Early entry to school in Australia: Rhetoric, research and reality

School readiness and age of entry to formal schooling have long been topics of controversy within Australia and worldwide. Thus, when early entry to school is proposed as one of the ways of catering for young gifted children, the issues of readiness for school and the child’s age are central to arguments both for and against early entry to school. For example, while a proponent of early entry may argue that a gifted child should be placed with the most suitable peer group irrespective of the child’s age, a critic of early entry may argue that a peer group is determined by the child’s age. Early entry is a particularly complex issue in Australia. The option of early entry is determined at the state level and the requirements vary from establishing a child’s high standard of performance relative to their age peers to establishing that to deny the child early entry will create a situation of disadvantage. While early entry is a topic of interest to parents, children, teachers, principals, counsellors, educators, policy makers and professional developers, it can be difficult to make informed decisions that are in the bes