Four more York schools have signed up to bring in a new starting age for primary children, as part of a pioneering scheme to bring in new care and education arrangements for three to five-year-olds.

Fishergate Primary, Hob Moor Infant, Huntington Primary and Yearsley Grove Primary Schools are to bring in the new system from September 2002.

Five primary schools which are already taking part in the York pilot project are well on with plans to introduce the arrangements from this September.

These are Park Grove Primary, Robert Wilkinson Primary at Skelton, Tang Hall Primary, Stockton-on-the-Forest and Wigginton Primaries.

The change will see children starting their full-time formal school life in the term after their fifth birthday. At the moment, many children start before they are five.

The five schools have set up formal partnerships with local nurseries, playgroups and childminders to provide "early years" education for children between the ages of three and five.

The aim is to give parents a choice of places for their children in different kinds of surroundings, while working together to offer the same service using the earliest stage of the national curriculum, called the "foundation stage", which emphasises learning through play.

The partnerships will also work to provide "wrap-around" care - optional paid-for care for children before and after nursery hours, which includes breakfast clubs, after-school clubs and holiday playschemes.

The aim is to bring in the system across York from September 2003.

Heather Marsland, early years and childcare manager at the City of York Council, said she had been running public meetings to explain the new system in the five areas.

"At all the meetings I've done parents have said this is fantastic, because it's about choice.

"Parents said they instinctively knew that for some of their children, school wasn't the right place and it was too soon for them before five. They were delighted they had a choice."

Updated: 15:36 Thursday, April 12, 2001