To think there needs to be a public inquiry into child development

I left school in 2012. I went to a school in Birmingham. The school didn’t care about education. For example I was always in top set for everything, but in year 9 they suddenly placed me in bottom set for English. My parents queried this but it took an entire year before they moved me back to top set. There were 8 sets so you can imagine the shift in teaching. They were preparing people for sitting foundation papers, I was going for the higher paper.

Their rationale was “that was obviously a mistake to put you in that class, but you’ll be fine”. I left school with A grade GCSEs, but that year of subpar teaching could have prevented me from getting A*.

The classes in general were cliquey in a weird way, being smart or getting high grades was embarrassing. The teachers encouraged this culture. There were plenty of areas where pupils could hide & smoke, teachers would even join the students in these areas. I was smart/shy and an outcast. You’d get mocked in class for making any sort of contribution by your peers, yet the teachers wouldn’t do anything as it those same pupils they were friendly with. Classes generally were disruptive with aggressive students, loud jokesters, drama happening every other class.

It’s weird to think it’s now that generation that are having kids as presumably they’re raising the same behaviours as being okay. So the cycle continues. Plus someone like me who was an outcast, would probably not encourage my kids to have the same school experience as me so I might not encourage them to be studious for example so they don’t face bullying

In my professional experience the overriding cause of many of these things is poverty.

If parents are working multiple jobs they don't have the energy to 'parent'. It also exacerbates or causes mental ill health. Which drains people's energy to parent. Worrying about having a roof over your head drains your energy to parent.

The sooner we start actually tackling poverty the sooner life for everyone will improve.

No, I don't think so. I think they're higher all round. Ten years ago, I may have had three or four children with ALN in a class of 30 ish.

My last year 2 class had 24 children with severe disability, behavioural issues, neurodiversities etc. The vast majority came from parents with the same issues (or high deprivation).

Another reason children don’t go off on their own cycle is the level of traffic - it genuinely is more dangerous.

And this - but I feel a few organised activities are fine as long as there is plenty of free play and social interactions too

But is that because numbers of children with these challenges are genuinely higher or because they are now being educated in mainstream when they wouldn’t have been before?

This

I think years ago before 'screens', society was a lot more community focused. We were left to play unsupervised outside as children, but the parents and neighbours kept an eye on everyone playing together. We walked to school with the neighbours children. My parents never set foot inside my primary school. I didn't do any 'organised' activities other than Brownies. By being left with other children to play, we sorted out our disagreements, explored the neighbourhood, developed indepence and resilience.
My parents never intervened in childish squabbles but wouldn't think twice about telling off another child if they were behaving badly. The 'community' was both supporting but had clear behaviour expectations.
Now, that sense of community has gone. Children spend much more time at home on screens. They no longer spend hours playing and exploring with other children, developing resilience. They get anxious when faced with adversity as they have never had to work things out for themselves. Activities are 'organised' now, parents ferry children from activity to activity. Children no longer cycle to their friends house to go to the park to play unsupervised. I think we do a disservice to our children by trying to 'fix' things for them, we shouldn't be approaching teachers to sort friendship issues. We've got to let children navigate their own paths as they grow up.
Sadly children who spend weekends with 'Disney Dads' are being let down by parents accommodating their every whim.
I think we just aren't preparing our children for the real world. They need to face adversary in childhood in order to develop the skills needed as an adult. By giving children extra time in exams, providing 'safe spaces' andclearing every obstacle out of their way isn't doing them any favours.

I agree and this is coming from a person with a child who is ND and is aggressive and hating school.
My childs paediatrician said that she would love the funding for a child psychologist to work along side her to help children like mine but unfortunately there is no money for that.
And then these children grow into adults and a lot end up in prison.
The problem is we are always trying to help with the symptoms but not actually dealing with the cause or at least trying to work out how to help children deal with there SEN and not work against it.

This. Plus when people of very low intelligence have children, and they go on to have children, things happen. It's unfortunate to say, but some of the parents have such low levels of...well, anything. They simply exist in a cloud of smoke and drugs and their children suffer for it. It's very concerning.

https://www.scotsman.com/education/parents-flood-scottish-council-with-bids-for-places-in-special-schools-4605140?fbclid=IwY2xjawC217ZleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHUxS2XQnfLx7dd5Gjd1cKuFFUwkNNjvPFezYbrLvBsErTyfe3OUtSQg1sA_aem_AeOKehspgPu8saf2_Pnl0_aL_Wf00DHF8wYpSweJsRSzDwMIdKIvyBr0WjyBHOTSe8GJioxImria2f5Y364G8Kj-

This is about Scotland but it's a very interesting read for figures. The number of ASN pupils has gone from 36,544 to 259,036 since 2007. Yet the number of special schools has gone from 190 to just 107.

I couldn't agree more! it's pretty much a norm now to see a parent with a baby in pram trying to reach to her but mum is too busy with her phone. When they become toddlers they're already on phones. The damage it does is horrendous!

It's nothing to do with funding or services, just lazy parenting. Buy the time they go to school it's too late already.

