Are We Forcing Our Children to Learn Too Early? A Report into Primary Education Has Called for Schools to Start Formal Lessons When a Child Is Six Instead of Five. Nicola Juncar Looks at the Implications of Delaying Teaching of the Three Rs

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THE authors of the most extensive review of primary education in England for 40 years say children should not start learning how to read and write until they are six.

The Cambridge Primary Review found children respond better to play-based learning at a young age, and claimed there was no evidence to suggest it would hold them back in later life.

Rather than raising the school starting age to six, the report suggests the national curriculum should be reformed to allow for more creativity in the first year.

It also called for more freedom for headteachers, instead of interference from education ministers.

The findings have been labelled by the …