Early Years welcomes School starting age flexibility announcement

Education Minister, Peter Weir, has today (16 February) during Ministerial Question Time at the Northern Ireland Assembly announced his intention to bring forward key legislation which addresses issues relating to the flexibility of school starting age in Northern Ireland, and that he has instructed his officials to prioritise scoping out the work for a potential Bill, within this mandate.

Welcoming the announcement, Pauline Walmsley, Chief Executive Officer of Early Years – the organisation for young children, said “Early Years has been a longstanding advocate for Northern Ireland having, at the least, increased flexibility in terms of the compulsory school starting age to be more in line with other regions of the United Kingdom and other countries internationally.

We warmly welcome the announcement by the Minister of Education today. We view this to be a welcomed first step and wish to acknowledge our partners including ParentsOutloud, the School Starting Age Flexibility NI campaign, the National Education Union NI and TinyLife, who we have worked in partnership with over previous years on this vitally important issue.”