In the UK, children are required to be in full-time education in the academic year of their fifth birthday. For summer-born children, this means they are just four years old for most of their first year at school. But what should such young children be learning in their first couple of years at school, and what happens to children who are relocating from countries where the school starting age is different?

The question 'What is the best age to start formal schooling?' is an old chestnut that has vexed parents and educators alike for many decades. The issue is particularly relevant for schools in the international sector whose population is drawn from multiple nationalities. Because of their international profile, international schools are experienced in taking a flexible and sensitive approach with children joining the school who may have started 'formal' education either at a very young age (four, or even younger) or later (six or seven), as in America and many Scandinavian countries, for example.

Here, three early-years experts from ACS International Schools give their views on the topic.

Research finds that international study sets children up for life

Over fifty per cent of international assignees relocate with children and one of the biggest concerns is how an international move will affect children’s education and longer-term career prospects.

ACS International Schools has over forty years’ experience of delivering an international education to a student body made up of more than seventy different nationalities. It has tracked the paths of a sample of its students who have graduated from the 1960s through to the present day.

The key findings of ACS’s special survey are published in a report entitled Is an International Education the Best Preparation for Life? The survey presents a positive picture of international education and concludes that students who receive an international education leave school very well-prepared for further study and work. In particular, the survey reveals that international school students develop a better range of `soft’ skills such as time management, critical analysis and independent thinking than their peers who have followed national qualification programmes.

Hard on the heels of the IB’s success comes the Government’s initiative for a Specialist Diploma. Fiona Leney examines its implications.

Little more than a year ago, the Government launched what it said was going to be the 21st-century successor to A levels: the Specialist Diploma for 14–19-year-olds. It was intended to address worries that A levels failed to prepare students adequately, either for fur her study at university or for the world of work. But, this autumn, figures emerged that show that students are not queuing up to take the courses and university admissions tutors are unconvinced of their worth unless they are combined with A levels.

Fiona Leney charts the rise of the International Baccalaureate from humble beginnings to its exam of choice position.

As doubts remain over the value of A levels, all the signs are that the International Baccalaureate (IB) exam is going from strength to strength, no longer as the sole preserve of international schools. The number of pupils studying for the IB diploma in private schools alone has doubled in the past year, according to the Independent Schools Council, and more and more state schools are offering the qualification. State-school interest has soared since 2006, when Tony Blair, then Prime Minister, pledged funding to help at least one maintained school in every authority to offer it by 2010.