Does it pay to delay the start of your child's schooling? - Times Online

From US experience of 'red-shirting', the answer is no -- it does not pay.  But then again, the US experience is based on 5-year-olds and when their school start is delayed, they're 6.  And US experience is increasingly based on a system in which school for 5s (kindergarten) is thoroughly academic rather than play-based in content. Apples and oranges?