People in education jobs should check the health of individual children before they are allowed to start full-time education.

That is according to Sally Goddard Blythe, director of the Institute for Neuro-Physiological Psychology in Chester, who suggested that too many children are being allowed to start school life when they are unfit.

She suggested that four- and five-year-olds should be given checks by the school nurse to access the state of their health.

The tests, Ms Blythe argued, are needed because too many children are leading "sedentary lifestyles" at home.

"When my eldest son started school, these checks were done as a matter of routine; it was very simple things like stand on one leg, hop to the other side of the room, pile some bricks and simple vision and hearing tests," she told people in teaching jobs and others.

"But by the time my second son, who is now 28, started school those tests had largely been phased out."

Capita Education Services, leaders in teacher recruitment and education jobs.