A trend is a trend and nothing more. If you know she is fully ready to start next year then start her - most of the 'trend' is borne out of some sort of social thing that has nothing to do with children themselves or how ready they are or not. The 'trend' for those going go the convent school in my town is to hold them back a year too. But if you really want to send her to this school next year and go against the trend she is going to have to cope with making friends with older children etc and in some cases she will be a full 12mths younger than some of her peers. In my experience that side of things doesn't really matter much in the long run and I have often had a quiet chuckle at some parents IRL who say in April that they really wished they had of sent them to school instead of keeping them home because they are dead bored at preschool and are playing up etc.