EDUCATION officials want to consult the public again about the age at which primary schools will admit children to full-time education.

The City of York Council wants to reconsider whether schools should admit children at the beginning of the term in which they are five, rather than the term after.

In addition, it is proposing that summer-born children should be admitted in January.

The council decided two years ago to introduce new arrangements for the education and childcare of young children in the city.

Its award-winning Shared Foundation scheme was designed to provide tailor-made packages of early years education and childcare for children between the ages of three and four.

In order to establish a common admissions policy across the city, it was originally proposed that the start of formal schooling should be delayed for all children until the term after their fifth birthday.

And in the light of pilot schemes that have been running in four areas of the city, the authority wants to look at that part of the package again.

There would be no change in the statutory age for admission to full-time education.