Starting school raises concerns for children, parents and teachers. Each has a range of issues to consider. Over the past eight years, The Starting School Research Project has examined eight categories which various stakeholders see as important in children's transition to school. This paper focuses on a particular group, gifted children starting school, to determine whether the perceptions and expectations of parents and gifted children about to start school were similar to or different from those of the more general groups studied by The Starting School Research Project. (Contains 4 tables.)