Ahead of schedule (5)
I believe the answer is:
early
<span class="explanation-format__ClueExplanation">'<span class="explanation-format__original">ahead of schedule</span>' is the definition.<br/ ><span class="explanation-format__explanation">(I've seen this in another clue)</span><br/ ><br/ >This is all the clue.<br/ ></span>
(Other definitions for early that I've seen before include "Premature" , "This bird gets the worm" , "Primitive - ahead of time" , "Forward" , "near beginning" .)