The parents at Headstarts nursery in Newbury are concerned that the pressure to find places in oversubscribed, successful primary schools is such that they feel they are being "bullied" into transferring children from nurseries into primary school classes for the under-fives, earlier than they want their children to begin school.

By putting children into primary school nursery classes at the age of four or younger, parents hope to be at the front of the queue for places at the age of five.

Primary schools with large nursery classes might only have room to admit children from their own nurseries, effectively cutting off the intake at the age of four.

Charlie Farrow, whose three-year-old son attends the nursery, says that she wants her child to continue in Headstarts' "family-size" environment and does not want to see him starting school before she feels he is ready. But she fears that failing to move to a primary school nursery at the age of four will mean losing out in the chase for places.

Should children have to start school before they reach five?

To resolve this anxiety, she wrote to the Department for Education and Employment, seeking clarification as to whether parents had a right to a school place of their choice, while reserving the right not to take up the place until they felt that it was right for their child to begin.

In effect, Charlie Farrow would like to be able to apply to schools, with the option of deferring entry for her son until the age of five.

The reply, she said, failed to answer her question satisfactorily and she is pressing again for a ruling.

The Newbury parents have enlisted the support of local MP David Rendel, who acknowledges the difficulties facing both parents and schools.

"While it's important that parents should have as much choice as possible," he said, "it's difficult to see how parental choice can be made to work alongside the physical limitations on space of a popular school.

"In practice, parental choice can sometimes be more of a fiction than a fact."

The Liberal Democrat MP also shared the concerns of the parents that children's long-term education could be harmed by beginning school too early.