An inter-district audit was carried out on the benefit to children of universal school entry medical examination, the appropriate use of professional time and to establish a baseline against which to measure future changes in services to under-fives and schoolchildren. The school health records of 1127 Cheshire schoolchildren, a random 10% sample, were scrutinised. There were significant district variations. Overall, 45% of children had problems not previously noted: 21% were serious enough to be referred; 11% could have had their problems managed by a well-trained school nurse but 9.8% would have required a medical examination for detection and assessment. These included conditions such as undescended testes, heart murmurs, squints and hernias and 8% required immediate action. The selection criteria, based on the absence of a three-year health check and/or parental or nurse concern, would have failed to identify 217 of the 491 children with new problems, some of which were serious. Targeting only an area of high deprivation or poor health would equally miss significant conditions. The inter-district variation of the numbers and diagnoses of new problems detected at school entry, and the difficulty in predicting which children will have important conditions, provide a good case for the continuation of the school entry medical examination for all children.