School Journey

The school journey is a never-to-be-repeated experience for children and their parents. The journey is also getting longer as children start earlier and stay at school longer.

Although not generally compulsory, the importance of preschool or kindergarten is increasingly recognised as a vital step in the early education process and children are beginning the schooling process at four, even three. The compulsory age for staying at school has risen almost universally across Australia over the past decade as international evidence shows that young people who complete 12 years of education have greater opportunities when they leave school.

In the middle of the 19th century schooling was not yet compulsory in Australia and less than half the children between the ages of four and 14 were receiving any education at all. Today, there are currently more than four and a half million children in the Australian school system.

Note: It is also estimated that around 50,000 school-age children across the country are not receiving any regular schooling.