“Many children are not ready for the noise and rigours of organised school,” says Elizabeth Hartley-Brewer, the English author of two parenting skills programmes and four bestselling practical books on parenting.

 “Very young children’s brains are programmed to learn differently, to connect up and grow through play, exploration and the close, warm attention they receive from adults and, later, other children. 

“Quality play underpins identity and self-belief, both essential components of self-esteem and mental health.” 

And she says if early schooling does potentially damage young children’s already less well-rooted confidence and self-esteem, boys are certainly likely to suffer most. 

“Boys and schools don’t mix well at the best of times and boys are generally less mature than girls. They are born six weeks behind girls developmentally and their natural tendencies and strengths – their physicality, immediacy and lack of ease with words – make them less well suited to straitjacket schools and formalised learning than girls of a similar age.”

Early starts not any help

The compulsory starting age for school is six in 19 European countries, including France and Germany, and seven in a further eight countries, including Sweden and Finland. Yet, in the U.K., 68% of four-year-olds were in infant classes.

… children who had teacher-led, academic lessons at age five did not display lasting academic advantage over those who began later

It doesn’t seem to do them any good. A two-year review of primary education by Cambridge University academics found that by the age of 11, Swedish and Finnish students had caught up to their English contemporaries. American research backs this up; children who had “teacher-led, academic lessons” at the age of five did not display “lasting academic advantage” over those who began later.

The researchers said children responded better to a ‘play-based’ curriculum at a young age and insisted it would not hold them back in later life. Review chairman Dame Gillian Pugh said that forcing four-year-olds to ‘sit quietly’ often backfired as it turned them off reading at a young age.

They were also more likely to truant during subsequent school years and less likely to excel at sport.