The Mildred creak unit at GOSH is a toxic institution like set up-with many parents accused of FII

So many reasons for this and most are interlinked- it’s a huge mess and one that needs fixing, but how?

Covid/lockdown and its impact on families

Underfunding of state schools, underfunding of SEND provision and lack of good teachers/lots of teachers leaving the profession

Cost of living

Parents being busy, stressed and burnt out- I know it’s controversial on here but having two parents work full time, full on, high stress jobs gives very little ‘give’ in the family dynamic and it’s hard on everyone

UPF foods- again controversial I know but I truly believe there is a negative effect in consuming high levels of these and again it goes back to parents being busy/stressed and them being cheap and affordable (in general) and there are SO many around now

Screens- yes again controversial and my own kids have too many- but the addictive nature of YouTube, TikTok etc, not to mention how fast paced and ‘flashy’ lots of kids’ stuff is now

Parental addiction to phones (I am guilty) often because they’re pulled in too many directions and are quickly checking a work email or whatever whilst trying to also play with their toddler

Probably more things but this post is long enough 😔

Having both parents working full time due to financial necessity has in my opinion been detrimental to children.
Parents and families are quality time poor and this affects the interactions that optimise development.
The issue is I have no idea how we fix this.

Absolutely agree. Ex primary teacher who got out 3 years ago partly for this reason - horrific behaviour, totally out of control and we had low levels of PP / FSM so can't blame many of the socio-economic factors you hear bandied about.

many reasons big a lot boil down to money.
There never was good support for SEN in education. Children who are now in mainstream and not coping would have been in special schools or units. Violent outbursts would not have been affecting children without SEN in mainstream. A lot of these children would be able to thrive in mainstream if the had the TAs specified innEHCP. No one in the schools fault with no money or child struggling

Then here seeing parents of children where there isn’t teaching due to needing to manage a child.

before any enquiry look at all recent government reports and see these are implemented. Although Covid definitely exacerbated things I was seeing posts from parents 2019 and before that as well.

But 2 of those kids probably wouldn't have been in Primary school back in the day, now there are no SEN places as so many schools have been closed so they end up in mainstream. I would expect that at some point though they will go to SEN provision.

We have huge expectations of children now and it's ridiculous. At Primary school I remember doing a long project on anything I wanted (mine was fish). I wasn't being prepped for Yr6 SATS I was just doing my project that no one was ever going to mark. When I was in Yr 1 (not reception, Yr1) the teacher would spend the whole afternoon listening to readers while the rest of the class played - the whole afternoon! They weren't worrying about Phonics screening or that next year we'd have Yr 2 SATs. Now children have to be able to use inference in their Yr 2 SATs. The Yr 6 SATs have GCSE level questions according to some teachers and are getting harder every year.

So are standards declining or have standards changed so much that expectations are now ridiculous - and children get left behind with no opportunity to catch up? We don't need an enquiry into children IMO, we need an enquiry into our expectations and a complete change in the curriculum to concentrate on English and maths (but not things like knowing what bloody 'modal verbs' are or a 'subordinating conjunction'). We need it to be simplified to concentrate on what kids need to know, much more time spent on getting kids reading and writing for fun, more time spent on making kids into well rounded human beings, more time on just letting them play and explore and develop.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-65570684

Agree. Lot of defensive stance on mn when it comes to parenting discussions. Like when it comes to discussing adhd. Absolutely ridiculous levels of adhd assessments and diagnosis at the moment. Wth is happening in today's society? 35 years ago we might have had one or two disruptive teens in secondary school in my class. None at all in primary. My neighbours two children are in a class where 10 are diagnosed SN or awaiting assessment. So clearly something is going terribly wrong.

school went downhill when they introduced something called a ‘positive discipline behaviour model.’ It meant that bad behavior from naughty kids would be ignored, however they would be overly praised when they displayed good behaviour

Oh gosh! I remember DD constantly complaining about this... all the naughty kids had cinema afternoon, special lunchtime treats and even a prize giving! For just behaving as would be expected.
She hated school because she was one of the kids always underestimated (academically) and overlooked (quiet kid in the corner...). She's at uni now, pulling in 90-100% on her essays and exams. At school, I was told she'll fail GCSE's and A levels.

We are to liberal with our kids plus time constraints from parents, poor quality of food and to much screen time... to sum it up.

There was a recent report about how living near a Sure Start centre improved outcomes at GCSE level, the SS scheme wasn't perfect but it did achieve it's core aims.

Sadly even Labour just want to pour money into breakfast clubs so parents can work more, whilst still ignoring the vital 0-5 year development.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-68763942

You really need to do some research. You are talking nonsense. There is evidence that there was in increase in the 90's which has evened out by the 2000's. So where do you think these children were?

Children are still being locked up today, just in hospitals and mental health wards.

'There was a five-fold increase in the UK during the 1990s alone, although there's evidence this rise had plateaued by the early 2000s (Taylor et al., 2013).' www.bps.org.uk/psychologist/autism-myth-and-reality

There is a huge lack of understanding, seen all the time on MN of how to parent ND and difficult children. There is also a deliberate twisting of 'gentle parenting' by some into permissive and damaging parenting. It is very very sad for the young people.