Education: `Our child is simply too young for formal learning'

So anxious are some parents about the new de facto school start date of four that they are rebelling. Some parents succeed in keeping their children in nursery for a bit longer; others don't.

Eve Santer was so worried about sending her daughter just turned four, to the reception class that she protested vigorously to anyone who would listen. She raised the matter with her county, the primary school head, various charities and finally with David Blunkett, Secretary of State for Education.

Her local authority has a policy that all four-year-olds should move from nursery to the reception class of a primary school. Mrs Santer felt her daughter was too immature for formal learning. She was told by her education authority that she could hold her daughter back a year, but that her daughter would still have to take Government tests at the same time as the children her age - at the same time as the year above- and would have to leave primary school at her correct chronological age which would mean missing a year of school.

Says Eve: "I had no choice whatsoever despite all the talk about parental choice." Her daughter began in a reception class this term.

Sebastian Hawking and his wife did not wish to move their daughter, aged just four, to a reception class in a Bristol primary. She was too young, they thought, and would benefit from another term in the nursery.

Bristol has a policy of moving all children from nursery to primary school at age four, and will only allow children to stay in nursery in exceptional cases. If they do stay down, they are not guaranteed a place at the primary school of their choice.

During the summer the Hawkings kept receiving conflicting messages about whether they would be able to send her to primary school in January when she was four and a half.

Finally, three weeks before the end of the summer term, they were informed she would not be allowed to stay on at the nursery and would have to attend a primary school. Mr Hawking protested to the education authority. Six weeks later he was told his daughter would be allowed to stay at the nursery for another term after all.

The names in these case studies have been changed.