To think change is desperately needed in schools?

I do not think it is common at all! My eldest DGS is in year 9 and has never seen any violence towards staff in any school he has attended. His young brother is in reception at school and there are no issues like this in his year either.

Lockdown saw an incredible increase in people blaming everything but them for their woes. It's not a single problem, rather a pile on.

Just fyi I saw your comment by chance, you need to @ people if you're replying.

The problems have increased at a rate that perfectly correlates with screen use in under 2s. Maybe it is just correlation but given some worrying studies I expect there’s some truth to it.

I’m going to risk some wrath by saying this but the U.K. has a massive problem with what I will call ‘deprivation culture’. We have swathes and swathes of people who are uneducated, addicted to one substance or another, have grown up in a house where neither parent worked and basically incapable of living anything like a responsible life.

Comparable EU countries simply don’t have this issue on the level that we do.

I can only speak for my own children's school but the reason you don't see phone usage there is that phones are banned!!

"No one is saying that. For the most part this thread is filled with people saying social media and phones are the problem. Parents letting screens raise their kids from extremely young ages (under 2)."

But this seems to be a fairly new complaint - that kids starting reception & year 7 are now feral, but weren't before lockdown?

GoodnightAdeline - so we'd expect to see this in all countries across the EU unless we have evidence of lower phone use in those places?

And the reason you don't see this in private schools is because well off people are better, less neglectful parents?

I’m pretty sure a lot this down to phones and social media. Some (not all) parents are spending hours scrolling instead of parenting.

This is so true, the year 6 I work with constantly talk about Snapchat and tik tok. The amount of issues arising from these apps are ridiculous, they’re losing their social skills because they WhatsApp each other and bombard each with messages yet wouldn’t say those things in a normal conversation.
Children no longer know how to communicate with each other or how to resolve simple friendship issues, let alone communicate with adults. There’s also unrealistic expectations of what reality is because social media is creating this fiction that they buy into. Parents need to either stop them using these apps or supervise and have time limits on them.

Screens. Think about it. Even 10 years ago, tablets weren’t in every house, only Apple fanatics and IT lovers owned them. Netflix was up and running but again, nowhere near as common, now it’s in every house. Phones weren’t anything like they are now - remember BlackBerrys, the phone of the moment in 2012, and their capabilities? The screen usage now is enormous compared to even 8,9 years ago.

And this has a twofold effect - kids on screens ignoring the world around them, and parents on screens ignoring the kids.

There’s no comparison to how we grew up in the 90s - tiny TVs about 30cm across, with CBeebies on for an hour in the morning and an hour in the afternoon. Soft programs with a gentle pace, like Come Outside or Oakey Doke. Now TVs are enormous, they dominate the room, you can stream whatever they want 24/7 and the programs are dopamine central. Flashing bright colours and loud music.

I also wonder about kids toys, again they’re so fancy and distracting - I deliberately didn’t put pram toys on our pram as I wanted the babies to be looking around them not constantly fiddling.

This study shows how even minimal screen time at a very young age increases sensory issues MASSIVELY

https://www.news-medical.net/news/20240109/Study-links-early-screen-time-to-atypical-sensory-processing-in-toddlers.aspx

At 12 months, any screen exposure compared to no screen viewing was associated with a 105% greater likelihood of exhibiting "high" sensory behaviors instead of "typical" sensory behaviors related to low registration at 33 months
At 18 months, each additional hour of daily screen time was associated with 23% increased odds of exhibiting "high" sensory behaviors related to later sensation avoiding and low registration.
At 24 months, each additional hour of daily screen time was associated with a 20% increased odds of "high" sensation seeking, sensory sensitivity, and sensation avoiding at 33 months.

Agree. Parents on screens too; not interacting with or socialising their children, not encouraging or enabling their children to participate in activities and clubs etc.

I saw a video the other day about a school doing core muscle building activities - 'tummy time' - every day in their reception class, because so many of the children didn't have the necessary muscle strength to sit properly in school.

There were a couple of statistics near the end - approximately 1/4 of children aren't toilet trained when they start school, 1/3 can't eat/drink independently, 1/2 can't sit still - and something I found shocking was 1/4 of children starting school do not know how to use a book, trying to touch it as they would an electronic device or swipe on it...they didn't know how to turn pages in a book!!

