While here in the UK successive governments have been keen to enrol children in school at ever earlier ages, news from the USA today reports on a School Committee decision for children entering Pittsfield schools to be at least 5 years old by September 1st of the school year.

This change effectively raises the minimum school starting age from 4 years and 9 months.

Interestingly, Jim Therrien reports in the Berkshire Eagle (Pittsfield hikes minimum age for children starting kindergarten) that in a unanimous vote, “Early childhood instructors and teachers advocated for the change, saying too many of those students were hampered academically, physically or socially because they were younger than their classmates.“