Nickle I don't know if the others were saying that - but I definitely was - thing is, whatever cut off you have - you will have some kids who are ready and some kids who are not.... I think that will be the same whether the cut off date is 1st jan, 30 april, 30 june... whatever... there will always be some kids who miss out because they are after the cut off date. There will always be some kids who are more ready than others - who miss out.... we can't cover it all. My point is simply that we can't address all issues, and I really believe we are creating a bigger problem by having such a large spread of ages. We should modify the curriculum to be appropriate for the students in our grades whatever the age ranges - so it seems we are making it a bigger issue if we hold some kids back and put some kids forward.

I am not saying that 5 is the right cut off, I don't really have an opinion on what is - I know that in Scandinavian countries they are having a lot of luck with starting kids at 7.

I guess I am saying exactly what your last line is stating - I really do think it would be easier to manage the ability level if we had less spread of ability - because there will ALWAYS be some sort of spread - that's how it works.... and we are making it bigger by holding some kids back.

prep (kinder/transition... whatever) used to be an introductory year - now they are expected to write a narrative...! narrative!?? why does a prep even need to know that term! I think you are right, it should go back to just being in intro to school, where they learn the alphabet and how to write a few letters and their name - but the primary goal is to introduce them to the ROUTINE of school... ...

Reading back over your post now... perhaps I went a bit of course at the start of this post.... I agree that there will always be variability - I just think that it will be reduced somewhat if we don't have SUCH a large age gap.