How?? Why?! Bookstart provides books for all children, including pre-school, so how do so many 4/5 year olds not know how to look at a book??

No one is saying that. For the most part this thread is filled with people saying social media and phones are the problem. Parents letting screens raise their kids from extremely young ages (under 2). That's generally the running theme. I actually think screen time will be a category of neglect in the future.

Another teacher here... 40y/o, primary, central scotland, 17 years in the job. Will be dropping a day after summer and taking the hit financially as I can't suffer it any longer and don't know what else I could do job-wise.

Lack of funding for staffing and resources combined with apathetic parenting (by no means all parents but certainly more and more each year).

Do people actually think there's been a sudden uptick in genuinely neglectful and feckless parenting across the country, in the space of 3 or 4 years, and in all social groups (except maybe among people whose kids are at fee paying schools )

And they think vast numbers of parents are just suddenly more sh*t for no reason.

Weird, weird social phenomenon. Why isn't anyone asking how this has happened?

I’m planning to buy DD a ‘brick’ (text and calls only) phone when she’s 11 and starts at secondary school. Smartphones will be banned in this house, if they want to buy themselves one at 18 then fine. I don’t think we will be unusual by that point.

Ex TA here. 1:1posts for the best part.
Absolutely broke me.
Hit, kicked, scratched, arms gouged and threatened with scissors to my throat.
I loved the first few years, hated the last few.
I quit and moved to an administrative role. Never looked back.

Crazy - and I guess if a few do it then they all want to do it. So wgat age are kids getting phones? I thought this was something we could put off till mid teens when they are actually going out alone? I'm pretty clueless (which doesn't bode well) so need to do some research but can you not put blocks on it to stop them accessing this rubbish?

Fair point re attitudes. Sorry, I’m just at that point where I’m so knackered with the process.

I also think where you are can matter too. In Wales, they don’t tend to accept English private diagnoses so Harley St and funds doesn’t always help. Equally, long term it really ties the child in to paying for their own medication etc. Anyway, i do get your point re parental attitudes and some parents passing incorrect stuff down to children. I also think it can be hard to tell apart at a glance an exhausted at-end-of-tether parent from a disruptive one who doesn’t want to take responsibility. It’s why I’m eternally grateful for my school’s general support.

@Simmy76349 they all do!! They sit for hours watching skincare videos of rich kids shopping in Sephora. It is absolutely ridiculous. Parents would rather let them do that then take them for a kick about over the park.

What outdated shite. And yes it's judgey.
Nurseries are more vital then ever now.
Teachers also don't have the same investment but yet are also expected to be parents, psychologist and social worker to the same kids.
Plenty of research demonstrates that children flourish from a very young age, within a nurturing nursery environment with interaction with other children, when combined with supportive and interested parents at home.
Kind of the same as schools really, wouldn't you say

9??! Oh my gosh, I let my daughter watch an episode of Malory Towers the other day and I thought I was pushing it 😂how do 9 yr olds even know how to use tik tok??! Surely they don't have phones at 9??

@CoffeeCakeAndDaisys I agree with some of that. My 9 Yr old DD also has adhd. Doesn't really use technology as she doesn't sit still long enough for it and loves being out on skateboard, climbing trees, football, roller blading. Barely any of her friends want to go out, they'd rather sit in on tiktok looking at skincare. They're 9. This is having a massive effect on children. There is no denying children are addicted to technology, it's so sad. So many of her friends also clearly do NOT have any sen needs. Theyre never read with at home as parents would rather be sat on their phones, so they become behind academically. They then struggle being sat in class because their addiction to constant scrolling on YouTube & tiktok means they cannot concentrate. They're sat on phones before and after school not burning off energy so then struggle to fall asleep. They don't attend assembly because they're "anxious".... its got ridiculous and its a vicious cycle.
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@IncessantNameChanger I do a lot of speech & language interventions. I was very lucky & didn't have to work in lockdown. My children were able to stay home as.a family of 4. If anything we spoke more in lockdown! It was lovely. This blaming covid needs to stop. We could all still speak...

This!

And I would add due to funding cuts, schools have had to cut all but essential services. Thr secondary school I was a governor at had to stop their reading classes (some kids arrive in y7 unable to read)