Children should start school at seven years old, propose Scottish Greens

Children in Scotland should enter formal education at the age of seven in an attempt to emulate the successful policies of Nordic countries, the Scottish Greens have said.

In one of their first major policy announcements ahead of the Holyrood elections, the Greens propose the establishment of a kindergarten programme to improve on educational outcomes by using “creative play” rather than formal learning.

This approach is used by many Nordic countries such as Finland, with research pointing to improved outcomes later on in education for children.

School children in Scotland should enter formal education at the age of seven, say the Scottish Greens

In Scotland, children start formal education from as young as four and a half, with the Green proposal seeing kindergarten replacing formal education for those aged three to six.

The Scottish Greens education spokesperson Ross Greer said: “The pandemic and home learning have shone a light on the importance of children’s wellbeing. As we turn towards the recovery, we should seize the opportunity to leave behind the least effective parts of our education system.

"We can replicate the success of countries such as Finland if we replace our current situation, where children start formal schooling at as young as four and a half, with a kindergarten stage followed by primary school from age seven.

“This is the opposite of the Scottish Government’s current approach, which has included the introduction of standardised tests in primary one. We need a play-based kindergarten stage from three to six, drawing on the success of countries whose education and child wellbeing outcomes are far better than Scotland’s.

“The UK is an international outlier in how early children start school. Of the handful of countries who share our system, almost all are former British colonies. It’s time Scotland ditched this totally outdated model and did what is best for our children’s future.”

The policy has been backed by Upstart Scotland, which campaigns for the introduction of a kindergarten stages.

Sue Palmer, the chair of the campaign group, said: “Now that Scottish children have fully-funded entitlement to early learning and care from the age of three, it would be fairly easy to raise the starting age for formal schooling to the year children turn seven and provide developmentally-appropriate education for three to seven-year-olds, as they do in successful Nordic countries.”

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