LACK OF POTTY TRAINING BEFORE STARTING SCHOOL.

That makes sense. I think a lot of kids will have accidents when they start school as it's a new and overwhelming environment.

IMO it’s a massive factor.

If mothers* still had to wash and dry a load of nappies every day, I doubt there would be many people saying that their 3+ year old ‘still isn’t ready’.

*because it nearly always IS mothers, isn’t it?

I mean being drunk all the time certainly makes it harder to do things, the untreated lice is proof of laziness when it comes to her kids and still they’re all out of nappies before school. But fine to be less insulting I’ll use myself as an example had my son at 16 he had to have surgery just before his second birthday and was still potty trained at 2 .5

I’ve only ever known of special ed kids start school in nappies, the idea there’s a quarter of four year olds starting school in nappies is bs. Who really believes this?

@DARNLY I have had this argument on here before! absolutely no excuse for not toilet training a normal child but you get the numpties on here saying this that and the next thing to make themselves seem better. they dont seem to realise that you must stay in the house for a couple of weeks with a pile of pants and potty out permanently! that means no nipping to supermarket or meeting friends for coffee. mums just dont want to put the work in! I have never known in my area a normal child not to be toilet trained prior to starting nursery or school!!

Another poster said teachers weren't allowed to do it.

I'm sure it happens, especially at nursery school age like you said but even before my son had his EHCP, it was always TA's that changed him.

The headlines are really misleading. There's a stat about 24% of children starting school "not toilet trained" which gets used in articles where the headlines proclaim children are starting school "in nappies" which implies that a quarter of children start school in nappies.

It's misleading because the 24% stat comes from a study where they asked school staff what proportion of children come into school having "toilet mishaps" frequently as opposed to occasionally. Nothing about nappies at all (although still in nappies would be included in this). And if you look at the figure just from reception teachers they on average say slightly less than 20%, not 24%. It's also clearly split between schools because a bit less than half of teachers report up to 10%, 2/3 of reception teachers report up to 20% and the remaining teachers reporting higher numbers are split over a wider range.

It's also not unprecedented as there have been studies about this kind of thing previously e.g. this one from 2013:

https://www.bbc.com/news/education-23931080

I used to have an earlier link to an article from the 80s or 90s talking about the effects of poverty/deprivation on children where they also cited things like toilet training, I can't find it now though.

@Catpiececan I dm you I need some advice on something?

It’s very hard. My sons are 28 and 36 now. Nobody went to school in nappies in the 80s/90s. It’s pure laziness and yet another problem passed on to the teachers who get the blame for everything.

I mean it's hard to potty train I had to potty train my sisters kid and if a 16 year old can do it anyone can lol @Catpiecenot all parents are lazy it's just kinda hard and sometime parents just don't have the time to train so it leaves the teachers to pick up after them

I obviously don’t know how common it is around the U.K. but it’s certainly not uncommon in my area. I don’t agree with your comment about the local alcoholic with “terminal lice”. The parents who don’t bother to potty train their children come from a range of backgrounds, so saying an alcoholic does it so everyone can do it, is wrong (as well as not very understanding of alcohol addiction).

They’re all too busy on SM to bother with potty training.

House prices are high, mortgages are unattainable, and two minimum wages won't feed and house a family of 4.
Of course the children are suffering! Both parents are working more than ever before.
If having a stay at home parent was more affordable, or the government helped to make up the financial difference when one parent stays home, we could cut down on 'free' nursery places and funded holiday clubs. You'd see a big improvement in issues like late potty training and antisocial behaviour in children / young teens because they'd have a parent at home actually parenting.
Of course many families have working parents and well behaved kids but too many parents are killing themselves in low paid jobs and just do not have the time or energy to parent their kids as needed

I know someone with a 3.5yr old daughter. She’s still in nappies, won’t drink out of a cup and always has a dummy in her mouth and about another five in her hands. Apparently she doesn’t want to give dummies or bottles up, and isn’t ready to potty train and the parents “don’t like to push things in their house.” They have an older child who was almost 5 when he was potty trained and gave up his dummies and bottles. I don’t understand it, I really don’t.

I'm a bit baffled - do these children not go through the 'I WANNA DO IT!!!!' stage? This was the stage that drove me most round the twist with my lot (I had five, single mum, but at home until smallest went to nursery). They all went through a phase where they wouldn't wear a nappy, HAD to put on their own clothes, cut up their own dinner etc etc and any attempts to help were met with extreme screaming and flailing and demands to be allowed to do it themselves.

It was generally the stage when they potty trained (mine were all clean and dry reliably by 2.5 yrs) and learned to dress themselves and eat with cutlery, because 'I WANNA DO IT!!!!' meant they wanted to copy what their older siblings or I were doing. Are children just not having that stage any more?

Your child and your parenting are most definitely not what people are talking about here.

ND children have their own road to navigate and will do it at their own pace. No teacher is ever going to judge you on this and don’t allow anyone else to either.

Ideally a TA would be there to deal with accidents so the teacher can get on with the rest of the class. In a School Nursery class or a Nursery School the roles tend to be more flexible and I have definitely changed children myself. If a child with SEN has a 1-1 TA then that person would do the intimate care. I have been retired for 10 years so it is possible things have changed in that time.

Also, there was a time when teachers weren’t allowed to do intimate care for the kids.
I don't think this is true. I remember cleaning up after a particularly unpleasant accident (illness not lack of toilet training) in the early 80s.

My kid is 3 and has autism is that ok if she isn't potty trained

Not all additional needs are obvious as young as 4. I imagine that's a big reason why it doesn't happen because it would likely prevent some children from attending school who do have additional needs.

Unless there are additional needs, then no child should start school wearing nappies, the school should be able to refuse their admission, or inform the parents it will be up to them to come into school to change their child's nappy.

I'm a teacher, I have children start school each year who are not toilet trained. I also have parents try to hand over baby bottles instead of proper water drink bottles and try to tell me that their child needs formula made up at set times.
I have children who still nap because they have very late (10pm + or no set) bedtime. I have children with screen addictions. Unable to manage their own clothes such as jackets, jumpers, shoes and socks etc. No social skills, hit, bite and scratch others. Cannot sit through story time. Fine and gross motor issues. Speech delays. They scream to have needs met rather than using words.
No teeth or rotted teeth from nursing carries.
Teaching is a nightmare.
None of these children have SEN issues.

I’m a primary school governor in a very deprived part of the country and it’s causing us massive headaches. It’s definitely on the rise. And I’d say that in my school it’s not the children with SEN or the families with two working parents that are the problem. It’s laziness but also ignorance. In my view the closure of sure start is at the root of a lot of this.

I had to potty train my sisters kid it's so hard

In my experience, teachers don't do any intimate care for children.

My son's teachers have never changed him at school and their names aren't even on his intimate care plan. TA's change him.