For the first time in 20 years, when January rolls around I will not be checking school shirts for buttons, school shoes for size and buying books, folders and pens, pencils and highlighters for well-scribbled pencil cases. I will no longer be doing a school run, attending parent teacher interviews, watching school plays, barracking on the sidelines for the school footy teams and other myriad activities that accompany enrolment at school.

Although learning is a life-long process, school is our most common shared educational experience. Nearly every parent I know agonises over which is the best school for their little darlings. Each time a child needs a new school - whether because the child graduates to the next level of schooling or the family moves or parents become dissatisfied with the current arrangements - the mental gymnastics begin again.

Public or private? Local or remote? What is the teaching ethos? Does the school have good teachers? Academic reputation? Sport? Culture? Religion? Does the school care about the whole person? How will my child get there? What can we afford? Would we be better home-schooling or correspondence?

Babies learn from the moment they are born, and probably well before that. Parents are the first and most important teachers of their children. The process of sharing the education of those precious bundles of joy can be difficult. Witness the tears at parting at pre-school and childcare facilities, and not just from the children!

But despite the mixed emotions, most people decide, when there child is about five, to begin their formal schooling. Grandmas all around the country wait eagerly for the report on the first day of big school.

On that first afternoon, mothers across the nation speak as one: “So, how was school?”

They get wonderfully varied responses - everything from “great” to “they didn’t teach me anything” to “I’m glad that’s over. I won’t bother going again”.