Regulation 3 Nursery education

(1)

For the purposes of section 1(2)(a) of the Act (prescribing, in the case of a child who does not attend school, a time broadly corresponding to a child’s first term starting after the child has attained the age of 5 years) there is prescribed—

(a)

the date on which the first term starts after he has attained the age of 5 years, where the term in question is the term kept at county schools maintained by the local education authority in the area in which he resides, or,

(b)

where that term begins on different dates among those schools, the earliest of those dates.

(2)

For the purposes of section 1(2)(b) of the Act (prescribing a time, earlier than the time in section 1(2)(a), after which education provided for children is nursery education) there is prescribed in relation to a child the day immediately preceding the later of—

(a)

the start of the first term starting after the child has attained the age of 4 years; or

(b)

if the child’s fourth birthday falls within one of the periods specified in paragraph (3), the start of the term following the term referred to in that paragraph.

(3)

The periods referred to in paragraph (2)(b) are, in any year,

(a)

the period commencing 1st April and ending with the start of the Summer term of that year;

(b)

the period commencing 1st September and ending with the start of the Autumn term of that year;

(c)

the period commencing 1st January and ending with the start of the Spring term of that year.

(4)

For the purposes of paragraphs (2) and (3) of this regulation, “term” means the term kept in relation to the education provided, or to be provided, or under consideration, for the child, as the case may be, and, in any year, Spring term, Summer term and Autumn term mean, respectively, the term which starts in January, in April and in September.