If only we could get back that sense of excitement - of a world brimming with possibilities and that school is our first chance of exploring them.

ALL those new white shirts dazzle us with their brightness, the blazers unmarked, shoes unscuffed, and brand new exercise books tantalisingly full of promise.

This is a great time of year. Even though to your average teenager it seems that shades of the prison house are closing round again, September and the start of the school year is a time of fresh starts and new beginnings.

Quite cheering really.

For the little ones, whose school bags are as big as they are, or for those moving on to a new school, it's the start of a great adventure. And for the others, whose shirts are not quite as fresh, whose copybooks have been blotted many times, as they slouch unwillingly back, it's still another chance, a hope that this year things might just be different.

School kids have had a rotten time of it recently. The weight of test and exam results, of league tables and reputations, rest heavily on their shoulders. We are in danger of turning school into a trudge and drudgery for them.

If only we could get back that sense of excitement - of a world brimming with possibilities and that school is our first chance of exploring them.

New research has just shown that four-year-olds get stressed for months before they start school. And where have they got that idea from? Unless they have particularly unpleasant older brothers and sisters, the stress has come from parents.

So lighten up.

This is, after all, a sort of new year, a time of year when we can wipe out old mistakes and look forward not back. Those dazzling shirts, new pencils and books are a sign of all that. They carry an inbuilt sense of optimism. And that's what we have to get over to our children.

I know it's hard to feel like Pollyanna when you're entrusting your tiny four-year-old to the system, or helping a scowling teenager hunt for the unfinished summer project, but it's important.

There are parents who try hard with their children - all reading schemes, flash cards and help with their coursework. But if we want to help our children make the best of their education, first of all we have to give them the sense that it matters, that it's fun and if they do their bit, it will open all sorts of doors for them.

Giving them a sense of excitement and possibilities in learning is one of the greatest gifts we can give. And this week seems the ideal place to start.

Oh yes - and make sure they can tie their own shoelaces. It helps...

MEANWHILE, in Madeleine McCann's primary school in Leicestershire, a desk and peg have been left vacant for the missing four-year-old. Kind and sensitive? Or sentimental and disturbing?

There are presumably 20 or 30 four-year-olds who will look at that empty desk every day and have all sorts of worries and nightmares. School is a place where children should feel safe and secure - not disturbed by terrifying possibilities.

In this case, the feelings of a class of small children are more important than even those of the parents of the missing child.

And if and when Madeleine ever turns up again, you can bet they'll rustle up a desk and a peg in about 30 seconds.