IF you listen in the quieter moments between 9am and 3.30pm, today, you'll hear sighs of relief that the start of the new school year is here.

For thousands, it marks the day where the summer demand for entertainment, cash and home comforts ends once more. For just as many, it's a different kind of landmark.

Five-year-olds are about to begin a journey which won't end, at the earliest, for another 11 years.

Their horizons are about to expand and, as they do, parents will realise that the point has arrived where their infants now have a world of their own, away from the nest.

Across the county, there's change to cope with. Children moving schools, students embarking on GCSEs, already enveloped by the demands for improvement which come with SATs, Ofsteds and league tables.

GCSEs are a big deal for them, until they feed into A-levels, Btecs, NVQs or ONDs. Then likewise until university beckons.

Then the move that began with a nervous walk to infants becomes the leaving of home.

But there's more. Schools themselves will be endeavouring to improve on last year's record. Nowhere is that more the case that at Worcester's Elbury Mount Primary, whose past year was the toughest any school in Worcestershire has faced for years.

As headteacher Kay Morgan's work continues to keep the school in the spotlight, after the remarkable campaign which kept it alive in the face of closure threats, then counterpart Dr Graham Watts will have his own challenges at The Elgar High.

How staff and students there could do with the even playing field of a wider mix of social backgrounds and educational abilities to reward and invigorate its progress.

It promises to be an interesting year. It's certainly going to be an important one. But, then, where our children are concerned, every year is. We hope it's a good one for all.