School Admission Age Calculator

About the School Admission Age Calculator

Enter your child’s date of birth, choose the school system and a school year, and see the class or year group your child belongs in — and every school year after it, from the first class to the last. The rules are the ones each system uses: in England and Wales a child starts Reception in the September after turning 4 (4 on 31 August); Scottish P1 takes children born from 1 March to the end of February; Northern Ireland’s P1 takes children who are 4 on or before 1 July; and in India NEP 2020 puts Class 1 at age 6, with KVS counting the age on 31 March.

For anywhere else — a US state, an Australian state, your own school — enter the rule: the age a child must have on a given date to start, and what the classes are called. The result names the date the age is counted on, the age on that date to the day, and the notes that matter: compulsory school age and later starts in England, the right to defer in Scotland and Northern Ireland, and KVS’s 1 April rule in India.

The rules, system by system

• England and Wales. The school year runs from September. A child starts Reception full-time in the September after their 4th birthday, so the children born from 1 September to 31 August form one year group: Reception (age 4–5), Year 1 (5–6) and so on to Year 13. Compulsory school age starts on the first of 31 December, 31 March and 31 August on or after the 5th birthday, and full-time education must start by the next term (GOV.UK; the Welsh School Admissions Code says the same for Wales).
• Scotland. Children born from 1 March to 31 August usually start P1 in the August of the year they turn 5; those born from 1 September to the end of February in the August before they turn 5 — so they start between four and a half and five and a half (Education Scotland). A child who is still 4 on the first day may start a year later, with an additional funded year of early learning and childcare.
• Northern Ireland. Education starts from the term after the 4th birthday, provided the birthday is before 2 July (nidirect), so P1 in September takes the children who are 4 on or before 1 July. Children born from 1 April to 1 July, the youngest of an intake, can defer by a year. Year 1 (P1) to Year 7 (P7) are primary; Year 8 starts post-primary school.
• India. NEP 2020 replaces 10+2 with 5+3+3+4: three pre-school years from age 3 (Anganwadi, pre-school or Bal Vatika), then Classes 1–2 at ages 6–8, Classes 3–5, 6–8 and 9–12. For Class 1, KVS asks for 6 years on 31 March of the year of admission and also considers a child born on 1 April. States and schools set their own cut-off dates, so the date and the age can be changed.

How the age is counted

The age is in completed years on the cut-off date, and a birthday on the cut-off itself counts: a child born on 31 August is 4 on 31 August, so starts Reception that September as the youngest of the year group, while a child born a day later waits a year and becomes the oldest of the next one. A 29 February birthday counts on 28 February in other years, which keeps it with the rest of February — in Scotland, with the children who start in the August before they turn 5. Where a rule also accepts the day after the cut-off (KVS and 1 April), tick that box.

Any other country or school

Choose Another country or school and enter the rule as the school, district or education department writes it — “5 years old on or before 1 September”, for example. Say whether that date falls in the calendar year the school year starts or in the next one (a rule of “5 by 1 January” in a school year that starts in September uses the next one), the month school starts, the name of the first class and what the later classes are called.

Sources

• GOV.UK, School admissions: school starting age and The national curriculum — Reception, compulsory school age and year groups
• Welsh Government, School Admissions Code — compulsory school age in Wales
• Education Scotland Parentzone, Attending school — P1 start and deferral
• nidirect, Parental rights in education, Deferral of pre-school or primary school places and School curriculum — Northern Ireland
• National Education Policy 2020 and Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan, Admission guidelines — India

Limitations

• Admission authorities, councils and schools decide places, deferrals and early starts; this page shows the usual year group for a date of birth.
• Private and international schools may use their own cut-off dates — enter theirs as your own rule.
• A child can be placed outside the usual year group by agreement, for example after a deferral or for special educational needs.
• In Northern Ireland, a premature child due on or after 1 April may also defer; the page goes by the date of birth only.

Privacy

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