typical upbringing with a stable family life..... they will be okay whichever way we do it. So we all need to make our decisions based on what works for our family.

Personally I don't think holding them back makes a difference to their academic outcomes or "success" or wellbeing at school.... The problem I see, is that so many parents are holding their children back if they are in the 'young' end of the age range, with no other reason than they are young.... so you disadvantage your child if you don't hold them back.... We may as well just increase the school starting age to compensate for it.... That's why the young kids stand out. There's such a big gap between a four year old and a nearly six year old.... Society is artificially making a bigger issue with it than we need to. There are pros and cons with finishing school at an older age as well... So you can't ever really 'get it perfectly right'.

But that's just my two bobs worth. I know it might be controversial to some. I just find it exceptionally frustrating in my field.